U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE

Historic Aircraft

By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
February 2008
Streaks and Rockets in Space When Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager became the first American to fly faster than the speed of sound on 14 October 1947, it was ...
U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE

Trainer to Cruiser 

By Robert J. Cressman
February 2008
Designed from the keel up as a training ship for naval cadets, the USS Bancroft was to serve as a seagoing instructional platform for seamanship, gunnery, torpedoes, and steam engineering ...

Book Reviews

February 2008
1812: War with America Jon Latimer. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2007. 408 pp. Illus. Maps. Notes. Bib. Index. $35. Reviewed by Frederick C. Leiner Many books have been written about ...
U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE

In Contact

February 2008
"Improving the Breed" (See N. Polmar, pp. 22-27, October 2007 Naval History) Martin A. Snyder Another significant event took place on the Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) in November 1946 ...
Naval Historical Center

The Sculpin's Lost Mission: A Nuclear Submarine in the Vietnam War

By Admiral Charles R. Larson, U.S. Navy (Retired), with Captain Clinton Wright, U.S. Navy (Retired), and Paul Stillwell
February 2008
In the only published account of a top-secret Vietnam War submarine patrol, the authors recount how the USS Sculpin trailed a trawler running arms and ammunition to the Vietcong across ...
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

The Last Diesel Boat

By Paul Stillwell
February 2008
Though there was little public notice at the time, the diesel-boat era ended in the U.S. Navy on 15 January 2007 with the decommissioning of the USS Dolphin (AGSS-555). The ...
NAval historical center

A Gentlemanly Mutiny

By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U. S. Navy (Retired)
February 2008
Unrest over the leadership of USS Constitution Captain Jesse Duncan Elliott during an 1835 European cruise led 20 officers to leave Old Ironsides.
NATIONAL CIVIL WAR NAVAL MUSEUM

Museum Report

By Borden Black
February 2008
National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus It is 1864. Columbus, Georgia, is a bustling river port, the second largest contributor of goods to the Confederate military. The Chattahoochee ...
U.S. ARMY

Naval History News

February 2008
Another Turtle in the Water Barely two months after an artist was arrested while sailing a crudely built loose interpretation of David Bushnell's Revolutionary War submarine, the Turtle, in ...
Naval Historical Center

On Our Scope

Richard G. Latture, Editor-in-Chief
February 2008
When I take an out-of-town trip, I always try to squeeze in at least a brief visit to a historical site—be it a museum, ship, or battlefield. Naval History readers ...
 Oil painting by Cmdr. E.J. Fitzgerald depicts the engagement between Maddox and three North Vietnamese motor torpedo boats on 2 August 1964

The Truth About Tonkin

By Lieutenant Commander Pat Paterson, U.S. Navy
February 2008
What really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin on the night of 4 August 1964? Documents released over the past several years have cleared up the picture.
images: courtesy of Bruce a. broseker /

One-Boat Wolfpack

By Captain Charles Rush, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2008
Most of the USS Thresher's torpedoes failed during a late-1942 combat patrol in the Java Sea, but not her new 5-inch deck gun.
Above and bottom: Sallie Artman; below: U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

Water Ballet Off Iwo Jima

By Baxter Abbott Sparks
February 2008
Before the Marines landed, Navy Underwater Demolition Team frogmen swam close to Iwo Jima's shore in a daring daylight reconnaissance.
Images: Courtesy of Leighton C. Wood

Last Visit with My Father

By Leighton C. Wood
February 2008
During World War II shipboard visits, the author learned lessons in leadership from his father and in friendship from Arleigh Burke.