A Message from the New Naval Institute Chief Executive Officer
Dear Members and Friends of the U.S. Naval Institute,
I am honored and privileged to serve as CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute—an organization my father introduced to me as a young boy through Proceedings and the many books published by the Naval Institute Press. The Naval Institute significantly and positively influenced me as a youth, as a young officer and throughout my career. In 1997 and 1998, I served as an elected member of the Naval Institute Board of Directors and as a member of the Editorial Board. During that tenure, I enjoyed the opportunity to help chart the Institute’s future and participate in the wonderful process of selecting content for Proceedings and the books.
As a U.S. Naval Institute member and as a naval officer for more than 30 years, I endorse the integrity of the independent forum where responsible individuals have an opportunity to voice their ideas. As CEO, I will be accessible and will seek open feedback. All of us in the naval profession, Naval Institute members, and interested citizens must engage for the Naval Institute to serve the nation well and accomplish its important mission.
In the coming months, we will reach out to you for your input and insight on how to make the Naval Institute more relevant to naval professionals and members. We will listen. We value your ideas and ask for your active participation to deliver on those ideas.
The prospect of a vibrant debate on national defense in general and the future course for our naval services in particular makes the next few years a critical period for the nation and its allies. This prestigious institution must advance a professional dialogue that I am confident will enhance support for a strong national defense and foster an increased understanding of the enduring contributions of the sea services.
We will focus on the course ahead. At the same time, we must understand our rich traditions and history. We will support those who currently serve and never forget those who have served, were wounded, or those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we all enjoy.
Together, we will all build on the Naval Institute’s 138 years of service. Let us answer John Adams’ call, “Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge among the people. . . . Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”
Sincerely, Peter H. Daly
Confederate Sub Upright Again for First Time Since 1864
She was a futuristic-looking contraption with a short career but a long shadow. The Civil War submarine H. L. Hunley, which sank off Charleston, South Carolina, in 1864, has been the subject of great scrutiny, research, and tender loving care since her excavation and raising in 2000. And in June, preservationists working on the 40-foot, 7-ton sub saw a whole new side of her—the starboard side.
Since her retrieval from the ocean floor, the Hunley has remained in a storage chamber at Clemson University’s Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston, where she has been preserved resting at the same 45-degree angle in which she was discovered, lifted, and transported. The aged wreck’s fragility, combined with the presence within of the eight crewmen who perished when she sank, dictated caution in attempting to alter the vessel’s tilt. The sailors’ remains were interred with honors in 2004 (in what many dubbed “the last Confederate burial”), and the submarine’s interior sediment has been thoroughly culled for artifacts, so the time was at last nigh for an attempt to rotate the Hunley upright for the first time in 147 years.
It was a challenging engineering feat and risky endeavor. The team spent two years planning the rotation and tested various simulations in advance on a 3-D model. The process of rotating the sub was at times slow and tedious and at others nerve-racking. The painstaking project took three days, with scientists rotating the submarine mere millimeters at a time. After each incremental move, a series of computer monitors were checked to ensure even weight distribution with no major stresses on the submarine.
“It’s fair to say we are all breathing a collective sigh of relief now that the rotation is over,” said Mike Drews, director of the Lasch Center. “Aside from minor technical issues, the rotation went according to plan with the sub remaining completely safe and intact.”
The Hunley had little effect on the outcome of the Civil War, but she earned her spot in the annals of naval warfare on 17 February 1864, successfully attacking the U.S. Navy screw sloop Housatonic and becoming the first combat submarine in history to sink an enemy warship.
But that success came at a price, as the Hunley herself sank shortly thereafter (for reasons that remain a mystery) with all hands perishing.
It was the third—and final—sinking of the experimental vessel. She sank, with the loss of five crewmembers, during a training run on 29 August 1863. She sank again on 15 October 1863, killing all eight of the crew as well as her namesake, the inventor Horace Lawson Hunley. On her final trip to the bottom, at least, the Hunley took one of her foes with her.
The Confederate submarine’s starboard side has not been fully visible since 1864, and the hope is that its exposure might yield clues to the “why” of her fate. “This is a tremendous day for the project,” said Hunley Commission Chairman Senator Glenn McConnell. “Not only will the public soon have an unobstructed view, we will too. We may find the crucial evidence we’ve been searching for in this newly exposed area.”
Skull Mystery Surfaces at Pearl Harbor
An overnight dredging operation in Hawaiian waters last spring yielded a macabre discovery that brought work to a sudden halt—a human skull. By July, preliminary analysis had led to a working theory that the skull was that of a downed Japanese pilot from the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
If so, it is an especially rare find. No Japanese remains have been found at Pearl Harbor since World War II.
Archaeologist Jeff Fong of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific told the Associated Press that he was “75 percent sure” that the skull was that of a Japanese airman. (While the figures pale in comparison to the 2,400 U.S. servicemen killed in the attack, 55 Japanese fliers were killed when 29 of their warplanes were shot down during the fateful action of 7 December.)
The skull is now in the hands of the Oahu-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC). With the only accredited skeletal identification laboratory in the United States, JPAC is uniquely qualified to analyze the recently discovered skull. Everything from DNA testing to dental records to other forensic detective work is planned.
According to Daniel Martinez, chief Pearl Harbor historian for the National Park Service, enough is known about the precise areas where Japanese planes went down that it is quite possible that the skull can be matched to a specific airman. As he told the Associated Press, “I think that anytime you’re able to reclaim a casualty and perhaps even identify it, regardless of what country, it may bring closure to a family.”
Maurice H. Rindskopf, 1917–2011
Rear Admiral Maurice H. Rindskopf, the youngest U.S. submarine commander in World War II, died 27 July at the age of 93.
A legend within the Navy, Rindskopf is credited with helping to develop critical modern submarine war tactics. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, class of 1938, he received the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and the Bronze Star during his long and storied career. In his retirement, he was a tireless force in Naval Academy alumni efforts and a perennial presence in Annapolis circles, garnering the Distinguished Alumni Honor Award in 2007.
“This guy was a real hero,” said retired Admiral Leighton W. Smith Jr. in an interview with the Annapolis Capital. “You can’t say enough about him as an officer, as a gentleman, as a businessman, as a friend, as a person who contributed and who had such a love for the Naval Academy.”
After graduating from the Naval Academy, Rindskopf, a native of Brooklyn, New York, was assigned to the battleship Colorado (BB-45). He began submarine training in 1940 and a year later reported to the new Gato-class submarine Drum (SS-228). When the captain was waylaid by a gallstone attack, Rindskopf found himself, at the age of 26, the youngest submarine commanding officer in the Pacific Fleet. He commanded the Drum on 11 consecutive patrols, sinking 15 enemy ships and damaging 11 more; in all, his boat sank or damaged 80,000 tons of enemy shipping.
After World War II, Rindskopf took part in the development of modern submarine fire control and tactics. He commanded two Cold War submarine flotillas and eventually became a director of Naval Intelligence and assistant chief of staff for intelligence for the commander-in-chief, Pacific Fleet.
Rear Admiral Rindskopf’s Navy Cross citation, presented to him for “gallantry and intrepidity in action” in the Luzon Strait in 1944, speaks to the specifics of the medal but serves as a fitting remembrance of the man:
“His conduct throughout was an inspiration to his officers and men and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”