Hill Goodspeed has worked at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, since 1994, where he serves as historian and artifact collection manager. He is also an adjunct professor in strategy and policy for the Naval War College Distance Education Program. He is the author or editor of five books and has contributed to two others, including U.S. Naval Aviation (Universe, 2001).
Brian Hicks is a metro columnist for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, and the author or coauthor of six books, including Raising the Hunley, (Balantine Books, 2002), and Toward the Setting Sun (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011). He is currently at work on his seventh book, a new history of the H. L. Hunley and adventure novelist Clive Cussler’s attempt to find it.
Carl LaVO is the author of four books including The Galloping Ghost (Naval Institute Press, 2011). His article is adapted from his latest book, Pushing the Limits: The Remarkable Life and Times of Vice Adm. Allan Rockwell McCann, USN (Naval Institute Press, 2013). He recently retired as a managing editor of the Calkins Media chain in the Philadelphia suburbs and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Alan P. Rems, a retired certified public accountant, has been a regular contributor to Naval History since his article titled “Halsey Knows the Straight Story” appeared in the August 2008 issue and earned him selection as the magazine’s Author of the Year. Rems is the author of what will be the first comprehensive history of World War II in the South Pacific titled South Pacific Cauldron: World War II’s Great Forgotten Battlegrounds, to be published May 2014 by the Naval Institute Press.
David Curtis Skaggs is a professor emeritus of history at Bowling Green State University. He is the editor of ten books and the author of four others, including Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy (2006) and Thomas Macdonough: Master of Command in the Early U.S. Navy (2003), both published by the Naval Institute Press.
William N. Still Jr. is a retired professor of history and the former director of the maritime studies program at East Carolina University. He is the co-author of Why the South Lost the Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 1991) and the author of many books about the naval side of the Civil War, including Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads (University of South Carolina Press, 1988).