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September 1920—Five years after his retirement from the Navy and nine years into his unprecedented 13-year presidency of the Naval Institute, 66- year-old Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske lambastes an article published in Proceedings two months earlier. “The writer of ‘Director Fire a Century Ago,’” he begins, “shows a surprising misconception of the essential feature of director Firing, which 1, as its inventor, beg leave to point out to your readers.” Six pedantic paragraphs later he closes with, “ . . . and inasmuch as the history of my invention has often been described (notably in this magazine), the appearance of this article is most disconcerting.”
The article seems to be a harmless tribute to Royal Navy Carpenter William Kennish, inventor (in 1829) of the Marine Theodolite that greatly improved British gunnery. We may never know what got old Brad so hot. He refers to errors on page 1097, but the article ends somewhat abruptly on page 1095—followed by two blank pages.
If the bad guy in Fiske actually killed two pages of the offending message, the good guy in him spared the messenger. The young author survived to become four-star Admiral W.H.P. Blandy, whose gunnery credentials were evident at Okinawa—and who, in 1946, commanded Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.
September 1940—On the centenary of the birth of Alfred Thayer Mahan, with a life-and-deatli struggle about to begin between British sea power and German land and air power, Mahan's foremost biographer. Captain William D. Puleston, wonders whether Mahan’s concept of sea power needs modification, in light of the rapid development of aviation. He reminds us that Mahan’s sea power theories rest primarily upon his two books. The first is about the seven great wars that produced U.S. independence; the second embraces the Napoleonic wars. In the latter, British sea power confronted France, a land power twice its size. The seven-year struggle, in Mahan’s words, “nearly ruined Great Britain but entirely ruined Napoleon.”
Mahan never asserted that sea power could be obtained and sustained by a superior fleet alone. Production, shipping, and markets were his “essential elements." He left the scene in 1914, just as the airplane was arriving. How might Mahan have viewed it? Puleston speculates; “If the time ever comes when the United States must entrust ... its national security ... to aviation, the Army and Navy can turn over their major functions to the Air Force without regret as parents pass down a heritage and responsibility to a son and heir.”
September 1960—Captain Carl H. Amme, Jr. writes a short letter seconding Vice Admiral L. S. Sabin’s “Deep Selections” call for “another Mahan. Carl hates the thought that the likeliest candidate is Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington, since “no naval officer could devote the long years of study, research and scholarly debate” that went into Dr. Huntington’s 1954 barnburner, “National Policy and Transoceanic Navy.”
No disrespect is intended in saying that neither Carl, who won this year’s gold medal in the Institute’s essay contest (and who will win three more in the next four years), nor Commander Ralph E. Williams, who won five, produced anything on a par with Huntington’s one-and-only Proceedings article. One man who came close is Dr. Normal J. Padelford, whose second article appears this month. Forget this one on the ANZUS Pact. Worth remembering is his only other article, “An Atlantic Policy for the United States,” written just before the fall of France—when he, too, was a Harvard professor. He’s no Mahan but neither is anyone else. Maybe we ought to be looking for another Huntington or another Padelford, instead.
Clay Barrow
Vincent Astor Memorial Leadership Essay Contest
The United States Naval Institute and the Vincent Astor Foundation take pleasure in announcing the 17th Annual Vincent Astor Memorial Leadership Essay Contest for junior officers and officer trainees of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The contest is designed to promote research, thinking, and writing on topics of leadership.
First Prize: $1,500, a Naval Institute Gold Medal, and a Life Membership in the Naval Institute.
First Honorable Mention; $1,000 and a Naval Institute Silver Medal.
Second Honorable Mention: (two to be awarded) $500 and a Naval Institute Bronze Medal.
The first prize essay will be published in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. The Institute’s Editorial Board may elect to publish any or all of the honorable mention essays in any given year, but it is not obligated to do so. The Editorial Board may, from time to time, publish collections of the award-winning essays and other essays in book or pamphlet form. (For further information, write to the Membership & Communications Department.)
Deadline: 15 February 1991.
New Books
This month we have the pleasure of introducing the Naval Institute’s first book for young readers, U.S. Navy Ships and Coast Guard Cutters by Rear Admiral M. D. Van Orden, USN (Ret.). Written primarily for youngsters between the ages of 10 and 16, this book presents all the major types of vessels used in today’s sea services.
From the Navy s giant aircraft carriers to the Coast Guard’s patrol boats, 80 ship photographs and paintings—many in color accompany simple explanations of their distinguishing characteristics, what they do, and how they operate. Admiral Van Orden has done an exceptional job of presenting these facts and figures in terms that can be easily understood by young readers. Without a hint of condescension he describes each type of ship s role in the fleet and even anticipates young people’s questions about shipboard life by explaining a typical day’s activities at sea.
We anticipate high interest in this book from USNI members with children or grandchildren in grades 5 through 12. A perfect gift for any occasion, U.S. Navy Ships and Coast Guard Cutters will in-
Proceedings / September 1990