COURTESY SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

How Smithsonian Sells Us Short

By William S. Dudley
February 1997
Dudley finds the fate of the naval collections of the National Museum of American History disheartening. The Smithsonian has committed the grave error of disregarding the importance of military institutions ...

A Report from the Front

By John Byron
February 1997
Byron's campaign for a Congressional office taught him that defense is a zero-interest issue among civilians and that the military has removed itself from American life. Military people have chosen ...

Monsarrat Was Wrong

By Chief Quartermaster Robert B. Hunt, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 1997
Naval officers may command a good ship, but it is not acceptable for them to command through intimidation and fear. Hunt discusses the leadership of a Fletcher-class destroyer. The crew ...

All in a Day's Work

By Yeoman Third Class Nicole Kristina Ramirez, U.S. Navy
February 1997
Ramirez discusses what it is like to be a Navy wife and a Sailor. She feels lonely and frustrated sometimes, but she loves knowing that she is protecting her children.

What Is Really Important

By Telecommunications Specialist Second Class Julie Marie Duncan, U.S. Coast Guard
February 1997
Duncan, a Coast Guard officer, remembers helping the Haitian refugees in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. They taught her to appreciate the life she has.
E. HILDERBRANDT

The Super Hornet Is a Winner

By Riley Mixson
February 1997
The Navy's decision to go forward with the F/A-18E/F, an improved Hornet, has proved correct. The aircraft's cost has remained stable and constant since contract initiation, and the Navy buy ...
U.S. NAVY (D. COOPER)

Don't Forget the Spruances

By Lieutenant David Haas, U.S. Navy
February 1997
Mainstays in the U.S. Navy's blue-water operations, the Spruances require modernization to be all they must be for success in the littorals. They must continue to fill the breach until ...
COURTESY OF TULLIER MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS AND U.S. NAVY

It's What's Inside That Counts

By Norman Friedman and Scott C. Truver
February 1997
The first major U.S. weapon system designed for the post-Cold War era, the NSSN features revolutionary design processes and characteristics that will enable it to keep ahead of the threat ...
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

While England Slept

By Lieutenant Colonel Frank G. Hoffman, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve
February 1997
An integrated, flexible joint vision--tested through war games and field experiments--is critical to peacetime military innovation. Lacking such a vision in the 1920s and 1930s, Britain's military found itself unable ...
U.S. ARMY WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE

Can the Corps Counter the Threat?

By Captain Jeffrey P. Davis, U.S. Marine Corps
February 1997
When operational considerations prohibit other services from performing theater missile defense for the Marine air-ground task force, the Corps may have to provide its own. The Hawk missile system, combined ...
PHOTO BY D. HAWKINS

The "Q" Transition

By Lieutenant Commander Christopher E. Brown, U.S. Navy
February 1997
The Blue Ridge (LCC-19) and other aging Navy command ships must be replaced by a platform capable of operating across all areas of information-age warfare: information warfare, intelligence collection, and ...
MAI PHOTO (G. MATHIESON)

Training Tomorrow's Navy

By Commander Julian Tonning, U.S. Navy
February 1997
Navy training is like a dreadnought whose mission now demands sustained operations in shallow waters—tossing over the side all the deck gear and most of the armament hasn't fixed the ...
U.S. NAVY

We Need to Understand

By Thomas Hirschfeld and W. Seth Carus
February 1997
Understanding threats in the 21st century requires a broader and more sophisticated approach in examining other countries and their forces, capabilities, and intentions than the US intelligence community has used ...
U.S. NAVY VIA O'HARE COLLECTION

What Happened to Butch?

By Steve Ewing and John B. Lundstrom
February 1997
In this excerpt from the new Naval Institute Press book, Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O'Hare, two distinguished World War II historians weigh the evidence about the shootdown ...
AP PHOTO (W. LEE)

Nobody Asked Me But…We Still Need Nukes

By Commander Douglas W. Keiler, U.S. Navy
February 1997
Keiler discusses why nuclear disarmament cannot be achieved while continuing to ensure the safety of the US. Total nuclear disarmament by the US would allow a future foe to gain ...

Nobody Asked Me But…A Few Good Men...But Not Always

By Lieutenant Colonel Thomas W. Williams, U.S. Marine Corps
February 1997
Williams believes that the Marine Corps' officer selection system is significantly flawed. The current system suffers from ticket-punching and sponsorship, where subjectivity can overcome the perils of a zero-defects de-selection ...
KAMAN CORPORATION

Professional Notes

February 1997
Reserve Helos Get Magic LanternBy Lieutenant Commander Wade Burchell, U.S. Naval ReserveU.S. Naval Reserve Helicopter Antisubmarine Warfare Squadron (Light) [HSL]-94 got its first two Magic Lantern airborne mine ...
DOD (V. GEMPIS)

Book Reviews & Books of Interest

February 1997
It's Our Military, Too! Women and the U.S. MilitaryJudith Hicks Stiehm, Editor. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996. 309 pp. Illus. Photos. $59.95 ($53.95) Hardcover, $29.95 ($17.95) Paper.Reviewed by ...

World Naval Developments

By Norman Friedman
February 1997
Friedman discusses the newest antistealth technique, radar shadowing. It seems that airplanes, and presumably, missiles with low radar cross-sections leave shadows in radar illumination reflected from their surfaces.
H&L VAN GINDEREN COLLECTION

Combat Fleets

By A.D. Baker III
February 1997
Baker discusses three ships: India's 19,500-ton British Glory-class aircraft carrier Vikrant, launched in 1945, India's largest naval ship, the 35,900-ton replenishment oiler Jyoti, and Singapore's 500-ton patrol combatant Fearless, commissioned ...

Lest We Forget: Patrol Squadron 8 (VP-8)

By Lieutenant Commander Rick Burgess, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 1997
Burgess discusses the history of the Patrol Squadron Eight (VP-8), which was established on Sep 1, 1942 at NAS in Norfolk VA. VP-8 upgraded to the P2V-5FS in 1959 and ...

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