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Home » Magazines » Proceedings Magazine - December 2004 Vol. 130/12/1,222
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Admiral Samuel Gravely

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Proceedings Magazine - December 2004 Vol. 130/12/1,222
By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)

Admiral Samuel Gravely is one of my personal heroes.  I will never forget his coming to the Walbrook Maritime Academy in the inner city of Baltimore. He drove there from his home in Haymarket, Virginia (no short distance), wore his uniform at my request, and spent the entire day with the cadets, promising them that if they would stay in school he would come to their graduation.

I also remember crossing the Atlantic with him as the admiral in charge.  We were a mixed fleet of destroyers, cruisers, and lumbering amphibs.  He decided to break the monotony of the crossing by holding a tactical maneuvering exercise in the middle of the Atlantic (something the amphibs were not used to doing).  After one particular evolution in which an LST made several rather amazing maneuvers (all of them incorrect), he sent a flashing-light message to the errant ship containing a single word: "Good."  He then followed with another message: "Reference my last message: 'GOD!'"  His sense of humor was but one of many qualities that made this man memorable.  He will be missed.  Admiral Gravely passed away on 22 October 2004.

—Tom Cutler, author, Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy

 
Thomas J. Cutler

Thomas J. Cutler is a retired lieutenant commander and former gunner's mate second class who served in patrol craft, cruisers, destroyers, and aircraft carriers. His varied assignments included an in-country Vietnam tour, small craft command, and nine years at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Seamanship & Navigation Department and Associate Chairman of the History Department. While at the Academy, he was awarded the William P. Clements Award for Excellence in Education (military teacher of the year).

He is the founder and former Director of the Walbrook Maritime Academy in Baltimore. Currently he is Fleet Professor of Strategy and Policy with the Naval War College and is the Director of Professional Publishing at the U.S. Naval Institute.

Winner of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Naval Literature, the U.S. Naval Institute Press Author of the Year, and the U.S. Maritime Literature Award, his published works include NavCivGuide: A Handbook for Civilians in the U.S. Navy; A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy [one of the books in the Chief of Naval Operations Reading Program]; The Battle of Leyte Gulf; Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal & Riverine Warfare in Vietnam; and the 22nd, 23rd (Centennial), and 24th editions of The Bluejacket's Manual. His other works include revisions of Jack Sweetman's The Illustrated History of the U.S. Naval Academy and Dutton's Nautical Navigation. He and his wife, Deborah W. Cutler, are the co-editors of the Dictionary of Naval Terms and the Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations.

His books have been published in various forms, including paperback and audio, and have appeared as main and alternate selections of the History Book Club, Military Book Club, and Book of the Month Club. He has served as a panelist, commentator, and keynote speaker on military and writing topics at many events and for various organizations, including the Naval History and Heritage Command, Smithsonian Institution, the Navy Memorial, U.S. Naval Academy, MacArthur Memorial Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, U.S. Naval Institute, Armed Forces Electronics Communications and Electronics Association, Naval War College, Civitan, and many veterans' organizations. His television appearances include the History Channel's Biography series, A&E's Our Century, Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, and CBS's 48 Hours.

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