On Our Scope

By Fred L. Schultz Editor-in-Chief
June 2002
It was the first time we found ourselves in danger of running out of audio tape in an interview. We told Edwin C. Bearss, retired chief historian of the National ...
NATIONAL ARCHIVES

'Flags' at Midway

By Thomas B. Allen
June 2002
The historian who accompanied Robert Ballard on his 1998 expedition to the sunken Yorktown introduces us to a signalman who watched her sink.
Burning of Lexington

'It Was Pure Hell'

By George Von Hoff, based on an interview by Jay Curtis
June 2002
A sailor volunteers for service on board the Lexington, not knowing the aircraft carrier will turn into an inferno at the Battle of the Coral Sea.
DAVID HOFELING

'Nothing Stinks Like Blood'

An Interview with Edwin C. Bearss
June 2002
The World War II Marine and retired chief National Park Service historian recalls the day he was shot in 1944 and how he helped find the Civil War ironclad Cairo.

A Secret Journey to Halifax

By Captain Peter Hore, Royal Navy (Retired)
June 2002
At a time when Great Britain still feared the possibility of armed conflict with the United States, a group of British diplomats and naval officers briefly entertained the services of ...

To Sicily with Alec Guinness

By Captain James E. Wise Jr., U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2002
In the new Naval Institute Press book, International Stars at War, one of the greats of stage and screen brings the first invasion force ashore in World War IPs Operation ...

Lobster War at Flamingo Cay

By Charles M. Fuss Jr.
June 2002
IMMEDIATE HELO AMCONSUL NASSAU TO SECSTATE WASHDC INFO CCGD SEVEN MACDILL AFB BT MACDILL PASS TO NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, ST PETE, FL SUBJ: SHOOTING INCIDENT BAHAMAS

In Contact

June 2002
Mysterious Clock Commander Thomas M. Perkins, U.S. Navy (Retired) While searching the Naval Historical Center web site photo collection, I happened upon a photograph (circa 1923-1925) of a gathering of ...

Historic Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
June 2002
The Mexican Navy’s destroyer Cuitlahuac was retired on 16 July 2001, a quiet end to nearly 60 years of service by what probably are the best-known destroyers built for the ...

Bombing Pearl Harbor

June 2002
In the pre-dawn darkness of 17 May 1928 the pioneer U.S. aircraft carrier Langley (CV-1) turned into the wind and launched her squadrons in a surprise air attack against Pearl ...

Naval History News

June 2002
1812 Privateer to Return to Salem Trees are falling in Essex, Massachusetts, as work begins on a replica of the Fame, a privateer schooner from the War of 1812. “The ...

Book Reviews

Reviewed by Commander Dennis Ringle, U.S. Navy (Retired), Spencer Tucker & General Carl E. Mundy Jr., U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
June 2002
Slaves, Sailors, Citizens: African Americans in the Union Navy Steven J. Ramold. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2002. 252 pp. Illus. Notes. Bib. Index. $32.00 ($28.80). Reviewed by Commander ...

Salty Talk

By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2002
A sailing ship’s main “engines” were her sails. Give her a full set well tended and she was ready to go anywhere in almost all conditions. Sailors spent many long ...