Against a Raging Storm

By Commander Steve Rochon, U.S. Coast Guard

February 1997

In 1896, the men of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station—fought hurricane-strength tides to rescue the passengers and crew of the stranded schooner Newman.

‘Thank God for Blohm & Voss’

By Russell Drumm and Photography By Doug Kuntz

February 1997

Such was the sentiment toward the venerable shipyard as the Coast Guard’s Eagle returned to her roots last summer in Hamburg, Germany.

Iwo Jima Seabees Stay Unsung

By Lieutenant Commander Peter S. Marra, CEC, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired)

February 1997

Navy construction battalion units fought alongside combat troops storming the black sandy beaches of Iwo Jima.

‘Not All Flaming Spectacle’ for David Susskind

By Colonel Joseph H. Alexander, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

February 1997

At Iwo Jima, the future TV talk show host— here, in an interview with Harry Truman— saw “no heroics” in the task at hand.

Mapping and Charting the Solomons

By Lieutenant Colonel Norman Porter, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired)

February 1997

During World War II, the success or failure of the Solomon Islands campaign depended on the commissioned cartographers.

‘She Died A Noble Death’

By Robert Mason

February 1997

Private papers found 36 years ago in a Virginia attic bear eyewitness testimony to the demise of the most notorious ship of the Civil War.

The Peleus War Crimes Trial

By David Miller

February 1997

After sinking the Greek steamer Peleus in 1944, the captain ordered his crew to attack the survivors, three sailors survived and faced their attackers in a war crime trial.

Farewell to the Troopship

By Winn B. Frank

February 1997

With the last of troop transport retired, some worry that we have eliminated this capability too soon.

They Are Still Magnificent Men

By Heyward Lewis Osteen

February 1997

The Americans who fought World War II are still magnificent men.

‘Who’s In Charge Here?’

By James Edwin Alexander

February 1997

In April 1951, the men of Task Force 71 found themselves to be pawns in General Douglas MacArthur’s personal campaign for a larger war.

To the Boneyard

By Paul Stillwell

February 1997

As it moves seaward, toward the cape for which it was named, the Cape Fear River courses through the city of Wilmington, North Carolina. Late last summer, Hurricane Fran also ...

In Contact

February 1997

“The Vietnam Fault Line” (See R. Timberg, pp. 15-19, July-August 1996; E. Olsen, pp. 12-13, September- October 1996 Naval History) Dr. J. Jefferson MacKinnon, Professor of History, Collin County Community ...

Navy Yarns

By Captain Roy C. Smith III, U.S. Navy (Retired)

February 1997

Before leading the Great White Fleet on the first leg of its round-the-world cruise in 1907, Rear Admiral Robley D. “Fighting Bob” Evans (U.S. Naval Academy class of 1864, graduated ...

America on the Seas

By Michelle S. Frauenberger

February 1997

In the hushed atmosphere of a room on the lower level of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in New York lies a treasure trove of history, adventure, human endurance, tragedy ...

Book Reviews

Reviewed by Michael J. Crawford, Lieutenant Colonel Richard M. Seamon, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired) & Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)

February 1997

Steam, Politics, and Patronage: The Transformation of the Royal Navy 1815-54 Basil Greenhill and Ann Giffard. London: Conway’s Maritime Press, 1994. 256 pp. Illus. $39.25 ($35.33). Reviewed by Michael J ...

Naval History News

February 1997

Downed Kamikaze Supports Naval History In May 1945, he had his sights set on crashing into and sinking a U.S. destroyer off Okinawa. This time, his target was Naval ...

Salty Talk

By Commander Ty Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)

February 1997

The traditional length of time a sailor is on duty helping to operate his ship when at sea is four hours: a “watch.” For the centuries before a timepiece was ...

Historic Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World

February 1997

The six large cruisers of the Alaska (CB-l)-class had been conceived as early as 1938 as “cruiser killers” intended for independent operations, in anticipation that Japan would build similar ships ...