A Sea Story Not Easily Told

By Tom Cutler
August 1996
What follows is not easily told. I have not shared this "sea story" even with my wife until now. One evening, at twilight, I had assumed the watch as officer ...

Book Reviews & Books of Interest

August 1996
Once Upon a Distant WarWilliam Prochnau. New York, NY: Times Books, 1995. 546 pp. Bib. Ind. Photos. $27.50 ($24.75).Reviewed by Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr., U.S. Army (Retired)One of the ...

Tomorrow's Fleet—Part II

By Scott C. Truver
August 1996
Co-ed from the keel up, the new USS Benfold (DDG-65) is one of the latest of a proposed 57 Aegis destroyers to join the fleet. Also on the front burner ...

Deterrence: Then and Now

By Commander Alan Zimm, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 1996
Military forces are supposed to fight and win wars, but an equally important function is to prevent wars. Increasingly, it has been realized that these functions are not separate and ...

Comment & Discussion

August 1996
“The Navy’s Pressure Cooker”See T. Philpott, pp. 50-55, May 1996; P.H Sayles, p. 16, July 1996 Proceedings)Lieutenant Commander Eric. D. Lanman, Supply Corps, U.S. Navy—I thought that the ultimate goal ...

Lest We Forget

By Lieutenant Commander Rick Burgess, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 1996
Attack Squadron 165 (VA-165) was established at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, on 1 September 1960 as part of Carrier Air Group 16. Equipped with AD-6/7 (A-1H/J) propeller-driven attack aircraft ...

Combat Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World
August 1996
The Sultanate of Oman’s corvette Qaliir al Amwaj, seen in May undergoing training at Portsmouth, England, was delivered on 19 March 1996. Ordered in 1992 from Vosper Thornycroft, the 1,415-ton ...

Sea Dog Quiz #2

By John R. Stewart
August 1996
Test your sea legs with this naval and nautical quiz, and check your answers on page 95. If you miss ten or fewer, you are a real sea dog. If ...

The U. S. Navy: New Approach to Submarines

By Norman Polmar, Author, The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet
August 1996
Development of the New Attack Submarine (NSSN) is moving rapidly, promising to provide the U.S. Navy with a highly versatile undersea craft. The submarine community and Congress remain divided, however ...

Leadership Forum: Adapt or Die

By Commander Stephen D. Swazee, U.S. Naval Reserve
August 1996
At the turn of the century, then-Lieutenant William Sowden Sims—pictured here in 1919 with Rear Admiral Victor Blue (left), and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt (right)—saw the ...

Fighting the Beast

By Commander Kaj Toft Madsen, Royal Danish Navy
August 1996
Western knowledge of nonnuclear-powered submarines—growing in capability and desirability among Third World nations—is limited. Some insight into diesel sub operations and tactics might help Western navies in potential future conflicts ...

Professional Notes

August 1996
The New Inchon Goes to SeaBy Captain David M. Crocker, U.S. NavyThe USS Inchon (MCS-12)—the Navy’s new Mine Countermeasures Support ship—completed her $125 million conversion in March and left ...

Military Medicine Must Evolve

By Rear Admiral William R. Rowley, Medical Corps, U.S. Navy
August 1996
The major components of medical readiness are timeless: keeping our military personnel healthy in peace and war. Other aspects, however, are more flexible. If we begin to think outside the ...

Surprises Uncovered in Hunley Probe

By Dan Lenihan
August 1996
In 1995 divers from the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA)—headed by novelist Clive Cussler (see July-August 1995 Naval History, page 20) and operating in cooperation with the South Carolina ...

Do Photos Lie?

By Dennis Brack
August 1996
Manipulation of the image in combat photography is nothing new, but in this age of digitized imagery and computer enhancements, the temptation to play with reality has never been greater ...

The New War Plan Orange

By Lieutenant Commander Scott Allen, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 1996
Force reductions have weakened the U.S. military’s role as a stabilizing influence in the Western Pacific. Asian leaders see—and plan to fill—the power vacuum. This instability conceivably could turn Japan’s ...

The Changing of the Guard

By Commander W. Russell Webster, U.S. Coast Guard
August 1996
In high demand as a teacher and role model for emerging-nation navies, the U.S. Coast Guard also is working with the former Soviet Union’s KGB Maritime Border Guards as it ...

Carriers Are Forward Presence

By Captain Robert F. Johnson, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 1996
Forward presence demonstrates U.S. commitment, strengthens deterrence, and facilitates transition from peace to war. . . . Because of their limited footprint, strategic agility, calculated ambiguity of intent, and major ...

Bomber Debates

By Lieutenant Colonel Gene Myers, U.S. Air Force (Retired)
August 1996
The country needs all elements of air power—land-based, carrier, and long-range—to carry out the power-projection mission, but if force trade-offs become necessary, purchasing more B-2s should take priority over ...

Surfacing Hunley

By Commander George Cornelius, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 1996
In 1864, the Confederate States submarine H. L. Hunley rammed the USS Housatonic with a sparborne torpedo. But the Hunley’s fate and the story of the man for ...

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