Contributors

March 2013
Greg Bailey, a St. Louis–based freelance writer who covers a variety of subjects in addition to naval ones, is currently working on a book about a 1920s historical event ...
U.S. Naval Academy Museum

On Our Scope

March 2013
There’s little argument that the Spanish-American War marked the debut of the United States as a world power and the U.S. Navy as a modern world-class force. Indelible images of ...
Painting of USS Thresher underway by Carl Evers

Thresher and the CNO

By Paul Stillwell
March 2013
Just as spring was spreading its renewing warmth to the nation, the stunning news in 1963 was chilling. Nuclear submarines had been in service since only the mid-1950s, yet in ...
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

In Contact

March 2013
Gibbs and His United StatesCommander Louis D. Chirillo, U.S. Navy (Retired)Regarding Paul Stillwell’s description of William Francis Gibbs in the February issue (“Looking Back,” p. 6), early in ...
Paul Edelkamp

Naval History News

March 2013
Hurricane Serves Up Historic WeaponAfter Hurricane Sandy smashed ashore on the Delaware River in October, members of the Anchor Yacht Club in Bristol, Pennsylvania, faced quite a cleanup. Among the ...
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

Historic Aircraft - The Big Flying Boat

By Norman Polmar
March 2013
The outstanding accomplishments during World War II of the U.S. Navy’s twin-engine flying boats—the Consolidated PBY Catalina and the Martin PBM Mariner—eclipsed the comparatively few four-engine flying boats that served ...
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

'We . . . Must Expect a Disaster'

By Ensign Carlos R. Rosende, U.S. Navy
March 2013
It’s said that victory lies in making your enemy anticipate his own defeat; the Spanish loss at the 1898 Battle of Santiago provides a case in point.
U.S. Navy (Ken Robinson)

One Day of War

By Harold Lee Wise
March 2013
In 1988’s Operation Praying Mantis, the U.S. Navy met a tense situation with decisive action in a global hot spot: the Persian Gulf.
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

Mined!

By Bradley Peniston
March 2013
When a mine explosion blew a hole in their ship, the sailors of the USS Samuel B. Roberts displayed valor and indomitability in the face of disaster.
Marine Corps Archives, History Division and Gray Research Center, Quantico, VA

'New Orleans is Ours!'

Edited by Craig L. Symonds
March 2013
Marine Charley Morrison’s letters home provide a front-row seat to Civil War history during the capture of the Confederacy’s most important port.
Naval History and Heritage Command; Background: Wikicommons

John Ford, USN

By Eric Mills
March 2013
Hollywood’s seminal director of classic Westerns was at heart a man who loved the sea—and the Navy in which he served.

Book Reviews

March 2013
In Full Glory Reflected: Discovering the War of 1812 in the ChesapeakeRalph E. Eshelman and Burton K. Kummerow. Maryland Historical Society Press and the Maryland Historical Trust Press, 2012 ...
J.M. Caiella

War of 1812 Gem

By James M. Caiella
March 2013
Plattsburgh, New York, at the northwest corner of Lake Champlain, bills itself as the U.S. suburb of Montreal, Canada (about 60 miles north). To most travelers in this sparse and ...
J.M. Caiella

NEW DEPARTMENT: Pieces of the Past

March 2013
Anyone who’s heard of (or perhaps even tried) the Twinkie-on-a-windowsill experiment may want to ponder an even more remarkably durable foodstuff: good old hardtack, that staple of many a seafarer ...