The U.S. Naval Institute Memoir Collection

The U.S. Naval Institute’s Memoir Collection honors and preserves the personal stories of those who served in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. For family members, friends, shipmates, and researchers, the growing Collection serves as a valuable source of firsthand accounts and primary-source history.

  • Many rank their military service as a defining milestone in their lives.
  • While service memoirs generally face tough hurdles in the publishing market, the Naval Institute Memoir Collection provides authors with an accessible, central online location for the preservation of their autobiographical accounts, viewable today and by future generations as well. Whether already self-published or never published, their stories have a welcoming venue in perpetuity with the USNI Memoir Collection.
  • Others may have a memoir - of their own or of a family member's service - simply gathering dust somewhere, unseen but nonetheless a part of the overall American historical record. With the Memoir Collection, such memories - be they in the form of a shorter vignette or a fuller autobiography - now have a valued place in a permanent, searchable online archive.
  • Learn more by clicking below.

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Memoirs

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CAPT (Ret.) Stephen Goldhammer, USCG, and his grandson, Luke Belmont, 5, at the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum in October, 2016 in front of Coast Guard HH-52A 1426.
Memoir

A 'Coastie' for Life

Stephen E. Goldhammer
Uncategorized
The Coast Guard’s motto is Semper Paratus – Latin for Always Ready. It’s also been described as ‘the shallow water Navy’ and ‘the hard nucleus that the Navy forms around in time of war.’ I always tell people that I’ve...
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Dave Henderson
Memoir

The Funeral at Gioia Sannitica

LtCol. David G. Henderson, USMC (RET.)
Vietnam War
The Funeral at Gioia Sannitica, by David Henderson, covers the funeral of an Italian-American service member killed during the Vietnam War. His body returned to Italy rather than the United States - the first time in Marine Corps history that...
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CAPT. Peter M. Swartz, USN (Ret.) in Vietnam
Memoir

My Vietnam War Memoir

Peter M. Swartz
Vietnam War
Captain Swartz served for over 27 years as a U.S. Navy officer, primarily as a specialist in strategy, plans, and policy. Early in his career, at Naval Amphibious School, Coronado, he helped train Navy personnel heading to advisory and other...
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Nolan Nelson
Memoir

The Foul Weather Jacket

Nolan Nelson
Vietnam War
This essay describes through these patches my active duty of three and one half years on amphibious ships in Vietnam and San Diego. I served as an officer in the Navy from 1968 to 1972. My longest assignment on active...
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Edward K. Poole
Memoir

Edward K. Poole - Memoir Collection

Edward K. Poole
Vietnam War
This Memoir is a collection of short stories, by Edward Poole, about his time in the Navy as a doctor. Edward Poole would later retire as a Lt. Commander. 1. Intestinal Distress and Me 2. Two Highlighting Tales 3. I...
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Memoir

Submarine Doctors

J. Richard Briggs
Vietnam War
The first nuclear-powered submarine, Nautilus SSN 571, had just returned from her shakedown cruise in 1956 and the boat was found to be uninhabitable. The equipment that controlled the atmosphere within the boat was faulty and although much research had...
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