NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER

Piddly Poom to Spectacular Boom

By Rear Admiral Odale D. Waters Jr., U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2006
Skipper of a destroyer participating in the Crossroads tests at Bikini Atoll, then-Commander Waters was underwhelmed by the first atomic blast but awed by the second.
Prados

Waging War with Cardboard Navies

By John Prados
August 2006
Wargames have long been used as Navy training tools. But outside Naval War College classrooms board wargames are also a popular way to explore military history by figuratively putting oneself ...

On Our Scope

By Richard G. Latture, Editor-in-Chief
August 2006
This issue of Naval History commemorates the 60th anniversary of an event that signaled the U.S. Navy's entry into the nuclear age: Operation Crossroads, the twin atomic bomb tests at ...

Curiosity at the Crossroads

By Vice Admiral Jerry Miller, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2006
The atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll 60 years ago—the first of which, code-named Test Able, artist Grant Powers captured in dramatic sequence—gave ominous clues concerning what the Manhattan Project ...

Atomic Fish

By Norman Polmar
August 2006
The history of the nuclear-tipped torpedo is almost as mysterious as any of the black projects of the submarine service, but the details that have surfaced are fascinating and, in ...