Brown, Naval Academy Barrier-Breaking Pioneer, Passes Away
Retired Lieutenant Commander Wesley A. Brown, the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, died on 22 May at the age of 85.
The sixth black admitted to the Academy and the first to complete four years, Brown was a member of the class of 1949.
“The Naval Academy family is deeply saddened to learn of the loss of retired Lieutenant Commander Brown. . . . He embodied the highest ideals of the Academy’s mission and dedicated himself to decades of selfless and distinguished service to our nation,” said Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller.
“Wesley Brown was a superb example to our midshipmen, displaying the traits of leadership and character we strive to instill in all of our graduates. . . . On behalf of the entire Naval Academy family, our heartfelt condolences go out to the Brown family.”
Brown was appointed to the Academy as a midshipman in 1945 after enrolling at Howard University in Washington, D.C., as an Army Specialized Training student and an electrical-engineering major. At the Academy, Brown excelled athletically, running both varsity track and cross-country. One of his track teammates was future President Jimmy Carter (class of 1947).
Following his commissioning in the Navy Civil Engineer Corps, Brown served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, rising to lieutenant commander before retiring in July 1969.
As a civilian, Brown worked for the New York State University Construction Fund, the New York State Dormitory Authority, and the University Planning Office at Howard University, retiring in 1988.
Brown remained closely connected to the Academy throughout his life. He served on the Naval Academy Alumni Association Board of Trustees, and in 2008 the Academy dedicated its newly constructed athletic facility in his honor. The Wesley Brown Field House, the first and only Academy building dedicated to a living alumnus, hosts an annual track-and-field invitational in Brown’s honor and houses his class ring, which he donated to the athletic facility in person at the 2012 invitational.
Retired Admiral Bob Natter, a member of the class of 1967 and chairman of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, said, “Commander Brown’s passing is a difficult one for all of us. He has been an inspiration to those who have followed him. . . . He will be greatly missed.”
Innovative Plans Announced for War of 1812 Shipwreck
With the War of 1812 bicentennial ramping up, archaeologists who believe they have located the flagship of Commodore Joshua Barney have announced plans to start excavating the shipwreck in 2013 as part of the war’s 200th-anniversary commemoration in Maryland.
The wreck is in the upper reaches of the Patuxent River, where archaeologists from the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), the Maryland Historical Trust, and the U.S. Navy have been at work since 2010 dredging, measuring, and otherwise preparing for the full-on excavation of what may be a vessel of great historic significance in the Chesapeake theater of the War of 1812.
Now the team is in the environmental-permits stage. The plan is to employ an excavation technique that involves using a cofferdam, a metal enclosing structure that effectively cuts off the wreck site from the surrounding waters, allowing drainage and thus enabling the work to proceed as if on dry land. This innovative method has been used only one other time in the United States—on a 17th-century French shipwreck in Texas’ Matagorda Bay.
Based on certain artifacts found on the Patuxent River vessel, archaeologists strongly believe that she is not only one of the scuttled gunboats of Barney’s legendary Chesapeake Flotilla, but none other than the Scorpion, Barney’s flagship.
The flotilla was Barney’s brainchild; it fought valiantly against the British naval squadron in the June 1814 Battles of St. Leonard’s Creek before retiring up the Patuxent into the safety of the shallows. After scuttling his flotilla to avoid British capture, Barney marched on to defend the nation’s capital in the Battle of Bladensburg. (See “Commodore Barney at the Bladensburg Races,” October 2010, p. 46.) As green militia troops melted around them in a rout, Barney’s flotillamen and a unit of Marines stood their ground, manning their cannon until the commodore was wounded and knocked out of the battle.
Julie Schablitsky, the SHA’s point-person on the project, told the Prince George’s County Gazette that the project, from preparation and excavation to preservation and artifact-cataloguing, is expected to cost about $5 million. She also noted that the cofferdam, while making it much easier for the archaeologists to work the site without having to dive on it, will have the added benefit of allowing curious onlookers to observe archaeology in action.
“It’ll be something where if people come out to visit, since it’ll be open to the public, it’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
WWII Big Guns Rescued
As reported earlier in “Naval History News,” efforts have been under way to find homes for guns from the USS Missouri (BB-63) and other iconic World War II battleships, rescuing these relics from the wrecker’s yard (“Who Will Save the Big Guns of WWII?” December 2011, p. 10). This spring, the news was good for three of the guns, with two heading westward from their storage site in Norfolk, Virginia, and another heading off to stand perpetual, honorary sentinel on the East Coast.
After a long journey by water and rail, the 68-foot gun barrel from the Missouri arrived at the Fort Miles Historical Area in Delaware’s Cape Henlopen State Park in April. The 16-inch/50-caliber Mark 7, which could hurl 2,700-pound shells more than 23 miles in 50 seconds, had witnessed history when the Japanese surrendered on the deck of the Missouri on 2 September 1945.
“Delaware is honored to be the new home of this significant piece of American history,” said Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE). “As a major operational center of our nation’s coastal defense during World War II, Fort Miles is the perfect place to display this artifact.”
At one time, two similar guns were installed at Fort Miles, which served as a coastal fortification for the Army. The guns were removed after the war, and were rumored to have been scrapped and turned into razor blades. The Missouri gun was fated to become scrap as well, until the Fort Miles Historical Association (FMHA) requested it, launching a fund-raising effort to move it to Delaware. According to the FMHA, the total cost of getting the big gun to its new home was $113,500. The funds were raised through private donations and several key grants.
The barrel was donated by the U.S. Naval Systems Command through a joint plan written by FMHA and Delaware State Parks.
Also in April, another gun from the Missouri departed Norfolk for a new lease on life, but instead of traveling two states away, this one was traveling 2,000 miles away. And it had a traveling companion—the last gun from the USS Arizona (BB-39).
The 14-inch Arizona gun and 16-inch Missouri gun were bound for the Arizona Capitol Museum in Phoenix; they will remain there on permanent exhibit and are scheduled to be dedicated on Pearl Harbor Day, 7 December 2012.
“We are very fortunate because this is our 100th anniversary as a state, so to have this come to fruition in 2012 is really neat for Arizona,” said Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett.
Pete Kolakowski of the Naval Surface Warfare Center said, “We are proud to be a participant in preserving the U.S. Navy’s heritage by contributing the last gun from the USS Arizona to the state of Arizona.”
How was this particular gun barrel spared the fate of its mother ship? The barrel had been removed from the Arizona to be relined before World War II, and was at the Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground for proof-testing when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on 7 December 1941.
The gun had been part of the Arizona from 1925 to 1938 and would be used in support of multiple World War II operations—including the D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944—after its installation aboard the USS Nevada (BB-36) in 1942.
With the sinking of the Arizona at Pearl Harbor marking America’s entrance into World War II and the Japanese surrender on the Missouri marking the conflict’s end, exhibiting the pair of gun barrels together provides a certain historical symmetry. As Smith noted, “The USS Arizona and USS Missouri gun barrels represent bookends of World War II—the beginning and end.”
‘Gallant John’ Gets His Marker at Last
Representatives from the Embassy of Ireland, the Naval Order of the United States, and the National Park Service gathered in Washington, D.C., on 4 May to unveil the new Commodore John Barry Memorial wayside marker designed by Karen Erlinger. The Irish-born Barry (1745–1803) is celebrated as a Revolutionary War hero and important founding father of the U.S. Navy. Although his statue has been in Franklin Park since 1914, there had been no interpretive marker to explain to the public who Commodore Barry was and why he is relevant to America’s naval history. Now, Barry’s story rightfully accompanies his image.
Hendrix Takes the Helm at the Naval History and Heritage Command
Captain Henry J. “Jerry” Hendrix—a Naval Institute Press and Naval History author and former member of the Naval Institute Editorial Board—took command as interim director of the Washington Navy Yard–based Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) in May. NHHC’s self-described mission is “to collect, preserve, protect, and make available the artifacts, documents, and art that best embody our naval history and heritage for present and future generations.”
Captain Hendrix’s appointment came on the heels of the resignation of retired Rear Admiral Jay DeLoach, who had led NHHC since 2008.
A December 2011 Navy Inspector General’s report had raised concerns about ongoing problems with the storage of artifacts and records and a distancing of relations between the NHHC and the historical community. But Admiral DeLoach is credited with having succeeded in dramatically increasing funding for the NHHC. According to Navy Times, “the historical command secured $38 million for Fiscal Year 2012, a 46 percent increase from the year before, which the command plans to use to hire staff to process the huge backlog of holdings.”
In his resignation statement, DeLoach remarked, “I am very impressed with the strides that this team has made in preserving and telling the history of the world’s finest navy. That said, I believe it’s time for a new leader to expand on recent progress and deal with the challenges before us.”
As a career Navy officer with a Ph.D., Captain Hendrix seems tailor-made for his new role. He completed his doctoral dissertation for King’s College, London, while deployed at sea on board the USS Peleliu (LHA-5). He also had earned advanced degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School and Harvard University. The 2006 recipient of the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement, he is the author of Theodore Roosevelt’s Naval Diplomacy: The U.S. Navy and the Birth of the American Century (Naval Institute Press, 2009) and numerous articles in professional journals and magazines.
“My successor will bring a new infusion of energy to the command to continue on our journey into the future,” said DeLoach. “The past four years at NHHC have tested every aspect of my professional talents and leadership, and I am confident of the legacy of change and the connection with our Navy that I leave to my successor.”
The Naval Historical Foundation recently sat down with Hendrix to discuss his thoughts on his new position:
Question: Can you give us some biography background, to include why you became interested in the Navy and Navy history in particular?
Answer: My dad was a sailor, and my grandfather was a sailor briefly during World War II, although he never saw any action, so the Navy was present in my life from the moment of my birth in San Diego. After my parents’ divorce, I grew up on my stepfather’s farm in Indiana, so I didn’t really have a Navy upbringing other than I knew it was in our family line.
I became intrigued with biographies, mostly military biographies, and grew up very much a believer in the romantic view of heroism and the greatness of our nation and its Navy. I started out with World War II, and then just started going back from there in my interests and scope of research, and was fascinated with the importance of living a life worth remembering. I am a true believer in the power of history to inspire others, just as it does with me every day.
Q: As someone who has been a longtime member of both the U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval Historical Foundation, how do you see such organizations contributing to educating sailors and the American public about our Navy’s history and heritage?
A: It’s a neverending battle in an age of electronic media and celebrity-hero worship to bring an appreciation of historic heroics into the public discussion. To use a metaphor, history stands across the river of time from us and shouts the question, “Who are you?” and demands of us an answer. Organizations like the Naval Institute and the Naval Historical Foundation serve as conduits of that conversation between the past and the present, but it is a process and a relationship that needs to be strengthened as we go forward. We can do it in media, as consultants to popular histories, by supporting deep, substantive scholarship, by having a thriving museum presence in popular culture, and just by getting out and leading the conversation in our communities. We should never underestimate the power of a lone advocate of naval history in the public discourse.
Q: Coming into the job as an interim director, how do you see yourself helping to move the organization forward?
A: It’s a privilege to serve the Naval History and Heritage Command in whatever capacity I am assigned. I have benefited from its programs, and by the mentorship of people like retired Senior Historian Ed Marolda, for the past 16 years.
It is my honor to serve. My hope is that my enthusiasm for the topic will energize my dedication to the mission. In the end, I look forward to serving the institution and moving naval history into the future.