Sidney E. Dean is editor of Hampton Roads International Security Quarterly (www.teamultimedia.com). He also writes on U.S. defense policy, military affairs, and technology for several European defense publications, as well as contributing regularly to Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare magazines.
David Hobbs, a retired commander in the Royal Navy, has written 12 books, one of which is The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy’s Most Powerful Strike Force (Naval Institute Press, 2011). He also writes for several journals and magazines and lectures on naval subjects worldwide. Qualified as both a fixed- and rotary-wing pilot, he has logged 2,300 hours aloft and more than 800 carrier landings.
Colonel Jon T. Hoffman retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2008 and currently is the deputy chief historian for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He is the author of Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller (Random House, 2001) and Once a Legend: “Red Mike” Edson of the Marine Raiders (Presidio Press, 1994).
Lee J. Mathers was on active duty with the Navy from 1967 to 1978, during which time he served two Vietnam tours and spent three years in Naval Intelligence. He later was a researcher for the documentary film Azorian: The Raising of the K-129 and the book Project Azorian (Naval Institute Press, 2010). When not engaged in researching naval and intelligence history, he’s self-employed at BookZeller, an Internet bookstore.
Lieutenant Commander Beauford E. Myers retired from the Navy in 1974 following 14 years’ enlisted and 12 years’ commissioned service. Between August 1968 and April 1972, he was acting officer-in-charge and executive officer of the White Sands (ARD-20, later AGDS-1), the Navy’s first deep-submergence support ship, which was principally designed to work with the Trieste II (DSV-1).
Robert Shenk is a professor of English at the University of New Orleans and a retired captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve. In addition to America’s Black Sea Fleet (2012), from which his article is excerpted, he wrote The Naval Institute Guide to Naval Writing (2008) and edited Authors at Sea: Modern American Writers Remember Their Naval Service (1996), all published by the Naval Institute Press.
Rodney K. Watterson, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and MIT, was involved with shipyards and submarines throughout his 30-year naval career. A resident of Hampton, New Hampshire, he holds a PhD in history from the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of 32 in ’44: Building the Portsmouth Submarine Fleet in World War II (Naval Institute Press, 2011).