Naval History Magazine - December 2015 Volume 29, Number 6

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org.usni.navalhistory.2015december
Cover Story
'Too Young to Be Scared'
Issue: Naval History Magazine - December 2015 Volume 29, Number 6
Although they were underage, boys who volunteered for combat in World War II were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Between the two World Wars, and...

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  • In Contact

    Rickover’s Letters

    Doug Sjoberg

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  • Armaments & Innovations - The First Shell Gun
    By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U. S. Navy (Retired)

    Centuries ago, perhaps a gunner accustomed to firing his cannon became captivated with the idea of getting a second bang—not from his weapon...

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Highlights

  • On Our Scope

    As the Navy attack group and supporting fighters headed west over North Vietnam, small gray puffs blossomed in the clear sky—antiaircraft fire. More appeared, joined by black bursts from larger AA guns and tracers from light guns. The flak...

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  • Navy Air Strike North Vietnam
    By Vice Admiral Robert F. Dunn, U.S. Navy (Retired)
    Dodging SAMs by pulling high ‘Gs,’ and weaving and jinking to avoid antiaircraft fire were key survival skills for the pilots of Operation Rolling Thunder—the three-and-a-half-year campaign to force Hanoi...
    Read More
  • From Blue to Green and Brown
    By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
    Proving its adaptability during the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy created coastal and riverine forces from scratch that reduced communist infiltration from the sea, secured vital waterways, and pushed enemy forces into the...
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  • Overlooked Service
    By Lieutenant Commander Krystyn Pecora, U.S. Coast Guard
    The extent of the Coast Guard’s involvement in the Vietnam War is unknown to many.

    Every day dozens of military members, retirees, and family members hurriedly pass through the doors of the...

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  • Götterdämmerung German Admirals on Trial
    By Alan P. Rems
    Seventy years ago, the Nuremberg Tribunal endeavored to dispense fair and impartial justice. Yet the verdicts and sentences delivered for the German admirals satisfied neither their supporters nor their opponents....
    Read More
  • A Most Timely Skirmish
    By Lieutenant Colonel George S. Converse, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)<p>
    A reckless attempted prison break from Alcatraz in 1946 highlighted the necessity of the U.S. Marine Corps to critics skeptical of its postwar value.
     

    First Prize, 2015 Naval...

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  • Book Reviews

    Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice

    Adam Makos. New York: Ballantine Books, 2015. 464 pp. Maps. Illus. Notes. Biblio. $28.

    Reviewed by David Sears

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  • Contributors

    Lieutenant Colonel George S. Converse (U.S. Marine Corps, Ret.) graduated with a BA in English from Montana State University in 1968, the same year he was commissioned in the Marine Corps. During his 28-year career as an infantry...

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Subscriber Only Content

  • Looking Back - A Friend Indeed
    By Paul Stillwell

    Throughout the course of our lives, we make many friends. One who brightened my existence from the early 1990s until his passing earlier this year was a retired naval officer, Lieutenant Commander George Van. I first heard from George in early...

    Read More
  • In Contact

    Rickover’s Letters

    Doug Sjoberg

    Read More
  • Armaments & Innovations - The First Shell Gun
    By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U. S. Navy (Retired)

    Centuries ago, perhaps a gunner accustomed to firing his cannon became captivated with the idea of getting a second bang—not from his weapon but from the projectile at the target-end of its trajectory. Whatever its genesis, the weapon...

    Read More
  • Naval History News

    Missouri Memorial Honors Veterans

    The 70th anniversary of the signing of the Instruments of Surrender ending World War II was honored in a ceremony on board the USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 2...

    Read More
  • Historic Aircraft - 'There's a Ford in Your Future'
    By Norman Polmar, Author, Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet

    Eccentric innovator Henry Ford built airplanes as well as automobiles and antisubmarine ships (the Eagle boats), and developed low-cost housing projects and rubber plantations.1 Pro-fascist, anti-Semitic, and...

    Read More
  • 'Too Young to Be Scared'
    By Bruce M. Petty
    Although they were underage, boys who volunteered for combat in World War II were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

    Between the two World Wars, and especially once the Great Depression hit, getting...

    Read More
  • A WHAT in Union Square?
    By Carl LaVO
    The ‘battleship’ USS Recruit—one of the most unusual sights in World War I–era Manhattan— was a recruiting boon for the U.S. Navy.

    How do you get 25,000 New Yorkers...

    Read More
  • Struggle to Save the Raleigh
    By John J. Domagalski
    A heroic effort on the part of her crew kept the light cruiser afloat on the Day of Infamy.

    During the fading afternoon hours of 6 December 1941, Captain Robert B. Simons decided to go ashore for a walk....

    Read More
  • Historic Fleets - 'This Vessel Most Successfully Accomplished Her Mission'
    By Robert J. Cressman

    As the transport Susan B. Anthony (AP-72) stood toward the Normandy coast to disembark her troops early on a June morning in 1944, Chief Signalman David P. Fitzgerald, a 24-year-old Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, wearily drew a mug of...

    Read More
  • Museum Report - Showcasing Naval Treasures as Masterpieces
    By William Galvani

    The imperial barge of Napoleon, with a gilded, resplendent Neptune astride its bow, is the first and largest object visitors see at the French National Navy Museum. The 59-foot vessel is an impressive sight, with its 22 white oars raised in...

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  • Pieces of the Past

    “Torture, boredom, and inventiveness. . . .” Such are the words that seek to describe the prisoner-of-war experience in an exhibit panel at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. The story of American POWs in the...

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