Bill Hamblet photo

From the Editor’s Desk

June 2020
This theme of this issue is “Fight Smarter,” but perhaps it should be “COVID-19: Month Three,” as remote work and seeing teammates only via video apps continues.
Silver State Dreadnaught

CEO Notes

June 2020
In our ninth week of remote work, I am incredibly proud of how the entire Naval Institute staff has pulled together to keep all operations working.
A China Coast Guard ship uses water cannons on a Vietnamese marine surveillance ship in the South China Sea. China has been able to advance its agenda through aggressive moves that mostly have failed to produce a serious U.S. response. It might not embark on war because it has no need to.

Win Without Fighting

By Hunter Stires
June 2020
The United States is devoting significant energy to preparing for great power war, but China is waging a maritime insurgency—and could win without firing a shot.
U.S. Marine Corps (Jesus Sepulveda Torres)

Teach Your Children Well

By Commander Thomas P. Terlizzi, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2020
Gifting knowledge gained in the Sea Services is a force multiplier in developing enlightened, well-educated American youth.
Naval History and Heritage Command (Wayne Miller)

Legal to Launch?

By Ensign Benjamin Chiacchia, U.S. Navy
June 2020
The impact of nuclear weapons on civilian populations raises questions about the legality of nuclear use and deterrence generally.
Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit on board the USS Ashland (LSD-48) secure a beach on Okinawa during a 2019 exercise.

Controlling Chaos

By Second Lieutenant Seamus Dwyer, U.S. Marine Corps
June 2020
The Marine Corps Capstone Essay winner says the Sea Services should think of Marines as stand-in forces within the Navy's composite warfare structure.
Naval Air Station Key West Truman Annex flooded in 2008 when Hurricane Ike passed within 128 miles. The Navy should implement a new initiative to allow Civil Engineer Corps officers and the Seabees to combat sea level rise, which is threatening many coastal military installations.

The Navy’s Vanguard Against Rising Sea Levels

By Ensign Leah Gordon, Civil Engineer Corps, U.S. Navy
June 2020
The Navy should implement a new initiative to allow Civil Engineer Corps officers and the Seabees to combat sea level rise, which is threatening many coastal military installations.
Later, at the siege of Wonsan during the Korean War, Kinney commanded a destroyer protecting U.S. minesweepers, who he said did the “real dirty work” keeping channels free.

The Minesweepers of Wonsan

By A. Denis Clift
June 2020
During the siege of Wonsan, the minesweepers did the "real dirty work," keeping the channels free and subjecting themselves to short-range gunfire as they swept.
The Indomitable Florence Finch

Book Reviews

June 2020
Experts review Robert Mrazek's The Indomitable Florence Finch, retired Captain Steven E. Maffeo's The Russian Who Saved the World, and other new and noteworthy books.
Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy vessels harass the USS Paul Hamilton (DDG-60)—one of a formation of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships—in international waters of the Arabian Gulf.

The Navy Needs a Gray-Zone Strategy

By Lieutenant Commanders Andrew Kramer and Martin Schroeder, U.S. Navy
June 2020
U.S. adversaries see the opportunities in gray-zone operations. The Navy needs an effective counterstrategy and gray-water force of its own.
Then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo Zumwalt speaks with the Human Relations Council at Fleet Activities Yokosuka in July 1971, six months after releasing his Z-Gram on implementation of equal opportunity in the Navy.

The Burden of a Black Naval Officer

By Lieutenant Commander Desmond Walker, U.S. Navy
June 2020
Candid and open discussions that welcome different opinions can be an effective catalyst for change; it is no different for racial injustice.

The U.S. Naval Institute is a private, self-supporting, not-for-profit professional society that publishes Proceedings as part of the open forum it maintains for the Sea Services. The Naval Institute is not an agency of the U.S. government; the opinions expressed in these pages are the personal views of the authors.