Richard Burgess

Willis "Doc" LeeWhen World War II began, most theorists believed that battleships would be the decisive factors in the naval war. But it would be the submarine and the aircraft ...

Wilson "Bud" FlaggAs I stood respectfully at attention while the haunting notes of Taps carried on the wind, I knew something was very, very different. I had seen countless military ...

Ernest E. Evans On 27 October 1943, a short, barrel-chested, full-blooded Cherokee Indian in a Navy lieutenant commander's uniform stepped to a podium in a Seattle shipyard. Ernest E. Evans ...

"Pete" EllisToday, most of us tend to take for granted the impressive amphibious capability of the U.S. Marines. But it was not always so, and we have Earl Hancock Ellis—better ...

Rush and RendernickThe submarine USS Billfish (SS-286) was patrolling enemy controlled waters in Makassar Strait on 11 November 1943, when she was discovered by a Japanese destroyer. The aggressive destroyer ...

Mind Over Matter In 1942, Mary Sears tried to join the U.S. Navy but was rejected because of an arthritic condition. Fortunately for the U.S. war effort, the Navy recanted ...

"The Most Bold and Daring Act of the Age"In 1803, the USS Philadelphia—sent to the Mediterranean to protect American shipping from the marauding vessels of the so-called Barbary states ...

Points of ViewThe decision 60 years ago to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and end World War II will doubtless be debated as long as there are thinking human ...

Leadership by ExampleAs an advisor with the South Vietnamese Marines early in the Vietnam War, Major William Leftwich '53, wrote the following words of advice for those who would follow ...

Civilian Yard WorkersUSS Yorktown limped up the Pearl Harbor channel. Two near misses and a direct hit from Japanese aircraft had done considerable damage to this aircraft carrier and it ...

Admiral Raymond SpruanceThe great naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison once wrote: "Power of decision and coolness in action were perhaps [his] leading characteristics. He envied no one, rivaled no man ...

Midshipmen of the Mexican WarAlmost dead center in the Naval Academy "Yard" is an obelisk surrounded by four cannons and inscribed with the names: Clemson, Hynson, Pillsbury, and Shubrick. Names ...