In his 1990 interview with Naval Institute oral historian Paul Stillwell (right), William Lawrence recounted the unexpected (and unwanted) surprise that greeted him on his return stateside after years in a Vietnamese POW camp.

A Mixed Homecoming

The following is an edited excerpt from Captain Lawrence's interview with the Naval Institute’s Paul Stillwell on 3 December 1990.

October 2023
ship

‘That Was a Helluva Night’

Admiral Shear gives a vivid firsthand account of the battle that the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings described in 1945 as “one of the most nicely executed and decisive victories of ...

Admiral Harold E. Shear, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2023
penguins

SecNav’s Icy Junket

The following is an edited excerpt from Herbert Hetu’s Naval Institute oral history interview with Paul Stillwell on 20 June 1986.

Captain Herbert E. Hetu, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2023
CNO George Anderson

‘Somebody’s Got to Say Something About the Problem’

During his 1961–63 tenure as Chief of Naval Operations during the presidency of John F. Kennedy, Admiral Anderson weathered the storm in the wake of the mysterious loss of the ...

Admiral George W. Anderson, U.S. Navy (Retired)
April 2023
USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16)

London Duty

When Elliott Strauss served as naval attaché in 1930s London, it was a world of morning coats and top hats, of dinner jackets and old-school formality.

Rear Admiral Elliott B. Strauss, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2023
Admiral Leighton “Snuffy” Smith met Queen Elizabeth II

Sir Snuffy

The following is an edited excerpt from an oral history interview with Admiral Smith and the Naval Institute’s Paul Stillwell in March 2006.

November 2022
plant

‘Not In My Navy’

The drug problem surfaced across the nation in the late ’60s and was enhanced because of Vietnam.

September 2022
Naval Academy

Preparing for ‘Tea Fights’

In 1961, J. Paul Reason was a U.S. Naval Academy plebe and obliged to take lessons to prepare for social mixer dances that midshipmen called “tea fights.”

August 2022
U.S. Army B-25 bomber

‘The Nation Badly Needed an Offensive Action’

On 18 April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle of the U.S. Army Air Forces entered the annals of World War II history in command of the celebrated Doolittle Raid.

General James H. Doolittle, U.S. Air Force (Retired)
May 2022
USS Langley

‘You Could Barely See the Deck’

In 1969, Commander Etta-Belle Kitchen, U.S. Navy (Retired), conducted one of the U.S. Naval Institute’s earliest oral histories—with one of the U.S. Navy’s earliest aviators.

Vice Admiral Gerald F. Bogan, U.S. Navy (Retired)
March 2022