Military physicians have responsibilities as both officers and healthcare providers—roles that are not as contradictory as they might seem.

A Military Medicine Dilemma

U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2024 CAPSTONE ESSAY CONTEST WINNER. The Oath of Office and the Hippocratic Oath both govern military physicians.

Ensign Andrew Mazza, U.S. Navy
June 2024
The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine Montana (SSN-794) during sea trials in February 2022. In the near future, nuclear-powered submarines, which enjoy near-total freedom of movement, could attack an adversary’s surveillance satellites with directed-energy weapons such as lasers and high-powered microwave systems.

Submarines Should Fight in Space, Too

U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2024 CAPSTONE ESSAY CONTEST WINNER. The submarine force provides an unpredictable offensive punch in space because of its unique stealth.

Ensign Liam Nawara, U.S. Navy
June 2024
Sailors on board the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Porter (DDG-78) stow simulated ordnance in the ship’s Mk 71 vertical launch system (VLS) during a pierside rearming demonstration at Naval Station Norfolk. There have been three demonstrations of the Transferable Re-Arming Mechanism (TRAM), two of which were successful.

Improving At-Sea Missile Rearming 

U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2024 CAPSTONE ESSAY CONTEST WINNER. Achieving the ability to rearm VLS at sea would give the Navy a significant advantage in future conflicts.

Ensign Anna Hoang, U.S. Navy
June 2024
Boeing Australia is developing the MQ-28A Ghost Bat, a stealthy, multirole, loyal wingman unmanned combat air vehicle for the Royal Australian Air Force. Australia has ordered at least ten aircraft, and the U.S. Air Force is investigating it for U.S. service.

Boyd in the Age of Loyal Wingmen

U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2024 CAPSTONE ESSAY CONTEST WINNER. Colonel Boyd's devotion to simplicity and quick strategic decision-making must live on with naval aviation.

Ensign John Robert Pellegrin, U.S. Navy 
June 2024
Influence operations as a strategic component of information warfare are poorly understood and employed, largely because science has not determined what works.

Get Serious About the Science of Influence

Information Warfare Essay Contest—First Prize, Sponsored by Booz Allen. The U.S. military needs better research on the effectiveness of foreign influence operations.

Douglas J. Bryant
June 2024
HMS Dreadnought (inset) was the showpiece of British naval supremacy—the perfect target for six friends hoping to prank the Royal Navy.

The Dreadnought Hoax

How a gang of merry pranksters dressed up as comic-opera “Abyssinian royals” and bamboozled the Royal Navy into a red-carpet tour of the pride of the fleet.

Andrew K. Blackley
June 2024
F6F Hellcats warm up on the flight deck of the USS Cowpens in early 1944. From 1943 on, she would fight in nearly every carrier battle until the end of the war and garner 12 battle stars—the most of any of the Independence-class light carriers.

The Mighty Moo at the Battle of the Philippine Sea

The story of the iconic carrier battle of the Pacific war, viewed from the crowded flight deck of the USS Cowpens, one of the Independence-class “forgotten flattops” of the great ...

Nathan Canestaro
June 2024
Facing stiff resistance, U.S. Marines inch forward into the maw of battle on Saipan, June 1944. The conquest of the Marianas has begun.

Seizing Saipan

Eighty years ago, Operation Forager—the invasion of the Marianas—was launched with the Battle of Saipan, a brutal struggle that deftly coordinated U.S. land, sea, and air elements on the path ...

Chris K. Hemler
June 2024
U.S. destroyers move into dangerous shoal waters to pump salvos of 5-inch shells into stubborn German emplacements along Omaha Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. American forces fought all day for this particular stretch—the same one described by Ernest Hemingway in his famous article “Voyage to Victory.”

The Invasion Fleet that Liberated Europe

An 80th-anniversary tribute to Operation Neptune, the naval component of the Normandy invasion, which hit France’s shores with the largest amphibious assault in world history.

Ed Offley
June 2024