'Something About Ships'

An Interview with Ken Burns

February 1999

The Emmy Award-winning filmmaker laments the short attention span of TV viewers and hints at a future film subject—ships and the Navy.

Quest at Midway

By Journalist First Class Jason Everett Miller, U.S. Navy

February 1999

The expedition to rediscover the sunken carriers at Midway owes much of its success in finding the Yorktown to a Navy Deep Submergence Unit.

The Constellation: 'Living Classroom?'

By Frank D. Roylance

February 1999

Now that she's out of drydock after extensive restoration and renovation, the ship faces an uncertain future as an educational tool for at-risk youth.

History That Never Was

By Eric McAllister Smith & Illustrations By Jan Adkins

February 1999

One literary genre cooks up history-changing twists; readers wallow in the possibilities.

Gauntlet of Fire!

By Theodore P. Savas

February 1999

In the summer of 1863 the USS Wyoming was sent to Japanese waters to search for the CSS Alabama.

Benjamin Stoddert and the Quasi-War with France

By Stanley J. Adamiak

February 1999

When the infant US. Navy embarked on its war with France in 1798, it had little more than courage in abundance.

Photo Mission: Truk

By John Bishop

February 1999

Images shot by a Marine Photographic Squadron helped change the course of World War II.

Defending Bloody Ridge

Text and Photography By David Gaddis

February 1999

Much remains of the hard-fought Bloody Ridge and other battlefields of Guadalcanal—historic preservationists aim to keep it that way.

The Passing of a Gentle Man

By Paul Stillwell

February 1999

In conducting oral history interviews, a useful approach for the interviewer is to submerge his or her own ego and let the spotlight shine entirely on the person being interviewed ...

In Contact

February 1999

“Neptunes Over the Jungle” (See N. Polmar, p. 68, November/December 1998 Naval History) Richard S. Greeley I was in the radio room at Task Force Alpha at the Nakhon ...

Book Reviews

Reviewed by Frank Kalesnik, Colonel Lane C. Kendall, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired), & Robert C. Jones

February 1999

Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649 N. A. M. Rodger. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. 691 pp. Photos. Maps. Notes. Bib. Index. $39.95 ($35.95). Reviewed ...

A Really Wild Cat

By Norman Polmar, Author, The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet

February 1999

The Grumman F4F Wildcat was the principal U.S. Navy fighter when the United States entered World War II. Although it was inferior in performance to the Japanese A6M Zero fighter ...

Historic Fleets

By A. D. Baker III, Editor, Combat Fleets of the World

February 1999

The 769-foot-long USS Ranger (CV-4), the sixth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, was conceived during the 1920s as the Navy’s first keel-up aircraft carrier. Constrained by Washington Treaty ...

Naval History News

February 1999

Symposium to Focus on Philadelphia Naval Shipyard The National Archives—Mid-Atlantic Region Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will host a symposium on the history of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 10 April ...

Salty Talk

By Commander Ty Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)

February 1999

Living conditions in the wooden ships of yore were notoriously crude. The word “habitability” hadn’t been invented yet, and depending on whether the ship was for commercial or martial purposes ...

Navy Yarns

By Captain Roy C. Smith, III, U.S. Navy (Retired)

February 1999

I was in my office as Director of the Navy Museum one afternoon in 1967, when a very excited gentleman came in to see me. He had just been looking ...

The American Helicopter Museum & Educational Center

By Donald A. Wambold Jr.

February 1999

The American Helicopter Museum & Educational Center houses helicopters from throughout the history of rotary-wing flight.