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8 April 2025
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
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Today marks another USS Langley (CV-1) milestone: the centennial of the first planned night landing aboard America’s first aircraft carrier while the converted collier was stationed in San Diego. A year earlier Langley had been stationed in Pensacola, site of this week’s Council of American Maritime Museums annual meeting. We wish the participants success, and we fully expect them to come away impressed after spending half of one of their days at the National Naval Aviation Museum.
For this week’s Naval History Book Reviews, we thank Dr. John Satterfield for his review of a new Casemate book out on the rescue of General MacArthur. That publisher just sent additional titles for review! Reminder: if you have recently authored a naval history book, please have your publisher send us a review copy!
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Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson as a benefit for members of the National Maritime Historical Society and friends of naval history.
As always, comments and naval history news items are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
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ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
Wednesday, 9 April – Naval Order History Happenings
U Boats in the Atlantic: Halifax to Archangel
With Micheal J. Dodd
8 PM (EDT) (Zoom)
Wednesday, 9 April – Buffalo Naval and Military Park YouTube Channel
USS Langley
With David F. Winkler
8 pm (EDT) (YouTube)
Friday, 11 April – Mariners’ Museum Legacy Series
Carolina Ironclads: Vain Efforts to Defend the Tar Heel State
With John V. Quarstein
Noon-1 PM (EDT) (In person-virtual)
Newport News, VA
Friday, 11 April – World Ship Society
United States Voyage to Mobile, AL
With Captain Mike Vinik
6:30 PM (EDT) (Zoom)
Thursday, 17 April – Continental Commandery monthly program
The USS Indianapolis - A Story of Human Resilience
With Barry Levine
7 pm (EDT) (ZOOM)
Friday, 18 April – Operation Praying Mantis
With Capt. Jim McTigue, USN (Ret.)
Noon (EDT) (Virtual on NHHC YouTube channel)
Tuesday, 22 April – World War II Discussion Forum Intrepid’s Fighting Squadron 18
With Mike Fink
8 PM (EDT) (Zoom)
Thursday, 24 April – Submarine History Seminar: 125 Years of Defending America at Sea
David Alan Rosenberg, PhD, moderator
Navy Memorial Auditorium, Washington DC
3–5 PM (EDT)
Saturday, 26 April – Midnight in Ironbottom Sound
The story of Black mess Attendant Charles French, for whom a new destroyer shall be named.
With Carole Avriett
1–2 PM (EDT) Author Talk (In Person)
| | Navy Department Released Banned Book List | | |
Concurrent with the visit of the secretary of defense to the US Naval Academy on 31 March, 381 titles were pulled from the shelves of the Nimitz Library that reportedly dealt with issues relating to diversity, equality, and inclusion. Concerned that some NHHC-authored publications such as Robert Schneller’s Breaking the Color Barrier: The US Naval Academy’s First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality, which profiled Wesley Brown’s (USNA 49’) experience in Annapolis, or John Sherwood’s Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the Vietnam War Era, which covered that tumultuous period, or the Naval Institute Press’s recent book by Randy Goguen From Yeomanettes to Fighter Jets: A Century of Women in the Navy could have been pulled, Tuesday Tidings requested a list of the removed books. Last Friday evening the Navy released the list of the books.
Having reviewed the list, it seems apparent that the Schneller, Sherwood, and Goguen books and similar titles are still available. A notable exception was Matthew Delmont’s recent Half American: the Epic story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad. Scanning the list, the desire to shelter the midshipmen from such topics as gender, racism, and inequality is apparent not only within American society but overseas as well. For example, there is Jenny Nordberg’s 2014 The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan. It is head-shaking that one of the banned titles on police and racism was written by a midshipman! Fittingly, the last book on the list is a guide for Implementing Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: a Handbook for Academic Libraries.
On a more positive vein, a question to ask is are we really preventing access to America’s future naval leaders to materials that provide historical context and broaden intellectual discovery? The answer is: hardly. A majority of naval officers receive their commissions through NROTC and officer candidate school and midshipmen at the Naval Academy have access to the internet. Still, a precedent has been made. Thankfully George Orwell’s 1984 did not make the list.
| | Call for Papers: International Journal of Naval History | | NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | | |
Saving MacArthur: The Story of America’s Most Daring Naval Rescue, and of the Men It Left Behind. By Rudy Tomedi, Casemate Publishers, Havertown, PA (2025)
Reviewed by John R. Satterfield
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American fortunes after Pearl Harbor reached their nadir in March 1942. Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, Japan neutered US military power in the Philippines and captured Wake Island, Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore and much of Indochina. American forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander, US Army Forces, Far East, faced annihilation on the Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island.
In March, US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall and President Franklin Roosevelt both cabled MacArthur, field marshal of the notional Philippine Army since 1935, ordering him to leave Corregidor and fly from the island of Mindanao to Australia. With his wife, son and a handful of personal staffers, MacArthur departed on March 11. The party broke out in four worn-out, 80-foot plywood boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron (MTB) 3 crossing 560 miles of open ocean in 35 hours, suffering severe seasickness most of the way. Everyone on board the PTs knew that interception by even by a small Japanese warship or fighter aircraft meant certain death as the enemy blew their boats to splinters.
Journalist and writer Rudy Tomedi recounts the story of MacArthur’s escape, but unlike other authors and the 1945 movie, They Were Expendable, he does not overemphasize its heroic character, which led FDR to award Medals of Honor both to MacArthur and MTB 3’s commander, Navy Lt. John D. Bulkeley.
In fact, the men of MTB 3 were heroic, but the MacArthur rescue was just one aspect of their courage, and it led to death or capture for half of the squadron’s officers and crewmen.
Tomedi depicts MacArthur’s defense of the Philippines as hopeless, even delusional. The general sent self-promoting communiques to the US, exaggerating Philippine defense capabilities. The Philippine Army’s 100,000 men were untrained and poorly equipped. The garrisons of 31,000 US Army troops and well-trained Philippine Scouts supplemented the force. Air and naval defenses were inadequate and obsolescent. MacArthur based his defense strategy on false reports from his sycophantic personal staff and racist preconceptions about the Japanese. The Japanese 14th Army took Luzon with fewer than 50,000 troops, killing or capturing 146,000 American and Filipino soldiers by early May 1942. Those captured endured unspeakable treatment and deprivation until the war’s end. Thirty-five thousand of 120,000 POWs died before their liberation.
Read full review>>
| | NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | | |
Check out the Charles J. French story on the History Unplugged Podcast!
Listen here>>
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Maritime Communities Celebrating Milestones
SAVE THE DATES!
24–27 September 2025 • Buffalo, NY
We are delighted to be holding the 12th Maritime Heritage Conference in Buffalo in September 2025.
The conference brings together organizations and participants that engage in all aspects of maritime heritage. This includes maritime museums, historic lighthouses, tall ships for sail training and youth, small craft, marine art, sailing, naval and maritime scholars, advocacy, and more. It is also a gathering of the leadership of the maritime heritage community. Buffalo will host the first Maritime Heritage Conference to be held in the Great Lakes region.
The 12th Maritime Heritage Conference (MHC) will bring together nautical heritage organizations and individuals for an information-packed conference encompassing a broad array of topics on the banks of Lake Erie at historic Buffalo, New York. Following in the wake of the World Canal Conference, which concludes with a bicentennial celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal, the 12th MHC will use that historic milestone to open a three-day program that invites attendees to consider other historic nautical milestones worthy of broader public attention.
The MHC has earned a reputation for its high take-away value, networking opportunities, and camaraderie. The conference steering committee invites you to become involved as a presenter; both session and individual proposals are encouraged. Don’t miss this opportunity to gather with individuals from all segments of the maritime community.
Call for Papers & Session Proposals
Papers and session topics include, but are not limited to:
• Inland Water Commerce and Seaport Operations (Erie Canal bicentennial!)
• Maritime and Naval History (2025 marks USN/USMC 250th Birthday)
• Maritime Art, Literature, and Music
• Education and Preservation
• Underwater Archaeology
• Trade and Communications
• Maritime Libraries, Archives, and Museums
• Marine Science and Ocean Conservation
• Historic Vessel Restoration
• Maritime Heritage Grant Program
• Maritime Landscapes
• National Marine Sanctuaries
• Small Craft
• Shipbuilding
• Marine Protected Areas
Focus sessions include, but are not limited to:
• Non-Profit administration
• Event Management
• Fundraising
• Media and Publications
• Media and Social Media
Submissions
Individual paper and session proposals should include a 250–400 word abstract and a one-paragraph biography about each presenter.
Please e-mail proposals and other queries to Dr. David Winkler at: MHC@seahistory.org
Deadline for proposals for papers and sessions is 31 May 2025.
| | UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | | PREBLE HALL NAVAL HISTORY PODCAST | |
A naval history podcast from Preble Hall – the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. Preble Hall interviews historians, practitioners, military personnel, and other experts on a variety of naval history topics from ancient history to more current events.
Click here for the latest episode: 245 - Brian Dickinson: Calm in the Chaos>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | |
NAVY HISTORY MATTERS
Welcome to Navy History Matters, the Naval History and Heritage Command’s biweekly compilation of articles, commentaries, and blogs related to history and heritage. Every other week, they gather the top-interest items from a variety of media and social media sources that link to related content at NHHC’s website, your authoritative source for Navy history.
Click here for most recent article>>
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAVAL HISTORY
The International Journal of Naval History (IJNH) is an independent, peer-reviewed forum for scholarly analysis of naval power in all periods and regions. Directed by an international editorial board, the journal fosters research and global dialogue among naval historians.
After a publishing pause, IJNH is back, with a new edition and a new home at the new IJNH portal on the NMHS website. This issue features articles on foreign navies (unless, of course, you happen to be British, Russian, or Dutch), plus six book reviews. The journal plans to publish two editions in 2025 and return to three annually in 2026.
Click here for the March 2025 edition and archived issues on the new website >>
| SUPPORTING US NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE | |
With the 250th anniversary of the US Navy on the horizon, NMHS seeks your support as we plan to honor those who have provided for our maritime security.
Click here to donate today >>
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