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3 October 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
This upcoming week is bookended by two celebratory events hosted by two organizations with naval heritage-related missions. Tonight, the National Building Museum will be the venue for the Navy Memorial’s Lone Sailor Dinner. Again we congratulate former Deputy Secretary of Defense and US Marine Corps Veteran Robert Work and retired US Navy Master Chief William Goines, who held the distinction of being the first African American Navy SEAL, for their selection to receive the Lone Sailor Award. We also salute Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who will receive the Navy Memorial’s Naval Heritage Award.
Then next Monday, the US Naval Institute is hosting a gala event to be capped with fireworks at its headquarters in Annapolis to celebrate its 150th birthday. A recap of USNI’s contributions to preserve and promote naval history is our feature article.
With last week’s Tuesday Tidings focusing on the McMullen Naval History Symposium, this edition features news from the concurrent Historic Naval Ships Association Conference that was held in Albany, New York.
Naval History Book Reviews is offering a review by Michael F. Solecki on Rear Adm. Dave Oliver’s look at American defense reform from the perspective of the Navy. Enjoy! If you have recently published a naval history-related memoir or history—let us know! Thanks to those who requested books last week. Those books are on the way! The revised book list is attached!
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 are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
3 October: Navy Memorial Lone Sailor Award Dinner
National Building Museum, Washington, DC
5 October: New York Navy League Council Maritime Security Conference 2023 at John Jay College
Navigating Global Commerce and Conflict
7 October: Steamship Historical Society of America Annual Meeting
Ship History Center, 2500 Post Road, Warwick, RI
9 October: US Naval Institute 150th Celebration
11 October: Naval Order Heritage Happenings
Dr. Micheal A. Verney “A Great and Rising Nation”: Naval Exploration and American National Maturity, 1815-1860
8 pm (EDT) (Zoom)
14 October: Navy League of the United States - US Navy Birthday Ball
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US Naval Institute to Turn 150 Next Monday | |
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Tracing its founding to October 9, 1873, when a group of 15 naval officers met to discuss the serious implications of a smaller, post-Civil War Navy and other matters of professional interest, the US Naval Institute (USNI) will celebrate its 150th next Monday with a gala event at the Jack C. Taylor Center at its headquarters on the grounds of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.
As eloquently documented by Scott Mobley in Progressives in Navy Blue: Maritime Strategy, American Empire, and the Transformation of US Naval Identity, 1873–1898, (Naval Institute Press, 2018) USNI’s founders envisioned a forum for the exchange of ideas that would also disseminate and advance the knowledge of sea power, and work to preserve our naval and maritime heritage. It’s this last aspect of the USNI mission set that Tuesday Tidings shall highlight in this feature article.
USNI continues to preserve and promote our naval heritage in a myriad of ways dating back to the publication of the first Proceedings magazine in 1874. From the beginning, the journal has featured retrospective essays on naval events that collectively have captured much of our historical narrative. Perhaps more significantly, as illustrated in the Mobley book, the essays addressing contemporary issues offer snapshots on the worldview of those serving the nation over a span of 150 years. Given the interest in naval history articles, a sister publication, the bimonthly Naval History, was added in 1987.
This year also marks the 125th anniversary of the Naval Institute Press (NIP), the book-publishing arm of the Naval Institute. Initially created to publish guidebooks for best naval practices, NIP now publishes about eighty titles each year, including books on naval history and biographies. Of course, as with Proceedings, books covering contemporary themes will eventually become source material for future historians writing on the history of the present day.
Besides NIP publications, historians have found a wealth of historical content in the over 200 oral histories that have been conducted under USNI auspices for over a half century. Initiated by Dr. John T. Mason, of the Columbia University Center for Oral History, who sought out naval leaders of World War II to capture their personal insights, the program came to USNI in the late 1960s when studying military history at Ivy League campuses fell out of fashion. In 1982, Mason turned over the program to Paul Stillwell, who carried it into the 21st century.
Between Mason and Stillwell, the reminiscences collected include not only those of former chiefs of naval operations and fleet commanders, but also less familiar figures whose important contributions to the US Navy’s success in World War II and the Cold War might have gone unnoticed otherwise. Groundbreaking individuals such as members of “the Golden Thirteen”—the US Navy’s first African-American officers—and several of the first female US Naval Academy midshipmen also can be found in the Institute’s Oral History archives. Other pioneers whose memories are preserved here for future generations include Mildred McAfee, first director of the WAVES, and Carl Brashear, first African-American US Navy Master Diver.
In 2015, the program expanded its pool of interviewers to deploy experienced historians nationwide to interview notable recent retirees such as retired CNOs Vernon E. Clark,
Jay Johnson, and Michael G. Mullen (who also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff);
Admiral James G. Stavridis, USN (Ret.) (among other posts, recently NATO Supreme Allied
Commander); and Admiral Thomas H. Collins, USCG (Ret.), commandant of the US Coast
Guard.
These bound volumes (which are also available digitally) can be found in USNI’s library and archives. Within the archival holding of Beach Hall is an ever-expanding collection of more than 450,000 rare naval and maritime images. Photographs of naval ships, aircraft, and other historically significant images are sold, the profits of which are used to fund further growth. The department recently began to digitize the photo collection and now sells digital images.
Finally, USNI has long recognized naval history scholarship with its annual author-of-the-year awards and, in recent years, its support for the CNO Naval History Essay Writing Contest. In addition, with the decommissioning of the Naval Historical Foundation last December (which USNI provided $10,000 in seed money for in 1926), USNI has taken on the presentation of the Captain Ken Coskey prize for naval history at National History Day and the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Medal for lifetime achievement in the field of naval history.
Happy Birthday, US Naval Institute!
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NHHC awards top honors for historic Navy preservation efforts
Courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command
The annual awards program recognizes non-federal organizations, including museums and individuals, for incorporating the history and heritage of the United States Navy into their publications, documents, and artifacts at their facilities. Applicants were assessed on their ability to encourage and publicize scholarly materials or lectures that depict the Navy’s history and heritage and on the organization’s ability to preserve and maintain artifacts on loan from the Navy.
The winners of NHHC’s 2022-2023 Museum Excellence Awards were:
History and Heritage Excellence Pennant:
• Stockton Maritime Museum
Maintenance Excellence Pennant:
• USS HORNET Sea, Air and Space Museum
• Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum
• Independence Seaport Museum
Curatorial Excellence Pennant:
• USS HORNET Sea, Air and Space Museum
A core NHHC mission is to honor those who served in the Navy and to educate the American people on the nation’s rich Navy legacy. “The Navy has limited resources to meet its mission of sharing our Navy’s heritage,” said Jeff Barta, Deputy Assistant Director of NHHC’s Museums Division, who currently manages 10 of the Navy’s museums across the country. “Our partnership with our HNSA partners really acts as a force multiplier for us. We’re able to share best practices and optimize what we do have. What this means is this collaboration expands our shared goals to recognize our service veterans and to inspire our next generation of Navy heroes.”
Read full article>>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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THE AMERICAN DEFENSE REFORM: LESSONS from FAILURE and SUCCESS in NAVY HISTORY
By Rear Adm. Dave Oliver, USN (Ret.), and Anand Toprani, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, (2022)
Reviewed by Michael F. Solecki
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 |  | The US military is operated by military personnel; however, it is funded and controlled by elected and career civilians, many with no military experience. The interaction of these entities can, and often does, produce a large amount of consternation between the groups and makes final decisions difficult to achieve. Recent history produced several major conflicts of note: World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War against Russia and the Warsaw Pact and its aftermath, to name a few. The US military reorganized after World War II, with the dissolution of the War and Navy Departments, making way for the Department of Defense, also known as the Pentagon, divided into Departments of the Navy/Marines, Army, and the newly formed Air Force to better organize the whole of the defense system. It did not, however, curtail the arguing with the civilian US government appropriations gurus for the necessary funding to globally operate and/or develop and update technology. Within the upper echelons of government and Navy conflicts were constant, some of the more famous ones being the “Revolt of the Admirals” in the 1940s, the “McNamara Revolution” and the never-ending Vietnam debacle in the 1960s and early 70s, the constant over-shadow of the other Cold War well into the 90s at a level that assured mutual mass destruction. The Navy was on the frontlines, constantly patrolling the seaways as well as assets provided by the other US services and allies. The development of today’s US military was molded by these experiences.
In the Navy, various Chiefs of Naval Operations such as Arleigh Burke, Elmo Zumwalt and several others managed to work with their civilian counterparts building and resulting in the most powerful and deterring Navy on the planet. There were also “personalities” such as Hyman Rickover, the “father of the nuclear Navy,” who had the skills and connections to overshadow his CNO (Zumwalt) and go directly to Congress and the president’s cabinet to get most of what he wanted, a small but practical and effective nuclear-powered Navy that set the rest of the world back a few steps. These types of negotiations moved throughout the cubbies of Congress and congressional committees trying to get support for needed projects to achieve and maintain a high level of efficiency.
I have to say the research going into this work was no easy feat. The supporting reference notes seem endless. The authors of this book try to explain the entirety of this defense system, at least at the upper levels of the bureaucracy. Their statement of purpose is, “How best can we encourage the US military, specifically the services that it comprises, to respond to new circumstances at home or abroad?” They use history as a baseline from post-World War II to the 1980s and point out problems along the way. They inject personalities and interactions of many of the players throughout and explain why certain decisions were made. Descriptions of the three government entities within the system are provided and what their job should be, beginning with political appointees, to Congress to private industry respectively. They describe how transformation should flow, whether it be technological or doctrinal, while at the same time observing the real world and realizing whether the system is on the right track, correcting its flow along the way rather than waiting until it is beyond repair and having to start from scratch. They finish with describing their idea of what change is and their theory of achieving it.
The work is comprehensive to say the least, the authors obviously did their due diligence and did not appear to rush the final product. The format works (especially with amount of reference notes for each chapter), there are adequate graphs, and the end-of-chapter summaries are helpful and concise. Included are interviews with former CNOs, a bit short, but quite interesting. Occasionally the explanatory or descriptive statements in the body could be a bit wordy. To the authors: remember your intended audience. If you feel a more definitive explanation is needed, then footnote it. All in all, I liked the book. I learned a lot about the past inner workings of the DoD, as well as its interactions with the civilian side; I don’t feel like I wasted my time. It is worth the read.
Rear Adm. Dave R. Oliver, USN (Ret.), is a former chief of staff of the US Seventh Fleet and former COO of EADS North America Defense Company, Inc. He is the author of A Navy Admiral’s Bronze Rules: Managing Risk and Leadership. Anand Toprani is an associate professor in the Department of Strategy & Policy at the US Naval War College. He is the author of Oil and the Great Powers: Britain and Germany, 1914–1945.
Michael F. Solecki is an independent naval historian, holds undergraduate degrees in engineering and earth sciences and a Master of Arts degree in Military History from Norwich University, a US Navy and NOAA veteran, a retired civilian Federal Enforcement Officer and is a freelance technical editor of US and Japanese naval history.
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
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The Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize is a $50,000 prize sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The award recognizes the best book on American military history in English distinguished by its scholarship, its contribution to the literature, and its appeal to the broadest possible general reading public. Books that touch upon historic military events of other countries may be considered as long as their primary focus is on American military history. Publishers, critics, and authors may submit or nominate books published in the current year.
Please note that as of 2022, only books with a primary focus of American military history can be considered.
To nominate books copyrighted in 2023, please send five copies to the address below before the submission deadline of December 31, 2023.
Daniela Muhling
Book Prize Manager
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
49 West 45th Street, 2nd Floor
New York NY 10036
For more information, please call 646.366.9666 ext.144 or send an email to bookprizes@gilderlehrman.org.
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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 will interview 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: 198: German Navy Wargaming in the 19th Century>>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| DRACHINIFEL YOUTUBE CHANNEL | |
Welcome to Navy History Matters, 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>>
| INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NAVAL HISTORY | |
The International Journal of Naval History (IJNH) provides a preeminent forum for works of naval history, researched and written to demonstrable academic standards, with the goal of stimulating and promoting research into naval history and fostering communication among naval historians at an international level. IJNH welcomes any scholarly historical analysis, focused on any period or geographic region, that explores naval power in its national or cultural context. The journal is independent of any institution and operates under the direction of an international editorial board that represents various genres of naval history.
Click here to read the February 2023 edition and archived issues on the IJNH 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 >>
If you are one of those friends who have considered joining the Society or have wanted to recommend membership to friends, the Society is offering a 60th anniversary membership sale: ten bucks! See: Anniversary Membership Special Offer.
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