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7 February 2023
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends of naval history,
We’d like to first draw your attention to two upcoming events: tomorrow night’s Naval Order Monthly History Program featuring Dr. Anna Holloway’s “More Tons – Less Huns” talk on World War I Shipbuilding in Alexandria, Virginia, and next week’s Western Naval History Association Symposium on the aircraft carrier Midway in San Diego. The symposium line-up of presentations is impressive–what makes the WNHA unique is the organizers strive for a mix of paper presentations, war gaming demonstrations, and workshops on naval history promotion.
More books have arrived for review, including John Quirk’s Quirky History: Maritime Moments Most History Books Don’t Mention. Someone will have fun reviewing that! Check out the latest list.
In our recognition section, we salute Commander Matt Wright, who earned First Prize in the 2022 Chief of Naval Operation’s History Essay Contest. Also take note in the Calls for Papers section that the deadline for paper submissions for the USNA McMullen Naval History Symposium is fast approaching.
Tuesday Tidings is compiled by Dr. David F. Winkler and Jessie Henderson. As always, comments are welcome at nmhs@seahistory.org.
| THIS WEEK'S FEATURED IMAGE | |
Poster by William M. Moser, c. 1980
A decade after the rise of the civil rights movement, the US Navy began drawing the Golden Thirteen together for reunions, promoting them as symbols of racial progress. During one of these reunions, the legacy of the Golden Thirteen became clear to them as younger black Navy officers came over to pay their respects. Courtesy Naval History and Heritage Command. Click here for more on the Golden Thirteen >>
| ITEMS OF IMMEDIATE INTEREST | |
Naval Order of the United States History Night Program
Online 8 February 2023 at 8 PM EST
The Naval Order of the United States monthly History Night program for February features Dr. Anna Gibson Holloway of the Naval History and Heritage Command presenting “More Tons—Less Huns”: The Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation. Dr. Holloway, who is the Fleet History Team Lead within the Histories Branch of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) in Washington, DC, offers a fascinating tale of
shipbuilding in Alexandria, Virginia to meet the projected needs of the Great War.
Click here for more information and to view the program >>
Western Naval History Association Symposium
17–18 February 2023, USS Midway Museum, San Diego, CA
Click here to register >>
To view the program click here >>
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2023 CNO Naval History Essay Contest Announced
Submission Deadline: 31 May 2023
The Chief of Naval Operations has invited entrants to submit essays that apply lessons from naval history to today’s era of great power competition. Entrants should consider the importance of navies, allies, and partners, strategic and technical shifts and advances that promise to change the character and conduct of naval warfare; and efforts by China and Russia to use instruments of national power to compete for commercial, geostrategic, and military advantage.
The contest includes categories for Professional Historians (US and international professional historians, history museum curators, archivists, history teachers and professors, and published history authors) and Rising Historians (Active duty, retired, and federal civilian personnel from the sea services (USN, USMC, USCG, and Merchant) not included in the professional category, as well as members of foreign militaries who have orders and are serving in an official billet with one of the above services. The contest now also features a Students category to encourage submissions from midshipmen and cadets attending one of the three federal sea service academies (USNA, USCGA, USMMA), state maritime academies, or NROTC units attached to colleges/universities.
Prizes are as follows:
- Professional Historians:
- $5,000 – First Prize
- $2,500 – Second Prize
- Rising Historians:
- $5,000 – First Prize
- $2,500 – Second Prize
- $1,500 – Third Prize
- Students:
- $2,500 – First Prize
- $1,500 – Second Prize
- $1,000 – Third Prize
Judging criteria and submission guidelines will be posted here >
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | |
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Warship Builders: An Industrial History of U.S. Naval Shipbuilding, 1922-1945, by Thomas Heinrich. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press (2020)
Reviewed by Ed Calouro
Since 1998, Thomas Heinrich has been a professor of US business and naval history at Baruch College, City University of New York. He previously authored Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism. Heinrich is the author or co-author of two additional books and several scholarly journal articles. There are sixty-five pages of endnotes and a thirty-five-page bibliography in Warship Builders. Together, they account for almost 30 percent of this book. This impressive scholarship is synthesized and presented in a clear and overall easy-to-understand format.
Warship Builders was written for those wishing to learn more about warship construction from 1922 to 1945, students of business technology, labor, and industrial mobilization. Heinrich has done a marvelous job of taking a sometimes-complex subject and making it clear and relatively easy for the average reader to understand. Both laymen and scholars will learn a great deal from a careful reading of this volume.
Read the full review >>
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US Department of Homeland Security Aviation, by Tom Kaminski. Key Books (2021) by Tom Kaminski. Key Books (2021)
Reviewed by Jeff Schultz
Tom Kaminski’s US Department of Homeland Security Aviation offers not only sumptuous visuals, but sufficient supporting analysis to be a valuable brief reference regarding the sizable air assets of the US Customs and Border Protection and US Coast Guard. While of specialized focus, it would be valuable to many readers, particularly those interested in the Department of Homeland Security and its varying aircraft used to safeguard the vast land and sea borders of the United States.
Read the full review >>
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NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | |
NAVAL HISTORICAL ANNIVERSARIES OF NOTE | |
NAVAL NEWS FROM THE FLEET | |
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Navy to Commemorate 125th Anniversary of the Loss of the Maine
To readers of Tuesday Tidings, the Commanding Officer of the US Navy Ceremonial Guard would be honored to have the pleasure of your company at the wreath ceremony commemorating the 125th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Maine on Wednesday 15 February at 11 am. The ceremony will be held at the USS Maine memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.
From Arlington National Cemetery's website about the USS Maine memorial:
“The USS Maine Memorial overlooks the remains of 230 service members who died when the battleship exploded off the coast of Havana, Cuba on February 15, 1898. As Cubans were fighting for independence from Spanish colonial rule, President William McKinley ordered the Maine to Cuba to protect U.S. political and economic interests on the nearby island. On the night of February 15, an explosion in Havana Harbor tore through the ship's hull, killing more than 260 sailors on board. One hundred and two members of the crew survived. The names on the side of the USS Maine Memorial indicate the ethnic diversity of its crew. Some joined when the ship was in port in Japan, China or the Philippines. The crew also included thirty African Americans. Because the explosion occurred on the forward part of the ship, below enlisted sailors' quarters, only two of the approximately 260 killed were officers; the rest were enlisted men. Their jobs (engraved with their names on the memorial) included coxswain, fireman, coal passer, oiler and more.”
Click here for more information about Arlington National Cemetery >>
Click here to view your invitation >>
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RECOGNITION IN THE NAVAL HERITAGE COMMUNITY | |
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CNO History Essay Contest 1st Prize Winner Published (Rising Historian Category) in Proceedings
Congratulations to Commander Matt Wright for winning first prize in the “Rising Historian” category for his submission titled “Just in Time Production” that reviews the initiatives taken in the 1930s to get the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers authorized and built in time to be present at the epic June 1942 battle of Midway. His article was featured in the January 2023 issue of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. Wright currently serves with Navy Personnel Command and formerly commanded Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22 in Norfolk, Virginia. A 2002 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, his previous tours include service in seven different H-60 helicopter commands, an air wing staff, and the Joint Staff.
Click here to read the submission on the Naval Institute website >>
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ADDITIONAL FEATURED CONTENT | |
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Piping the end of the Vietnam War
by John L. Morris
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I was the OOD (Officer of the Deck) onboard USS Preble (DLG 15) when the Vietnam War officially ended. We were on the “Gunline” only two miles off the coast of Vietnam, near the mouth of the Cua Viet River, in the “DMZ” at the time. We’d been sailing around a long, narrow ellipse at 2 or 3 knots, north for 30 min., south for 30 min. waiting for “fire missions” for our 5”/54 cal. rapid-fire gun system. We eventually fired over 600 rounds and were in turn fired at by enemy shore batteries, which caused minor damage many times, and connected once with a 130mm shell that detonated just over the ship, doing extensive damage to our electronics. It seems the enemy would open fire when we crossed the mouth of the Cua Viet. Typically, the sonar men with their sensitive SONAR equipment would hear shells hitting the water before anyone would see the tall grey geysers of water shooting up, and they’d announce “incoming” over the general announcing system. The OOD would order “all ahead flank” and steer out to sea at an angle that kept our single gun unmasked as the director officer would be aiming our counterbattery fire at the puffs of smoke visible from the various Soviet-Union-made guns. These ranged in caliber from 85 to 130mm. We had sent fragments of the hostile shells, picked up from the deck or dug out of the bulkheads, to Washington, and after analysis, the gun types were identified in a naval message back to us (see photo.) I still have several pounds of those fragments, and photos of some of the damage sustained by our ship.
In January 1973 we received a message directing a fleet-wide “Cease Fire” to take effect at 0800 on 28 January, Saigon time, during my watch as OOD! At 08OO that day, I ordered the Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch to pipe the familiar “Secure” pipe notes over the ship's announcing system, then say “Vietnam War” as the activity that was being “secured from.” He did so. I don’t recall hearing much reaction afterward, everyone was tired and reactions to most anything save “incoming,” were muted. I’m sure the captain wasn’t pleased, he was a fine naval officer, extremely conservative and traditional. I know he wasn’t pleased with my action, but to me, the end of such a long, costly war required some type of recognition.
Click here for additional photos >>
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NAVAL HISTORY CALLS FOR PAPERS | |
UPCOMING NAVAL & MARITIME HISTORY GATHERINGS | |
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7–9 February 2023: Tall Ships America 50th Annual Conference, 25 America’s Cup Ave. Newport, RI
17–18 February 2023: Western Naval History Association Symposium, USS Midway Museum, San Diego, CA
23–26 March 2023: Society for Military History, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, San Diego, CA
14–16 April 2023: National Maritime Historical Society 60th Annual Meeting, The Mariners' Museum and Park, Newport News, VA
9 May 2023: National Maritime Awards Dinner, National Press Club, Washington, DC
17–20 May 2023: North American Society for Oceanic History Conference, Maritime Museum of San Diego, CA
21–22 September 2023: McMullen Naval History Symposium, US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
September 2023: Historic Naval Ship Association
October 2023: Naval Order of the United States Congress, San Diego
| 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: 173: Admiral Hyman Rickover - Engineer of Power >>
Click here for all Preble Hall Podcasts >>
| NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE COMMAND H-GRAMS | |
H-Gram 076: 20 December 2022 >> There Are No Headstones at Sea: The Search for Wasp and Hornet (Reprise)
| 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 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 >>
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