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29 April 2025
Welcome back to our National Maritime Historical Society members and friends who share a love for naval history!
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Last week we noted that the first papal visit to “US soil” (if you consider a wooden deck soil) occurred on board USS Constitution off Naples in 1848. Thank you to Vice Adm. Bob Dunn for pointing out the actual location was further up the coast at Gaeta.
Today marks the 50th not-so-happy anniversary of Operation Frequent Wind. Over the next two days a half-century ago, some 7,000 people would be evacuated from Saigon as North Vietnamese forces closed in on the city. This past Sunday the USS Midway Museum marked the event with a program titled “Legacy of Hope: From Operation Frequent Wind to Vietnamese Refugee Resilience,” that was streamed on Midway’s YouTube channel.
Since this month opened with celebrating the birthdate of chief petty officers, we close April with the series of interviews that have been posted by the Navy Memorial highlighted in our “In Case You Missed It” feature. Speaking of the Navy Memorial, in this issue we highlight this year’s Lone Sailor honorees who will be recognized after Labor Day.
In just over two weeks the US Naval Institute (USNI) will be having its annual meeting in Annapolis. When that concludes you can then make your way to Natchez, MS, to the North American Society of Oceanic History (NASOH) conference. In this issue we are posting the panel topics to entice additional attendance!
For this week’s Naval History Book Reviews, we thank Dr. Satterfield for his review of a recent Casemate title on Swift Boats. 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 | |
Thursday, 1 May – NMHS First Thursdays Seminar Series: Making a Maritime Painting
Marine artist Patrick O’Brien will share how he transforms archival records and firsthand accounts into vivid, museum-quality maritime historical paintings that bring the past to life.
7-8 PM (EDT) (Online)
Saturday, 3 May – Mariners’ Museum Authors Panel
From Ironclads to Admiral
With John V. Quarstein and Robert L. Worden
11 AM–Noon (EDT) (In Person)
Monday, 5 May – New York Naval Order Commandery monthly author talk luncheon
The Mighty A – The Story of USS Atlanta (CL-51)
With David F. Winkler
New York Racquet Club (in person)
11:30 AM–1:00 PM (EDT)
Thursday, 8 May – A New Look at the Navy in the American Civil War
With Gordon Calhoun
Navy Museum, Navy Yard, Washington, DC
11 AM–Noon (EDT)
Thursday, 8 May – NMHS 2025 Annual Meeting, including the presentation:
Sinking the United States: The Battle to Save the World’s Fastest Ocean Liner and America’s Flagship
With Charles Anderson
Virtual
7 PM–8:30 PM (EDT)
Wednesday, 14 May – Annual Meeting of the US Naval Institute
Annapolis, MD
4 PM (EDT) (In Person/Streaming)
Wednesday, 14 May – Monthly Naval Order History Heritage Program
The Battle of Midway
With Mark Stille
8 PM (EDT) (Zoom)
Wednesday, 4 June – Battle of Midway Victory Dinner
With “The Midway Theater Company”
Army-Navy Country Club, Arlington VA
6–9 PM (In Person)
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A Curator’s Legacy: Dana Wegner Honored for 50 Years of Federal Service
By Alisha Tyer, NSWC Carderock Division Public Affairs
| | Photograph courtesy Naval Sea Systems Command | | |
After dedicating half a century to his career, Dana Wegner, curator of ship models at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock Division, retired from federal service.
In recognition of his expansive knowledge of naval architecture and his contributions to preserving naval history, Wegner received the Department of the Navy (DoN) Civilian Service Achievement Medal during a ceremony held March 21, 2025, at the David Taylor Model Basin. The award highlighted his leadership in the safe recovery of 76 ship models that were on loan to the National Museum of the United States Navy, accomplished ahead of schedule despite staffing and travel restrictions.
Wegner, who has served as curator of models at Carderock since 1980, is the fifth curator in the program’s history. His remarkable career is marked by numerous achievements, among them the DoN Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the division’s Dr. Murray Strasberg Lifetime Achievement Award. As a subject matter expert in ship model construction, Wegner has also published extensively on naval history.
Surrounded by team members and colleagues, Wegner was presented the award by Carderock’s Deputy Technical Director Dr. Dave Drazen, alongside Commanding Officer Capt. Christopher Matassa.
Wegner referred to the collection of over 3,500 ship models—which he managed for 44 years—as a national treasure. Carderock leadership agreed. “You’re really like a national treasure yourself,” said Matassa in his opening remarks. He recalled first hearing of the demand for Wegner’s expertise from former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James Geurts, long before taking command at Carderock. “Your steady leadership was vital at turbulent and challenging times to ensure the protection and safeguarding of models, while empowering the curator models program to continue to perform in an outstanding manner,” said Drazen, while presenting the medal and certificate. Matassa also presented Wegner with a Command coin, and his team members gave him a farewell card.
As the ceremony concluded, Wegner reflected on the moments that shaped his long career—including one vivid memory that has stayed with him for decades: the unmistakable smell of the tow tank. “My wife used to say my clothes smelled like it,” he recalled, laughing. “I’d say, it’s okay, I like the tow tank!” That fondness, Wegner said, extended far beyond the walls of the model shop or tow tank. “I loved it here. You don’t stay as long as I did if you don’t like where you’re working.”
Throughout his 44 years as curator and more than 50 years in federal service, Wegner built more than a legacy. Through the Department of the Navy Ship Model Program, which preserves and shares scale models in museums and institutions nationwide, he helped safeguard naval history for generations to come. His impact, much like the ship models he championed, will stand the test of time.
| | Stavridis, Sams to Receive Lone Sailor Honors | | Official Navy and Department of Interior photographs | | |
The Navy Memorial continues to forge ahead with planning for its 2025 Lone Sailor Dinner, which will be held again in the great hall of the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. This year the Navy Memorial has selected retired Adm. James G. Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, and former National Park Service Director Charles F. Sams III to receive the prestigious award.
As a prolific author and commentator in recent years for MSNBC and CNN, Stavridis has developed a reputation as an astute scholar. His career has been documented in a recent biography by Dr. Stan Carpenter, published by Naval Institute Press, which draws from extensive oral history interviews conducted for USNI’s oral history program.
On the other hand, Sams may be less familiar to those in Navy circles. Of Cayuse and Walla Walla heritage, he was raised on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeast Oregon. Graduating from high school, he joined the US Navy and served as an intelligence specialist. Leaving the service, he worked over the next three decades in tribal and state government, and in the non-profit natural resource and conservation management field, with an emphasis on the responsibility of strong stewardship for land preservation for this and future generations. In 2021 he was appointed the 19th director of the National Park Service and was the first Native American to hold the post. For more about the dinner, visit: 2025 lone sailor sponsorship — United States Navy Memorial
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There is still time to register and come to beautiful Natchez, Mississippi, to attend the latest gathering of the North American Society of Oceanic History.
Thursday, 15 May
9:30–11:00 Morning Sessions
Panel 1: Atlantic Natchez
Panel 2: Brits, Black Ships, and the African Squadron: Matthew Perry
Panel 3: Ports, Rivers and Fleets of South Carolina
11:30–1:00 Lunch
1:00–2:15 Afternoon Sessions
Panel 4: Preservation, Tourism and Partnerships
Roundtable 1: Teaching Naval History in Diverse Venues
Panel 5: Landscapes and Waterways
2:45–4:00 Afternoon Sessions
Panel 6: Naval and Maritime Responses
Panel 7: Shipping
Panel 8: Voices from the Deck: Shipboard Experiences on Early North American Steamboats
Friday, May 16
9:30–11:00 Morning Sessions
Panel 9: Science and Technology
Panel 10: Navies at Home and Abroad
Panel 11: The French Connection
11:30–1:00 Lunch
1:00–2:15 Afternoon Sessions
Panel 12: Archaeological and Historical Analysis of Vessel types
Roundtable 2: Naval Life-Writing Challenges and Opportunities
Panel 13: Remembering and Reevaluating Famous Shipwrecks
2:45–4:00 A Roundtable Remembrance of James C. Bradford (Conference Room C)
Saturday, May 15
9:00–10:30 Business meeting
Free afternoon, Hop-on-Hop-off bus tour
5:00–6:00 Cocktail hour (Banquet Room)
6:00–8:00 Banquet and Awards. Keynote: Craig Symonds, “Annapolis Goes to War”
| | NAVAL HISTORY BOOK REVIEWS | | |
White Water Red Hot Lead: On Board US Navy Swift Boats in Vietnam. By Dan Daly, Casemate Publishers, Havertown, PA (Reprinted 2024)
Reviewed by John R. Satterfield
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For many Americans, “swiftboat” is a verb, invented during John Kerry’s 2004 presidential candidacy. Kerry served in Vietnam (Silver Star, Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts) on US Navy PCFs (Patrol Craft Fast), popularly known as Swift Boats. Campaign opponents claimed his distinguished record was exaggerated, hence the word.
In fact, as author and former PCF commander Dan Daly notes, the fast aluminum patrol vessels, just fifty feet long, were integral to the Navy’s coastal patrol and “brown water navy” missions on rivers around South Vietnam from 1965 until the 1973 US withdrawal and North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Not since World War II’s 80-foot-long PT boats had the Navy utilized such small warcraft.
PCFs provided close-in offshore support of Marine, US and Vietnamese Army units fighting near the jungle-covered coast. They were modified from commercial vessels used to transport workers to offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Armed with two .50-caliber Browning M2 machine guns in a turret atop the Swift Boat’s pilot house as well as a third M2 coupled with a trigger-fired 81-mm mortar mounted aft, shallow-draft PCFs could lay down tremendous, deadly accurate fire support within just yards of the beach. Using their top speed of more than thirty knots, Swift Boats could quickly cover nearby troops, neutralize enemy positions, and run away from opposing fire, a vital capability, since the PCFs, built from quarter-inch aluminum, had no armor.
Daly’s memoir covers training and service in 1967–68 in Da Nang, near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing North and South Vietnam. As such, it is a personal, not historical, account, covering the experiences of his crew and other PCF squadron members throughout a year of combat patrols in the region. Photographs he took supplement the narrative.
Daly, a Boston native, entered the Navy after graduating from Harvard and served for 18 months in a destroyer before joining Swift Boats. All officers and most enlisted men in the program were volunteers. The five sailors in his crew trained together from the start. Except for 28-year-old Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Bill Fielder, who was the senior petty officer, the crew—Engineman 2nd Class Oscar Wells, Radioman 3rd Class Michael Newcomer, and Seamen John Muller and Bob Buck—were younger than their officer in charge, who was twenty-three.
Read full review>>
| | NAVAL HISTORY BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW | | |
Check out the Navy Memorial’s series of interviews that were collected 25 years ago with retired master chief officers of the Navy.
View here>>
| | Call for Papers: International Journal of Naval History | | |
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: 247 - Admiral James Stavridis and The Admiral’s Bookshelf>>
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>>
| 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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