Naval History Blog

On a brisk February day in 1960, the USS Triton (SSN-586) sailed out of New London, Connecticut on the Thames River down to Long Island Sound and into the Atlantic Ocean on what the crew presumed to be its usual patrol. Soon thereafter, they started to notice changes in direction and the suspense grew about where they were headed. Two days later, around 4:00pm, Captain Edward L. Beach, Jr, made his announcement on the general announcing microphone in the control room.   “Men,” He said, “I know you’ve all been waiting to hear what this cruise is all about and… Read the rest of this entry »

Horatio Hornblower, Ahab, Jack Ryan, Jack Sparrow—in books, movies, or television, some of the most colorful characters in fiction have sailed the high seas. The Naval Institute Press is curious…who is YOUR favorite character from naval fiction? Participate in this fun survey. Results will be gathered until 12 October. Once the results have been tabulated, we’ll share our findings!

Greta Zimmer Friedman, the woman in one of history’s most memorable photographs, passed away on 8 September at age 92 after suffering a number of ailments, according to her family. On 14 August 1945, she was a dental assistant who had wandered into Time Square when news broke of the Japanese surrender. Famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photo of Zimmer being kissed by a stranger, Petty Officer First Class George Mendonsa, indelibly captured the celebratory mood in New York City and throughout the country. Many have claimed to be the sailor and the “nurse” in the photograph, but the most thorough study of the impromptu embrace–Lawrence Verria… Read the rest of this entry »

Vincent P. O’Hara received the 2015 Naval Institute Press Author of the Year Award at the U.S. Naval Institute’s 2016 Annual Meeting. The Press was delighted that Vince accepted our invitation to talk about his books and some of his inspirations. Naval History: What are your books about and why do you write them? Vince O’Hara: I write because I’m passionate about naval history. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. The focus of my first three books, German Fleet at War, The U.S. Navy against the Axis, and Struggle  for the Middle Sea is naval surface combat. Collectively, they describe… Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve learned some things about writing nonfiction since Adak, the Rescue of Alfa Foxtrot was published by the Naval Institute Press in 2003, the first of what have since become my seven books from NIP about maritime history. The first thing I learned since then is that it takes me some 3,300 hours, or the better part of two years, to research and write a 300-page book. This means that the first person my budding story has to interest is me. The second is NIP’s acquisition editor. A second lesson learned is that I must establish very early in this… Read the rest of this entry »

An Interview with Tom Brokaw     Scheduled to deliver the Third Annual Haydn Williams World War II Memorial Legacy Lecture on 10 November at the National Defense University in Washington is Tom Brokaw—certainly no stranger to the U.S. Naval Institute and Naval History magazine. Since joining NBC News in 1966, he has won every major award in broadcast journalism. The former anchor and managing editor of The NBC Nightly News met in Washington with then-Naval History Editor Fred Schultz about how and why he came to write his well-known book The Greatest Generation. Naval History: Since you’ve had no… Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Navy faced a new and very different set of challenges in protecting President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who loved the sea, spending more days afloat than any U.S. president. It was not uncommon for new sailor-in-chief and his crew of amateur sailors to take to the sea in a small sailboat, sometimes for days at a time. He would skillfully—and with a great deal of delight—evade his Navy and Secret Service guards, sailing his schooner, the Amberjack II, into secluded coves and narrow reaches where Navy and Coast Guard vessels—FDR called them “our wagging tail”—could not follow. In what may… Read the rest of this entry »

Come visit us at the Washington Navy Yard to check out these and many more books! Allah’s angels : Chechen women in war / by Paul J. Murphy An Army at the crossroads / by Andrew F. Krepinevich Attitudes aren’t free : thinking deeply about diversity in the US armed forces / [edited by] James E. Parco, David A. Levy The Battle of North Cape : the death ride of the Scharnhorst, 1943 / by Angus Konstam The Brusilov offensive / by Timothy C. Dowling Central Greece and the politics of power in the fourth century BC / by John… Read the rest of this entry »