Naval History Blog

  In this excerpt, Vice Admiral Eli T. Reich recounts the 21 November 1944 sinking of the Japanese battleship BB Kongo by the USS Sealion (SS-315). This excerpt comes from Volume I of Vice Admiral Reich’s oral history and covers his career prior to 1963. He graduated from submarine school in 1939 and was assigned to the first USS Sealion (SS-195). In Manila in December 1941, he was lunching on a ship in the harbor when the Sealion (which he had left moments before) was demolished by Japanese bombs. His descriptions of submarine experience in the Pacific and Sea of… Read the rest of this entry »

  In this clip excerpted from his oral history recordings, Admiral Sharp recalls a risky rescue mission five miles off Nauru Island in December 1944, in which the downed “pilot” turned out to be a float light bobbing in the water. During World War II, Admiral Sharp was CO of the USS Hogan (DD-178) on convoy duty in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean as well as in the invasion of North Africa. In 1943 he was CO of the USS Boyd (DD-544) and took part in many strikes in the Pacific: Wake Islands, Nauru, the Marianas, the Bonins, Mindanao, Cebu, Negros, Luzon, Truk, Okinawa, and… Read the rest of this entry »

  In this clip excerpted from his oral history recordings, Vice Admiral McCrea recalls the remarkable capstone of his World War I service on board the battleship USS New York (BB-34) — the German fleet surrender of World War I. McCrea was a Naval Academy midshipman in 1914 when his ship, the USS Idaho (BB-24), was sold to Greece on the eve of World War I. After graduating in 1915, he served in the New York and was present when the German fleet surrendered following the war. He served a tour in Guam in the 1930s, then was executive officer of… Read the rest of this entry »

Excerpted from The Battle of Leyte Gulf at 75: A Retrospective, by Thomas J. Cutler (Naval Institute Press, 2019) The Battle of Leyte Gulf, an epic page in the history of World War II, is the victory of thousands of U.S. warriors at sea, ashore, beneath the sea, and in the air—their actions, professional can-do spirit, heroism, and sacrifices. The Japanese committed their carriers and main battle fleet to the action, and they fought hard, determined to turn back U.S. amphibious landings at Leyte and Philippine shores beyond. Mistakes were made on both sides. The Americans rose to the challenge…. Read the rest of this entry »

In this audio excerpt from his oral history, Admiral Duncan describes the Navy’s V-12 College Training Program, which was launched to beef up the numbers of commissioned naval officers during World War II (some 125,000 participants passed through the program during and immediately after the war years). Admiral Duncan was XO of the USS Hutchins (DD-476) in 1942 in combat action in the Aleutians and South Pacific, then CO of the USS Wilson (DD-408), taking part in action in the South and Central Pacific. After World War II, he served as XO of the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) and CO of the Chilton (APA-38), Assistant Chief of… Read the rest of this entry »

  In the late 1930s, as World War II approached, Captain Roland William Faulk was serving at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines on board the battleship Idaho (BB-42). He would go on to serve in the battleship Missouri (BB-63) at the end of the war and the immediate postwar period; as chaplain at the Recruit Training Center, Bainbridge, Maryland; as fleet chaplain for the Pacific Fleet; and at the Eleventh Naval District. Faulk’s recollections of service during World War II are important because of his observations concerning Rear Admiral Robert Workman, wartime Chief of Chaplains, and because of Faulk’s… Read the rest of this entry »

In this audio excerpt from his oral history, Mr. Kenyon describes how many of the leading institutions of higher learning severed their ties with Navy ROTC during the turbulent Vietnam War years, and how “We had some rough conversations with the school administrations at that time.” Mr. Kenyon retired in 1973 after serving the Navy since 1941, first as an officer and later as a civil servant. In this memoir, he reviews the history of education and training in the Navy, organization within the Navy, transition from old to the current systems, some problems encountered along the way, tools of… Read the rest of this entry »

In this audio sample from his oral history, Admiral Loughlin looks back on his service in the 1930s on board the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40), where he worked for a certain assistant chief engineer named Lieutenant Hyman G. Rickover. The future Admiral Rickover was, says Loughlin, “one of the big influences on my life . . . one of the most loyal naval officers I’ve ever worked for . . . . He made a tremendous difference.” Loughlin, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1933, went to submarine school and served in various boats before taking command… Read the rest of this entry »