Search results for ""Naval Institute Press""

The ability of the United States Navy to fight and win a protracted war in the Pacific was not solely the result of technology, tactics, or leadership. Naval aviation maintenance played a major role in the U.S. victory over Japan in the second World War. The naval war against Japan did not achieve sustained success until enough aircraft technicians were available to support the high tempo of aviation operations that fast carrier task force doctrine demanded. When the United States realized war was imminent and ordered a drastic increase in the size of its aviation fleet, the Navy was forced to reconsider its earlier practices and develop new policies in maintenance, supply, and technical training.  Not only did a shortage of technicians plague the Navy, but the scarcity of aviation supply and repair facilities in the Pacific soon caused panic in Washington. While the surface navy’s modernization of at-sea replenishment was beneficial, it did not solve the problems of sustaining war-time aircraft readiness levels sufficient to a winning a naval air war. Fisher outlines the drastic institutional changes that accompanied an increase in aviation maintenance personnel from fewer than 10,000 to nearly 250,000 bluejackets, the complete restructuring of the naval aviation technical educational system, and the development of a highly skilled labor force. The first comprehensive study on the importance of aircraft maintenance and the aircraft technician in the age of the aircraft carrier, Sustaining the Carrier War, provides the missing link to our understanding of Great Power conflict at sea.

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Hell to Pay examines the invasion of Japan in light of the large body of Japanese and American operational and tactical planning documents the author unearthed in familiar and obscure archives. It includes postwar interrogations and reports that senior Japanese commanders and their staffs were ordered to produce for General MacArthur's headquarters. This groundbreaking history counters the revisionist interpretations questioning the rationale for the use of the atomic bomb and shows that President Truman's decision was based on real estimates of the enormous human cost of a conventional invasion. This revised edition of Hell to Pay expands on several areas covered in the earlier book and deals with three new topics: U.S.-Soviet cooperation in the war against Imperial Japan; U.S., Soviet, and Japanese plans for the invasion and defense of the northernmost home island of Hokkaido; and Operation Blacklist, the three-phase insertion of American occupation forces into Japan.

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The great nineteenth century French military thinker, Ardant du Picq, argued that selfless courage is rooted in a higher moral purpose, and is found among "Elite Souls." This is a book about five such "Elite Souls," all highly decorated young West Point graduates and recipients of the USMA's Ninninger Medal.   Elite Souls outlines the importance of building and developing moral character in military leaders, while arguing that a rigorous academic education is also essential in creating young officers capable of the kind of creative and critical thinking necessary in the complicated wars of the twenty-first century.  Dr. Raymond suggests that West Point's servant-leader model is critical in fostering the kind of intense selflessness ideally seen between junior officers, their NCOs, and soldiers. Finally, Elite Souls makes the case that inspirational commanding officers are also key.     In this book, Dr. Ray Raymond argues that each of the recipients of the Ninninger Award entered West Point primarily for moral reasons and that the Academy's rigorous academic, military, and developmental methods strengthened those values. West Point produced young military leaders who were exceptionally well-educated and trained to deal with the complex challenges of war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early twenty first century.

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As U.S. strategy shifts (once again) to focus on great power competition, Strategy Shelved provides a valuable, analytic look back to the Cold War era by examining the rise and eventual fall of the U.S. Navy's naval strategy system from the post-World War II era to 1994. Steven T. Wills draws some important conclusions that have relevance to the ongoing strategic debates of today. His analysis focuses on the 1970s and 1980s as a period when U.S. Navy strategic thought was rebuilt after a period of stagnation during the Vietnam conflict and its high water mark in the form of the 1980s' maritime strategy and its attendant six hundred -ship navy force structure. He traces the collapse of this earlier system by identifying several contributing factors: the provisions of the Goldwater Nichols Act of 1986, the aftermath of the First Gulf War of 1991, the early 1990s revolution in military affairs, and the changes to the Chief of Naval Operations staff in 1992 following the end of the Cold War. All of these conditions served to undermine the existing naval strategy system. The Goldwater Nichols Act subordinated the Navy to joint control with disastrous effects on the long-serving cohort of uniformed naval strategists. The first Gulf War validated Army and Air Force warfare concepts developed in the Cold War but not those of the Navy's maritime strategy. The Navy executed its own revolution in military affairs during the Cold War through systems like AEGIS but did not get credit for those efforts. Finally, the changes in the Navy (OPNAV) staff in 1992 served to empower the budget arm of OPNAV at the expense of its strategists. These measures laid the groundwork for a thirty-year "strategy of means" where service budgets, a desire to preserve existing force structure, and lack of strategic vision hobbled not only the Navy, but also the Joint Force's ability to create meaningful strategy to counter a rising China and a revanchist Russian threat. Wills concludes his analysis with an assessment of the return of naval strategy documents in 2007 and 2015 and speculates on the potential for success of current Navy strategies including the latest tri-service maritime strategy. His research makes extensive use of primary sources, oral histories, and navy documents to tell the story of how the U.S. Navy created both successful strategies and how a dedicated group of naval officers were intimately involved in their creation. It also explains how the Navy's ability to create strategy, and even the process for training strategy writers, was seriously damaged in the post-Cold War era.

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Watch Officer's Guide, 16th Edition, is a handbook for all deck and combat information center watch officers of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard afloat, in the air, under the sea, and ashore. Originally written more than one hundred years ago, and last revised in 2007, the book provides officers with guidance on the watch in general, communications, shiphandling, standard commands, safety, honors and ceremonies, engineering, and rules of the road - essential elements for success in standing any watch. It offers, in a single volume, a great deal of important information for aspiring officers seeking qualification, ensuring that they have the requisite knowledge and appreciation of the importance of what they are doing. For the more experienced watch officer, this 16th edition continues a long-standing tradition by providing a compendium of information handy for review and for the actual standing of a watch. The lessons and themes are shaped and geared towards the afloat watchstander; though they also provide a foundation for success in other areas of both military and personal life.

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Cats were seen as omens in ancient times but eventually became trusted animal companions to those who sailed the seas. From catching rats at docks and on ships at sea, cats often became mascots to the navies around the globe. Filled with informative text and more than eighty photos, Cats in the Navy provides a fun history of our feline friends who rode the waves with us.

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On July 31, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731) began a reconnaissance cruise off the coast of North Vietnam. On August 2, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the ship. On the night of August 4, the Maddox and another destroyer, the USS Turner Joy (DD-951), expecting to be attacked, saw what they interpreted as hostile torpedo boats on their radars and reported themselves under attack. The following day, the United States bombed North Vietnam in retaliation. Congress promptly passed, almost unanimously and with little debate, a resolution granting President Lyndon Johnson authority to take "all necessary measures" to deal with aggression in Vietnam.The incident of August 4, 1964, is at the heart of this book. The author interviewed numerous Americans who were present. Most believed in the moment that an attack was occurring. By the time they were interviewed, there were more doubters than believers, but the ones who still believed were more confident in their opinions. Factoring in degree of assurance, one could say that the witnesses were split right down the middle on this fundamental question. A careful and rigorous examination of the other forms of evidence, including intercepted North Vietnamese naval communications, interrogations of North Vietnamese torpedo boat personnel captured later in the war, and the destroyers' detailed records of the location and duration of radar contacts, lead the author to conclude that no attack occurred that night.

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The Brown Water War at 50 presents the work of renowned historians and Vietnam War veterans who describe and interpret the U.S. Navy’s major combat operations in South Vietnam and on its coast. The scope of the book includes the river war in South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the coastal patrol, and the intelligence campaign. To complement text, the authors have added images and maps from the U.S. Navy archives, U.S. Naval Institute collection and from private collections. They also provide a s list of the most authoritative works on the subject. In this retrospective, Cutler and Marolda describe not only the actions of the warships, aircraft, and river vessels involved in one of America’s longest wars but also the professional skill, dedication, and courage of the Navy men and women who went in “harm’s way” in Vietnam. The authors detail the development and combat experience of the Navy’s River Patrol Force and the Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force as they fought the Viet Cong. They relate in full the heroism of Medal of Honor recipients Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class James E. Williams and Lieutenant Thomas G. Kelley, and the leadership of Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. Intelligence which, until recently, was classified tells the story of the Navy’s intelligence effort in South Vietnam, and describes the operations of SEAL and Naval Intelligence Officers at the tactical level. In short, this book takes an in depth look at the Navy’s major and essential role in a conflict that marked a milestone in modern American history.

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Shortly before embarking on her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, Amelia Earhart confided to a friend, I have a feeling there is just about one more good flight left in my system and I hope this trip around the world is it.' This book is the product of The Earhart Project, a thirty-four-year investigation of the Earhart tragedy.

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The history of whaling as an industry on this continent has been well-told in books, including some that have been bestsellers, but what hasn't been told is the story of whaling's leaders of color in an era when the only other option was slavery. Whaling was one of the first American industries to exhibit diversity. A man became a captain not because he was white or well connected, but because he knew how to kill a whale. Along the way, he could learn navigation and reading and writing. Whaling presented a tantalizing alternative to mainland life.Working with archival records at whaling museums, in libraries, from private archives and interviews with people whose ancestors were whaling masters, Finley culls stories from the lives of over 50 black whaling captains to create a portrait of what life was like for these leaders of color on the high seas.Each time a ship spotted a whale, a group often including the captain would jump into a small boat, row to the whale, and attack it, at times with the captain delivering the killing blow. The first, second, or third mate and boat steerer could eventually have opportunities to move into increasingly responsible roles. Finley explains how this skills-based system propelled captains of color to the helm.The book concludes as facts and factions conspire to kill the industry, including wars, weather, bad management, poor judgment, disease, obsolescence, and a non-renewable natural resource. Ironically, the end of the Civil War allowed the African Americans who were captains to exit the difficult and dangerous occupation--and make room for the Cape Verdean who picked up the mantle, literally to the end of the industry.

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In analysing the dynamics of Lt CDr Waldo Drake and Adm Chester Nimitz's relationship, and in highlighting Drake's interactions with correspondents and Navy officials, Nimitz's Newsman reveals the inside story of the rise of the Navy's public relations during World War II.

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The at-sea department head is among the most challenging surface navy assignments. Prospective and serving department heads will find this collection of best practices and helpful advice invaluable in preparing for these demanding roles. Offering an overview of the relevant billets, the practical guidance from successful department heads provides pragmatic advice in employing effective leadership and management tools, supporting command leadership, and integrating sound watch-standing practices. The Surface Warfare Officer's Department Head Guide is an important addition to the professional libraries of surface warfare officers seeking success in their coming tour and beyond.

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This brilliant exposition established Corbett as a classical maritime strategist whose concepts of sea power are found in current U.S. maritime strategy.

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Based on years of research and over on hundred interviews with veterans, Peter Williams has compiled a fascinating collection of personal accounts by former Japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen. The candid views these narratives present are often provocative and shocking. There are admissions of brutality, the killing of prisoners, and cannibalism. Stark descriptions of appalling conditions and bitter fighting blend with descriptions of family life. The views on the prowess of the enemy differ--a few, like air ace Kazuo Tsunoda, believed the Australians 'worthy.' Some subjects remain unrepentant while others such as Hideo Abe are ashamed of his part in Japan's war of aggression. The result is a revealing insight into the minds of a ruthless and formidable enemy which provides the reader with a fresh perspective on World War II.

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The 'Stan is a collection of short comics about America's longest war. The tales in this book--based on reporting by David Axe and Kevin Knodell and drawn by artist Blue Delliquanti—are all true and took place in roughly the first decade of the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan. While the stories are from the recent past, The 'Stan is still very much about Afghanistan's, and America's, present. And likely future.

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As Clausewitz observed, ""In war more than anywhere else, things do not turn out as we expect."" The essence of war is a competitive reciprocal relationship with an adversary. Commanders and institutional leaders must recognize shortfalls and resolve gaps rapidly in the middle of the fog of war. The side that reacts best (and absorbs faster) increases its chances of winning. Mars Adapting examines what makes some military organizations better at this contest than others. It explores the institutional characteristics or attributes at play in learning quickly. Adaptation requires a dynamic process of acquiring knowledge, the utilization of that knowledge to alter a unit's skills, and the sharing of that learning to other units to integrate and institutionalize better operational practice. Mars Adapting explores the internal institutional factors that promote and enable military adaptation. It employs four cases, drawing upon one from each of the U.S. armed services. Each case was an extensive campaign, with several cycles of action/counteraction. In each case, the military institution entered the war with an existing mental model of the war they expected to fight. For example, the U.S. Navy prepared for decades to defeat the Japanese Imperial Navy and had developed carried-based aviation. Other capabilities, particularly the Fleet submarine, were applied as a major adaptation. The author establishes a theory called Organizational Learning Capacity that captures the transition of experience and knowledge from individuals into larger and higher levels of each military service through four major steps. The learning/change cycle is influenced, he argues, by four institutional attributes (leadership, organizational culture, learning mechanisms, and dissemination mechanisms). The dynamic interplay of these institutional enablers shaped their ability to perceive and change appropriately.

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Winner of the William E. Colby Military Writers' Award Winner of the ALA’s W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction Winner of the Military Writers Association Gold Medal Award for Historical Fiction 2021 Sometimes it takes years for a combat vet to understand what war did to him when he was nineteen. With the perception and reflection of a man on the cusp of retirement from a career teaching high school kids, Marty McClure recalls the relentless intensity of prolonged combat as a teenaged Marine machine gunner facing booby traps and battles in a war with few boundaries. Family and friends know Marty as a kind, peaceful man. They aren't aware that when he was young, he plumbed the depths of terror, hatred, and despair with no assurance he'd ever surface again. Now he needs to reveal what happened in Vietnam and how, with the help of Patti, his wife, Corrie Corrigan, a disabled vet, and Doc Matheson, a corpsman turned trauma surgeon, he works to become a good husband, father, and teacher while he fights to bury the war. Only if he accepts help from his wife and his friends will he find real peace.

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Victory Without Peace concentrates on the U.S. Navy in European and NearEastern waters during the post-World War I era. As participants in theVersailles peace negotiations, the Navy was charged with executing the navalterms of the Armistice as well as preserving stability and peace. U.S. warshipswere deploying into the Near East, Baltic, Adriatic, and Northern Europe, whilesimultaneously withdrawing its demobilized forces from European waters. Thissignifies the first time the U.S. Navy contributed to peacetime efforts, setting aprecedent continues today.Conversely, Congressional appropriations handicapped this deployment bydemobilization, general naval policy and postwar personnel, and operatingfunds reductions. Though reluctant to allocate postwar assets into seeminglyunimportant European and Near Eastern waters, the Navy was pressured by theState Department and the American Relief Administration’s leader, HerbertHoover, to deploy necessary forces. Most of these were withdrawn by 1924 andthe European Station assumed the traditional policy of showing the flag.

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Hailed as one of the finest examples of aviation research, this comprehensive 1984 study presents a detailed and scrupulously accurate operational history of carrier-based air warfare. From the earliest operations in the Pacific through the decisive Battle of Midway, it offers a narrative account of how ace fighter pilots like Jimmy Thach and Butch O'Hare and their skilled VF squadron mates - called the “first team” - amassed a remarkable combat record in the face of desperate odds.

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Before Jutland is an effort to understand what happened at sea in northern European waters in 1914-15 when the German High Sea Fleet faced the Grand Fleet in the North Sea and the Russian Fleet in the Baltic. The book is an extensively revised and extended version of the author’s 1984 work The King’s Ships Were at Sea. It covers the first six months of the First World War because very important things occurred in that time and, despite the loose ends that inevitably remain with four more years of conflict to follow, important things can be said.The focus is primarily on the British, but both the Germans and the Russians are integral to the study because neither the British nor the Germans’ North Sea activities can be fairly assessed without giving due weight to the Baltic theatre of operations. This is an operational history, which balances coverage of the major incidents with treatment of the continuum of activity. The intent within the scene setting chapters is not to attempt a complete survey of the events of the previous decade, but to situate each navy within the environment of 1914.Before Jutland includes the battles of Heligoland Bight and the Dogger Bank, as well as the shock of the submarine and its effect on the operations of all the protagonists. In analysing these events, it seeks to provide the context within which the protagonists were actually working, without the application of excessive hindsight, because in 1914 so much was new and experimental. Observers are inclined to consider what is known as the ‘Fisher Era’ as a continuum from Admiral Fisher’s accession as First Sea Lord in the British Admiralty in 1904; in reality the pace of operational development not only accelerated but became truly multi-lane only after about 1909, just before the great reformer went into his first retirement.The pressures at all levels within navies were therefore intensifying in the years immediately before the outbreak of the war in ways that were not fully understood, nor necessarily recognized. In short, those involved were struggling to learn a new language of naval operations and warfare with an incomplete dictionary and very little grammar.In all, Before Jutland tries to show not only what happened, but how the services evolved to meet the challenges that they faced at the opening of the Great War and whether or not that evolution was successful.

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This book presents a thorough chronology and atlas of naval warfare from the Age of Galleys to The Nuclear Age.

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Building upon the expertise of the authors and historians of the Naval Institute Press, the Naval History Special Editions are designed to offer studies of the key vessels, battles, and events of armed conflict. Using an image-heavy format, these Special Editions should appeal to scholars, enthusiasts, and general readers alike. The USS Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11), one of the 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II, was commissioned in August 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific, where she was torpedoed once and hit by four different kamikaze suicide aircraft, earning her the unfortunate nicknames “Evil I” and “Decrepid.” Decommissioned shortly after the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), eventually becoming an antisubmarine warfare carrier (CVS). In her second career, Intrepid served in the Atlantic, but also completed three deployments to the Pacific during the Vietnam War, where she operated as a limited attack carrier, pioneering the “CV” concept that combined the antisubmarine and attack roles. She also took part in America’s space program and was the recovery ship for the Aurora 7 Project Mercury and the Gemini 3 space missions. Decommissioned for the second time in 1974 Intrepid was moored at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where she hosted exhibits as part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations. In 1982, the “Fighting I” became the foundation of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City where she has hosted many special events. The Naval History Special Edition covering the Intrepid tells the complete story of this famous aircraft carrier in a highly readable and engaging format that features many photographs, maps, and illustrations. It should prove to be of interest to those who served aboard her as well as those interested in aviation and naval history.

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In the U.S. Navy ""Wheel Books"" were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more experienced personnel, those weathered pages contained everything from the time of the next tide, to leadership hints from a respected chief petty officer, to the color coding of the phone-and-distance line used in underway replenishments. In that same tradition, the new Naval Institute Wheel Books will provide supplemental information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to modern naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institute's vast archives that has been accumulated for more than a century, the books will combine articles from the Institute's flagship publication Proceedings, selections from the oral history collection and from Naval Institute Press books to create unique guides on a wide array of relevant professional subjects. Leadership is vital to any highly functioning organization. The Naval Institute has devoted countless pages of its publications to the subject of naval leadership, providing start-up guidance to neophytes, giving voice to the accumulated wisdom and experience of those who have led, and serving as a forum in search of answers to the many questions that have always been a part of this vital but sometimes elusive practice. In these pages are some of the most outstanding examples of this wealth of knowledge, gathered here for the use by naval officers of all rank in the never-ending quest for strong and effective leadership.

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Originally published in 1990, Sky Ships is easily the most comprehensive history of U.S. Navy airships ever written. The Naval Institute Press is releasing this new edition - complete with two hundred new photographs--to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the book's publication.Impressed by Germany's commercial and military Zeppelins, the United States initiated its own airship program in 1915. Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey was homeport for several of the largest machines ever to navigate the air. The success of the commercial rigid airship peaked in 1936 with transatlantic round trips between Central Europe and the Americas by Hindenburg and by Graf Zeppelin - ending with the infamous fire in 1937. That setback, the onset of war, and the accelerated progress of heavier-than-air technology ended rigid airship development. The Navy continued to use blimps to protect Allied shipping during World War II. Following the war, the Navy persisted with efforts to integrate the airships, but the program was finally discontinued in the early 1960s.

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On a mission over central Afghanistan, Punk is hit--and taken captive by the Taliban. And after he escapes, the challenge is not over. Because now Punk must navigate the war-torn country not from the skies, but on the ground--seeing up close for the first time the world of resistance fighters, warlords, CIA undercover ops, and corrupt officers who are putting their lives on the line.

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This newest edition of Command at Sea includes the valuable guidance for prospective and commanding officers that has been the hallmark of this book since it first appeared as well as addressing the evolving nature of command at sea. This seventh edition has been updated to incorporate new strategic guidance, examines recent changes in fleet structure, and reflects the Navy's and our nation's return to Great Power Competition amidst China's rising assertiveness and a resurgent Russia's efforts to undermine NATO unity in Europe. Of vital importance, this newest edition includes lessons learned from the collisions of USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain. These tragedies prompted the Navy to initiate a Comprehensive Review of Recent Surface Force Incidents that recommended significant actions pertaining to the training, operating, and equipping of surface ships and crews throughout the force.The book provides additional guidance on joint and combined operations, including the need for cooperation and coordination among interagency players as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), both international and domestic.The authors discuss changes in the fleet, including the emergence of recent classes of ships (the Freedom- and Independence-class littoral combat ships and the Virginia-class attack submarines) and the addition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.Finally, the authors provide advice from senior leaders, templates for new commanders to follow as they assume command and a recommended reading list tailored to the challenges and rewards of being a commanding officer.

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The Naval Academy's culture is a unique and sometimes baffling phenomenon to the outside world, but with this newly updated guide in hand relatives and friends of midshipmen will find answers to all the questions they might have about Academy life. Since it was first published more than a decade ago, parents have relied on the almanac for insights into their sons' and daughters' experiences at Annapolis.

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The Civil War is often considered a "soldiers war" but Life in Jefferson Davis's Navy acknowledges the legacy of courage endurance and the ability of the officers and men of the Confederate States Navy.In this full length study Tomblin addresses every aspect of a Confederate sailor's life: shipboard routine the Sabbath liberty entertainment diet health medical care discipline imprisonment desertion and combat experience. To man a burgeoning fleet the Confederate Navy Department established rendezvous to recruit seamen or relied on foreign seamen shipped in foreign ports or enticed by commerce raider captains to enlist. Drawing on diaries letters newspaper accounts and published works Tomblin offers a fresh look at the wartime experience of officers and men in the Confederate Navy who served on gunboats on western rivers ironclads and ships along the coast and at Mobile bay as well as on the high seas aboard the Confederate raiders Sumter Alabama Florida and Shenandoah. This narrative describes as well the work of Confederate Navy surgeons and surgeon's stewards who provided medical care for naval personnel who suffered from a variety of illnesses such malaria dysentery smallpox and yellow fever as well as injuries caused by accidents or during combat.The author also explores the daily life deprivations and suffering of those who were captured and spent time in Union prisoner of war camps at Point Lookout Elmira Johnson's Island and Fort Delaware. Confederate prisoners' journals and letters give an intimate account of their struggle to survive the boredom poor rations and living conditions of imprisonment with little opportunity to escape or be granted prisoner exchange. Tomblin does not overlook the important contribution of the Torpedo Service and various experimental craft such as Squib and the Hunley all designed to destroy Union blockaders. Life in Jefferson Davis' Navy concludes with the final months of the war afloat on the James River and with navy men manning gun batteries at Fort Fisher and Drewry's Bluff or fighting the Yankees as naval infantry with the "Aye Ayes" of the Semmes brigade.

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The United States is in the midst of a new cold war with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and America is losing. That claim, at the core of this book, challenges the Washington, DC conventional wisdom about US-China relations.

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Col. Wesley Fox is a Medal of Honor recipient who wrote two widely-admired accounts of his wartime experiences in the Marine Corps. His Marine Rifleman: Forty-Three Years in the Corps and Courage and Fear: A Primer are considered classic war memoirs. Drawing on his long experience of being a leader, Fox presents the six essential elements of leadership that all good leaders employ to build successful organizations able to cope with any challenge because they are truly built on loyalty and trust. Impressed by the manner and methods of his most effective fellow Marines to guide and direct, Fox defines leadership is defined as having a strong focus on the strengths of comradeship and its core importance to all individuals and organizations. In his view, managers are concerned with the bottom line and making a profit, while leaders are concerned with their followers, their health, happiness, and daily lives. Recognition of the sources of leaders is addressed and followed with a discussion of the principles of leadership and the historical traits of a leader.The book covers the essential elements of leadership: care, personality, knowledge, motivation, commitment, and communication with a chapter on each element. Finally, Fox provides an account of his personal experience and how his views about leadership were forged by the Marine Corps and by the crucible of combat. He provides many examples of leadership displayed by those with whom he served in battle--his fellow Marine unit leaders. While draw from a military experience, Fox contends that his six elements apply to all who want to pursue leadership. Developed during forty-three years of leading Marines in two wars and in the peace time, his principles are designed to inspire and motivate others in all endeavors.

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Naval Law is a comprehensive work focusing on military justice, military criminal and administrative law, international law, and the law of armed conflict in the naval service. Although attorneys and law students may find the text a helpful primer on these topics, the book is primarily intended for use by midshipmen, undergraduates and others interested in military law and the law of war. Actual courts-martial and other legal cases, treaties, statutes, instructions, regulations, and historical events are presented and discussed throughout the book. Throughout the text, issues designed to promote both understanding and critical analysis of the material presented are posed to the reader. The study questions at the end of each chapter are intended to focus attention on fundamental aspects of naval law and to challenge the reader’s understanding of these concepts.

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At the turn of the twentieth century, Alfred Thayer Mahan and Julian Stafford Corbett emerged as foundational thinkers on maritime power. This book explores their grand strategic foundations of maritime strategy, their ideas about naval warfare, to how they thought a navy should integrate with other instruments of national power.

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How do you quadruple the size of an 85-year-old company in one decade without changing its cultural DNA? How do you accomplish this while keeping your original base of customers wildly loyal and your employees passionately engaged? With Cutler Dawson at the helm for the last 14 years, Navy Federal Credit Union, the world's largest credit union, has quadrupled the size of the organisation and made it an industry leader in customer service. A retired Navy vice admiral with an esteemed 34-year career commanding ships and fleets, Cutler arrived at the venerable and conservative credit union and Set it on a course for meteoric growth. It is now one of the most fiercely trusted and smoothly run financial institutions in the world ranked by Fortune magazine as a Best Place to Work for eight years. How did Cutler and his team at Navy Federal do it? What did he learn on the ship's bridge that that helped him successfully run a bank--a credit union, actually? What did he learn leading ships and crews into harm's way that helped him weather the storms of the 2008 financial crisis without a layoff? And what can you learn from his leadership experience that began when he took command of his first ship at the age of 27? This book reveals an honest and straightforward look at Cutler's leadership philosophy and guiding principles, offering tangible and practical insights for readers who want to learn how to chart a similar course of success--one of exponential growth without compromising a company's bedrock principles.

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As naval officers transition to rewarding and challenging jobs ashore, the Naval Officer's Guide to the Pentagon offers a valuable helping hand along the journey. This practical guide advises officers of all paygrades, experience levels, and warfare communities on life and work in Washington, D.C., and in the Pentagon, in particular. The book is a user-friendly "one-stop shop" for information, offering insights from successful officers from a variety of warfare communities who have served in the Pentagon and in Washington in a range of staff roles. Tailored to naval officers but useful to civilians interested in better understanding the demands and lifestyle of working at the Pentagon, the Naval Officer's Guide to the Pentagon will be a positive addition to the professional libraries of naval leaders past, present, and future.

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Combining a close knowledge of Asia and an ability to tap Chinese-language sources with naval combat experience and expertise in sea-power theory, the authors assess how the rise of Chinese sea power will affect U.S. maritime strategy in Asia. They argue that China has laid the groundwork for a sustained challenge to American primacy in maritime Asia, and to defend this hypothesis they look back to Alfred Thayer Mahan’s sea-power theories, now popular with the Chinese. The book considers how strategic thought about the sea shapes Beijing’s deliberations and compares China’s geostrategic predicament to that of the Kaiser’s Germany a century ago. It examines the Chinese navy’s operational concepts, tactics, and capabilities and appraises China’s missile force. The authors conclude that China now presents a challenge to America’s strategic position of such magnitude that Washington must compete in earnest.

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The Division Officer’s Guide, Twelfth Edition, is a handbook for Junior Officers and Petty Officers of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard afloat, in the air, under the sea and ashore. Originally written in 1952 by CAPT John V. Noel Jr., and last revised in 2004, the book provides division officers with basic lessons of leadership, organization, administration, training, and discipline – essential elements for success in their key positions. It offers much useful information on individual readiness, the conduct of assessments and inspections, maintenance processes and responsibilities, and the preparation and methods of correspondence and officer and enlisted career planning. The lessons and themes are not limited to use in the sea services; they provide a foundation for success in both military and personal life. Learning and practicing division officer skills lays a foundation for future success, no matter the environment or occupation, including the highest levels of the military, government, and citizenship.This twelfth edition continues to evolve with our rapidly changing world. Terrorism has become an international security issue, men and women now serve alongside superbly in all of our ships at sea, and technology continues to change virtually every aspect of naval operations. Cyber tools such as web-based information, use of computer networks aboard ships, and the ability to post and share information on websites in both unclassified and secure environments continue to expand the reach of sea services but similarly provide vulnerability vectors that may be exploited if not protected. Over the next ten years, a division officer can expect to see the expanding importance of cyber tools, increased need for cooperation among nations operating in shared maritime areas, and more autonomous operations where commander’s intent must be fully understood and executed should networked operations be unavailable. Combined Navy and Coast Guard assets such as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Fast Frigate (FF), the National Security Cutter, the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer (DDG), and the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) will enable highly networked operations, placing even greater emphasis on the importance of skilled and capable officers leading divisions at sea.Despite the technological advances in the tools available to leaders, a great constant remains-the direct personal impact that the division officer has on sailors each day. A division officer’s fundamental task is to build the core elements of a winning team. Division Officer’s Guide Twelfth Edition is written to reinforce the skills and competencies at the heart of this charge.

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No One Avoided Danger is a detailed combat narrative of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attacks on NAS Kaneohe Bay, one of two naval air stations on the island of O'ahu. Partly because of Kaneohe's location - 15 air miles over a mountain range from the main site of that day's infamous attack on Pearl Harbor - military historians have largely ignored the station's story. Moreover, there is an understandable tendency to focus on the massive destruction sustained by the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attacks on NAS Kaneohe Bay, however, were equally destructive and no less disastrous, notwithstanding the station's considerable distance from the harbor.The work focuses on descriptions of actions in the air and on the ground at the deepest practical, personal, and tactical level, from both the American and Japanese perspectives. Such a synthesis is possible only by pursuing every conceivable source of American documents, reminiscences, interviews, and photographs. Similarly, the authors sought out Japanese accounts and photography from the attacks, many appearing in print for the first time. Information from the Japanese air group and aircraft carrier action reports has never before been used.On the American side, the authors also have researched the Official Military Personnel Files at the National Personnel Records Center and National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri, extracting service photographs and details of the military careers of American officers and men. The authors are among the first historians to be allowed access to previously unused service records. The authors likewise delved into the background and personalities of key Japanese participants, and have translated and incorporated the Japanese aircrew rosters from the attack.This accumulation of data and information makes possible an intricate and highly integrated story that is unparalleled. The interwoven narratives of both sides provide a deeper understanding of the events near Kane'ohe Bay than any previous history.

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Leadership is a most demanding undertaking. How do some people make it seem so simple, so natural and instinctive? In the age-old debate as to whether leaders are born or made, Thomas contends that the answer is both. Great leaders throughout history were born with certain capabilities. Preparation honed those capabilities. Then that ability and preparation were combined with a will to lead. When circumstances demanded, the great leaders of history pulled these attributes together to create results that drove the course of history.While leaders are present in every aspect of human undertaking, we chose to illustrate each of the components of leadership through the most dramatic and demanding of all human undertakings--war and the preparations for war. Wartime leaders are leaders "writ with a darker pen." Wartime challenges are, because of the life and death nature of the affair, more monumental and exacting. In the selection of individuals to illustrate each point, we chose wartime leaders as well as those who guided their subordinates and organizations in preparation for combat. Further we chose American leaders with a distinct and obvious bias towards the navy and Marine Corps.Multiple reasons led us to our approach for Leadership Embodied. First, a biography is perhaps the most effective method for imparting leadership lessons. Simple listings of prescriptive traits or descriptive qualities are patronizing and, frequently, boring. Second, our biographical examples are familiar to most--or at least they should be. Finally, all of these historical selections have dramatically shaped today's institutions, practices, and customs within the naval services. These are not marginal figures with marginal influence. The individuals included, and their respective leadership attributes, should be required reading for any student of leadership. Each has a particular lesson for midshipmen on their journey to becoming a navy or Marine Corps officer.This book does not promise to be a panacea. There is no short cut. Leadership does not follow a prescribed path. We study examples to inspire us to become better, to be strong when it is easy to give in, and to know others have gone before us and faced insurmountable odds. Leadership, as an ill-defined social science, crosses boundaries with several disciplines including sociology, psychology, philosophy, and history. We have selected a method that combines the psychological "profile" of effective leaders and the historical context of the impact their leadership brought to organizations and events. Our hope for this book is that these case studies illustrate the basic elements--in themselves the very essence--of leadership. It is through inherent talent, arduous preparation, and practical experience that we become capable leaders. The reader brings the first to the table; then we offer a small token in the second pursuit; and circumstances enable the third.

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This is the first paperback edition of the revisionist work about Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, who won his battles at sea but lost the war of public opinion. A surface warrior, Fletcher led the carrier forces in the Pacific that won against all odds at Coral Sea, Midway, and the Eastern Solomon's. Despite these successes, during the post-war Fletcher had become one of the most controversial figures in U.S. naval history and was portrayed as a timid bungler who failed to relieve Wake Island and who deliberately abandoned the Marines at Guadalcanal.

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Regarded as the standard biography of World War II naval hero Adm. Raymond A. Spruance, this work is now available in trade paperback for the first time. Spruance is one of the towering figures in American naval history. Though reserved and cerebral personality did not make “good copy” for correspondents , yet Thomas Buell has succeeded in evoking his compelling nature in this brilliant biography, which won the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement the year of its publication.

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In the dead of night, eighty-three-year-old Marcel Grob is sequestered by an investigating judge who questions him about his past. Particularly beginning on June 28, 1944, the day when "Marzell," like ten thousand of his German-speaking peers from the French borderland province of Alsace, became a member of the Nazis' infamous Waffen SS.   But did the teenager volunteer, or was he conscripted by the Nazis? Was he a "Malgré-nous," one of those forced to comply, or was he a war criminal? To establish the truth of his troubled past, Marcel Grob will have to revisit painful memories as an adolescent forced to fight in Italy with the sinister Reichsführer division.   Determined to prove his innocence, Marcel begins the story of a long journey into night.

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A Pitiful, Unholy Mess is a detailed combat narrative of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attacks on O'ahu's Wheeler, Bellows, and Haleiwa Fields. Since these bases comprised O'ahu's fighter defenses, the Japanese needed to neutralize these bases (particularly Wheeler Field) to prevent U.S. aircraft from interfering with attacks on the Pacific Fleet. Although the loss of life at the three fields was less than that sustained by the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the attacks caused destruction and mayhem that proved disastrous and wrenching.  The work focuses on descriptions of actions in the air and on the ground at the deepest practical tactical level, from both the U.S. and Japanese perspectives. Such synthesis is possible only by doggedly pursuing every conceivable source of American documents, reminiscences, interviews, and photographs. Similarly, the authors sought out Japanese accounts and photography from the attacks, many appearing in print for the first time. Much information from the reports of the Japanese air groups and the aircraft carrier Shōkaku has never been used.  On the American side, the authors also have researched the U.S. Army Air Force Individual Flight Records at NARA, St. Louis, that provide operational details of the pilots' flights, as well of their military careers. The authors were among the first to research these microfilmed records within months after NARA, St. Louis accessioned them. The authors have delved into the background and personalities of key Japanese participants and have translated and incorporated Japanese aircrew rosters from the attacks.  This accumulation of data and information makes possible an intricate and highly integrated story that is compelling and unparalleled. The interwoven nature of the narratives of both sides provides a deep understanding of the events at Wheeler, Bellows and Haleiwa Fields that has been impossible to present heretofore. 

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In the waning years of World War II, as the tragic plight of the European Jews was coming to light in ever more horrific detail, a Jewish fighting force, known as the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, was born as part of the British Eighth Army. Leslie Toliver, a racecar driver in the pre-war years, eagerly joined the all-volunteer force for a chance to fight with his people against those who sought to murder them. When the war in Europe ends and the "savage continent" sits on the brink of continental civil war from chaos, terror, and famine, Leslie and the Brigade move to Tarvisio, Italy, a border triangle city perfect for covert action. While out searching for Holocaust survivors, Leslie undertakes vigilante missions in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe hunting down Nazis on the run for both vengeance and justice. With each Nazi found or refugee rescued, he looks for more information to complete his most personal mission: to find his mother and fiancée who went missing in the upheaval of the war.

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Airpower in the War against ISIS chronicles the planning and conduct of Operation Inherent Resolve by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from August 2014 to mid-2018, with a principal focus on the contributions of U.S. Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT). Benjamin S. Lambeth contends that the war's costly and excessive duration resulted from CENTCOM's inaccurate assessment of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), determining it was simply a resurrected Iraqi insurgency rather than recognizing it as the emerging proto-state that it actually was. This erroneous decision, Lambeth argues, saw the application of an inappropriate counterinsurgency strategy and use of rules of engagement that imposed needless restrictions on the most effective use of the precision air assets at CENTCOM's disposal. The author, through expert analysis of recent history, forcefully argues that CENTCOM erred badly by not using its ample air assets at the outset not merely for supporting Iraq's initially noncombat-ready ground troops but also in an independent and uncompromising strategic interdiction campaign against ISIS's most vital center-of-gravity targets in Syria from the effort's first moments onward.

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Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Seapower upon History is well known to students of naval history and strategy, but his other writings are often dismissed as irrelevant to today's problems. This collection of five of Mahan's essays, along with Benjamin Armstrong's informative introductions, illustrates why Mahan's work remains relevant to the 21st century and how it can help develop our strategic thinking. People misunderstand Mahan, the editor argues, because they have read only what others say about him, not what Mahan wrote himself. Armstrong's analysis is derived directly from Mahan's own writings. From the challenges of bureaucratic organisation and the pit falls of staff duty, to the development of global strategy and fleet composition, to illustrations of effective combat leadership, Armstrong demonstrates that Mahan's ideas continue to provide today's readers with a solid foundation to address the challenges of a rapidly globalising world.

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Admiral Raoul Castex is France's most important modern naval strategist. Military historian Eugenia Kiesling offers the essence of Castex's original five volume study, Théories Stratégiques, in a useful one-volume abridgment and a very readable translation. It emphasizes the admiral's method of strategic analysis while omitting most of the historical narrative. Included are chapters defining strategy and relating it to policy and geography, analyzing the role of maritime forces and the significance of command at sea, prescribing a theory of conduct of operations, and introducing Castex's favorite themes: strategic manoeuvre, stratégie générale, and the theory of "perturbation."Two narrative chapters on German operations in the North Sea from 1914 to 1916 remain as examples of the author's historical style. The introduction places Castex's work in four distinct contexts: the international debate among naval theorists on the nature and importance of "command at sea," the controversy within France between advocates of the "historical" and "material" schools of naval strategy, the contemporary concern over coordinated naval strategy for total war, and his contribution to the formulation of French strategy between the world wars. In an era of expanding global responsibilities and shrinking national economies, Castex's balanced view of naval power offers many insights for today's new generation of naval thinkers.

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