BOOK REVIEW – Seabee Teams in Vietnam, 1963 – 1968
Edited by Kenneth E. Bingham. NMCB-8 Association, Ventura, CA (2013).
Reviewed by Charles Bogart
The subtitle of this book is “The 13-Man Teams That Helped Rural Vietnamese and who Fought Alongside the Special Forces.” The introduction of the book under review proclaims that it consists of excerpts taken from the book “COMCPAC REPORTS, Special Edition, Seabee Teams Oct. 1959 – July 1969”, by Lt. Joseph L. Henley and Chief Journalist Thomas A. Johnson. This COMCPAC report as written covered not only Seabee Teams that served in Vietnam but also in the Americas, Africa and Thailand. The editor of the book under review has chosen to use within his book only information concerning those teams that saw service in Vietnam.
On 10 May 1775 a force commanded by Ethan Allan and Benedict Arnold crossed Lake Champlain and captured the British fort at Ticonderoga, New York. Five U.S. Navy warships have since been named in honor of this victory, including the most recent, the Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG 47). This low angle starboard bow view of Ticonderoga was taken while she was underway during sea trials. US Navy photo DN-SC-84-00165.
BOOK REVIEW – The Zimmermann Telegram
By Thomas Boghardt, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2012)
Reviewed by Capt. Winn Price USNR (Ret.)
I thoroughly enjoyed this tale from the black world of cryptology. Espionage novels replete with the ‘shaken-not-stirred’ womanizers and drivers of fast cars, abound in fiction and non-fiction. Codebreakers have not received glorification in a similar genre of novels. Probably the foremost impediment to ‘cipher thrillers’ is the tedious, attention-to-detail process of breaking codes that does not require fast women and faster cars as accessories.
Angels of the Airfields: Navy Air Evacuation Nurses of World War II
By Andre Sobocinski, Historian, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
When the Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) R4D broke through the clouds of volcanic dust and smoke to land on Iwo Jima on March 6, 1945, it carried more than whole blood and medical supplies for the wounded. On board this flight was a 22-year old Navy nurse named Jane Kendeigh, marking the first time in history that a Navy flight nurse appeared on an active Pacific battlefield. Kendeigh may have become a symbol for casualty evacuation and high altitude nursing on that day, but she was far from alone in this daring mission.
On 8 May 1911, the Birthday of Naval Aviation, the U.S. Navy ordered its first airplane, a Curtiss Triad (A-1). In this image taken at Hammondsport, New York, June 1911, individuals pose with the A-1, (left to right): Curtiss Mechanic; Dr. A.F. Zahm; Lieutenant J.W. McClaskey, USMC, (Retired); Mr. Jim Lamont; Mr. Glenn Curtiss; Captain Washington I Chambers, USN, Lieutenant John H. Towers, USN; Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson, USN; and Mr. Bill Pickens. NHHC image NH 44381.
On 8 May 1942, at the culmination of the Battle of the Coral Sea, the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV 2) was lost. Heavily damaged and ablaze after attacks by Japanese carrier planes, the carrier was abandoned and scuttled, becoming the first U.S. aircraft carrier lost in the war. NHHC image NH 51382.
Norman Polmar’s Corner: The Envelope Aircraft Carrier
By Norman Polmar
A telephone call in early March 1974 from one of my consulting customers in the Navy Department alerted me to a problem: The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, was upset with me. I had written a brief article in the March issue of the Naval Institute Proceedings—“Sea Control Ship and Navy Missions”—raising questions about the proposed sea control ship, one of several Zumwalt ship initiatives.
On 7 May 1942 U.S. Navy carrier aircraft sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho during the Battle of the Coral Sea. In this photo, shot from a USS Lexington (CV 2) plane, Shoho is torpedoed. National Archives image 80-G-17026.
BOOK REVIEW – Raising Missouri
By Chuck Veit, Lulu.com, Raleigh, NC. (2012)
Reviewed by David Kronenfeld
Chuck Veit in Raising Missouri has put together a tidy little volume detailing a little known footnote of American naval history – the sinking and salvage of USS Missouri. This is Veit’s third book and continues in the vein of his focus on 19th century American naval history. Veit utilized the self-publication platform Lulu.com to bring this work to fruition. Without self-publication venues such as Lulu.com such a book might not have been brought into print and Veit should be commended for using Lulu to bring an obscure, but notable event to the reading public.
On 6 May 1916 the first ship-to-shore radio telephone voice conversation was completed, from the battleship USS New Hampshire (BB 25) off the Virginia Capes to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in Washington, DC. This photo of New Hampshire was taken in the Hudson River, New York, 27 December 1918. NHHC image NH 2891.
