A statement from Rear Admiral Jay DeLoach, USN (Ret), Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command:

 

"I shared with my command today that I will be voluntarily stepping down as their director. The turnover process with the new director will commence May 1 and end prior to May 15. When I took this job in 2008, I was tasked by the Chief of Naval Operations with fixing an organization that had fallen into obscurity for a variety of reasons and to rebuild it into a viable Echelon II command capable of executing its mission and making naval history 'come alive' for the Navy and the American public. Since then, the revived Naval History and Heritage Command has made tremendous improvements in collecting, preserving, protecting, and making available the history of the Navy as noted by the recent Blue Ribbon Panel.

 

While I am very impressed with the strides that this team has made in preserving and telling the history of the world's finest Navy, I believe it's time for a new leader to expand on recent progress and deal with the challenges before us. I am proud of the men and women of the History and Heritage Command and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead them. We have been on a long journey together over the past 4 years, and would not be as far along as we are without the dedication and commitment of everyone at NHHC.

 

My successor will bring a new infusion of energy to the command to continue on our journey into the future. The past four years at NHHC has tested every aspect of my professional talents and leadership and I am confident of the legacy of change and the connection with our Navy that I leave to my successor."

The Naval Historical Foundation is pleased to announce the eight selectees for the  2012 Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and History (STEM-H) Teacher Fellowship. Selectees will use the exhibits of the Cold War Gallery of the National Navy Museum in Washington DC during their two-week fellowship to develop standards-based lesson plans, based on the technology, engineering, science, and mathematics inherent in the museum exhibits. Since the history of the Navy is the history of technology, three certified history teachers have been added to this year's fellowship teams to develop history lesson plans complementary to the STEM lesson plans.

 

The first fellowship team will concentrate on the Covert Submarine Operations exhibit, to expand the submarine navigation, communications, nuclear propulsion, torpedo, missile, sonar, fire control and undersea engineering areas. In addition to the exhibits in the museum, a submarine tour will be part of their 2-week schedule. Coming to DC for the period 9 - 20 July are:

• Benjamin J. Barris, a physics and mathematics teacher at A.C. Jones High School, Beeville, TX
• Janice Cunningham, a mathematics, robotics and engineering teacher for Berkeley County School District, SC
• Bill Sanford, a mathematics, physics, and computer science teacher at Nansemond Suffolk Academy, Suffolk, VA
• Cynthia Woolston, a history teacher for Brunswick R-II School District, Brunswick, MO

The second fellowship team will widen the lesson planning scope to include naval aircraft and surface ships, their missiles, and naval research and development. Visits to Patuxent River, MD and Dahlgren, VA are planned.  Naval Air Station Patuxent River is home to the full spectrum of Research, Development, Acquisition, Test & Evaluation (RDAT&E) for all of naval aviation. Dahlgren Laboratory is a premier naval research and development center that serves as a specialty site for weapon system integration, with unique ability to rapidly introduce new technology into complex warfighting systems based on Dahlgren's longstanding competencies in Science and Technology RDAT&E. Also planned is a tour of an AEGIS destroyer or cruiser. For the 23 July - 3 August period, selectees are:

• Donald G. Belle, biology and chemistry teacher at Gwynn Park High School, Brandywine, MD
• John Clark, mathematics, physics, chemistry, earth/space science, and history teacher at Deltona High School, Deltona, FL
• J. Paul Parker, earth science teacher at McCant's Middle School, Anderson, SC
• Danielle Thomas, history teacher at Chesnee Middle School, Chesnee, SC

Finally, a small cadre' of returning STEM fellows from last summer will overlap with the new STEM-H teams from July 16-27. Jeff Derda, a STEM teacher, and Ken Nagel, an earth science and environmental science teacher, from the Academy of Information Technology at Apex High School, Apex, NC, will be in Washington DC to present their fellowship experiences at the National Academy Foundation conference. They will also help to guide and assist the new fellowship teachers, with a view toward expanding the STEM-H fellowship program under Jeff's and Ken's leadership to several of the other twelve Navy museums nationwide; see http://www.history.navy.mil/museums/index.html.

 

Submarine-related lesson plans from last year's STEM fellowship teachers can be viewed at: http://www.usnavymuseum.org/Education.asp.

The National Maritime Historical Society awarded their Distinguished Service Award to NHF Chairman Admiral Bruce DeMars, USN (Ret) at the NMHS Washington Awards Dinner at the National Press Club on 12 April 2012. The award was presented by Senator Christopher J. Dodd. Admiral DeMars was recognized for promoting the history of the U.S. Navy.

We continue to update our blog with weekly stories, book reviews, and news updates. Here's a highlight of some of the stories we've shared at www.navyhistory.org. Additionally, if you have an interesting story about naval history, a museum ship, or a naval museum, please let us know, and we'll consider it for publication on the blog! Contact David Colamaria at dcolamaria@navyhistory.org with your story idea.