1812: The Navy's War
By George C. Daughan, Basic Books, New York, (2011).
Reviewed by Rear Admiral William J. Holland, Jr. U.S. Navy (Retired)
This is a splendid history. While documenting the courage, skill and luck of the tiny American Navy, Professor Daughan describes the machinations of the then principle players on a world stage in vastly greater breadth and detail than is usually thought about or studied in the United States. For example, the major role that Napoleon's invasion of Russia played in influencing the British government's policy related to the United States is described in detail. Manifest throughout the book is the ignorance and self-deception of all the governments in judging the motivations of their enemy. Among other positions that echo in today's world was a Congress that borrowed rather than tax to fund the war, enriching the bankers who opposed the war but loaned the money at high rates of interest.
As far as the exploits of the American Navy, these are fully detailed but Professor Daughan explains their effects on the war as a whole, not just individual battles. All the regular stories are here in full: the Constitution under three different skippers, the plucky sloops of war that universally outfought their heavier opponents in single ship combat, the ship-building races on Lakes Erie and Ontario.
But the depth of focus is well beyond the individual ship actions or the sideline issues of politics and personalities. Commodore John Rodgers' cruise in 1812 is an example. Rodgers squadron included most of the Navy's warships that were ready for sea at the start of the war, including two of the three heavy frigates, President and United States. Setting a course to intercept the Jamaica convoy in which over a hundred merchantmen sailed from the Caribbean to England each June and July, the Americans missed the convoy as it slipped by in heavy fog. Disgusted, his second in command, Stephen Decatur, labeled this voyage as a failure - and it was generally considered so in earlier histories. But Professor Daughan differs: he believes the voyage was a strategic success. The concentration forced the Royal Navy's Halifax Squadron to keep together in chase instead of being able to spread out to blockade the American ports. So in the first few weeks after the declaration of war, dozens of American merchantmen were able to return unhindered to ports along the East Coast - many later to be converted to privateers.
Of interest to all officers are the portrayals of the unreserved egotism and over preening pride of many individual officers and the resulting jealousies and failures those characteristics created. In the case of Lawrence, it cost the loss of Chesapeake. For Decatur and Bainbridge these characteristics set up the fateful duel that ended the life of one and the career of the other. While trumpeting of these and other officers' efforts in establishing the heritage of daring, heroism and skill for the Navy, today's Navy should be grateful that these less desirable personality traits have been ameliorated as serious features of its officer corps.
Among the most interesting insights is Professor Daughan's judgment on the effect of the American invasion attempts in Canada; all ultimately defeated. Demanded by enthusiastic War Hawks unencumbered by knowledge or experience who predicted that the Canadians would flock to U.S. banners, these incursions became the groundwork for a unified Canada. While British regular troops were key in defense, Canadians as part of the regular army and as militia became important in the defeat of the American attempts. In so doing the idea and the spirit of a Canadian nation was created. Using this gauge, the War of 1812 deserves to be more celebrated by our northern neighbor than in the United States.
This reviewer's first study about this war was Teddy Roosevelt's iconic "War of 1812" which I read in 1949. Several more have enlightened my mind and graced my library since. Without question however, this history of that period is the best there is. Anyone interested in the period or in the early traditions of the United States Navy should read this book. Anyone serious about these things should own a copy.
Rear Admiral Holland is the Vice President of the Naval Historical Foundation and Editor-in-Chief of the Foundation's book, "The Navy".
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Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater
By Brayton Harris, Palgrave Macmillan: New York, (2012)
Reviewed by Captain Scott Mobley, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Brayton Harris begins his narrative by pledging to give the reader a "guided tour" of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's life. Harris delivers on this promise, tracing Nimitz's rise from a small-town Texas boyhood to the apex of naval high command. U.S. Naval Institute oral histories inform Harris' research, as do contemporary news stories and an array of secondary sources-most notably E.B Potter's monumental biography of the admiral: Nimitz, published in 1976. Compared to Potter's earlier work, Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater provides a tidy, straightforward account-in a volume considerably slimmer than its predecessor.
Harris zeroes in on Nimitz's development as a naval leader and strategist. His opening chapters describe young Chester's rise up the navy career ladder, "one job at a time," from his Texas boyhood through flag rank. The number and diversity of Nimitz's early assignments may seem unusual to modern naval officers accustomed to comparatively rigid career paths, but they reflect a service in the midst of tremendous social and technological ferment. During the two decades following his 1905 commissioning at Annapolis, Nimitz served much of his sea time in platforms which embodied unproven new technologies: destroyers, submarines, and combat logistics ships. These pioneering opportunities allowed Nimitz to establish himself as a gifted commander, innovative problem-solver and skilled strategist. It was also an environment conducive to educated risk-taking, and somewhat tolerant of honest mistakes, as the young skipper Ensign Nimitz discovered after he ran his destroyer aground in the Philippines-a mishap that did not end his career.
As one might expect from its title, over half of the book covers Nimitz's Pacific War experiences. Within these 12 chapters, the author fathoms the underpinnings of his subject's successful wartime leadership. Through a series of anecdotal recollections, Harris reveals a distinctive "Nimitz style," hallmarked by the admiral's thoughtful selection and handling of subordinate commanders, key members of his staff, and other senior leaders. Nimitz energetically cultivated a strong rapport with the fighting forces under his cognizance, whether through his frequent travels to frontline areas, or conversations with operational commanders at fleet headquarters. He was a patient listener, maintaining his door open to nearly all comers, including junior personnel. One of Nimitz's greatest strengths was his capacity to size up individuals and match their abilities to appropriate responsibilities. He readily discerned competence and confidence from ineffectiveness and defeatism, then acted quickly to eliminate the latter-as in the autumn of 1942, when Nimitz replaced a pessimistic senior commander in the South Pacific with the aggressive William F. "Bull" Halsey. Always Nimitz acted with discretion, exercising his personal code of public praise and private reproof.
Two aspects of Nimitz's career as Pacific commander receive special focus in the book: his relationship with the press, and his interactions with the U.S. military top brass, most notably General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Earnest J. King. For much of the war, Nimitz suffered a continuous barrage of complaints from journalists, who never seemed satisfied with the timeliness or depth of information provided by the fleet staff. He finally hit upon a solution in 1944, when he assigned Captain Harold "Min" Miller to serve as fleet public relations officer. Innovative, accessible and popular with reporters, the future Chief of Navy Information (CHINFO) Miller did much to repair relations with the press corps and to deliver the navy's story to the American public.
Nimitz rarely aired his dislike for MacArthur. Indeed, Harris shows that Nimitz cooperated and at times deferred to the flamboyant general, as long as MacArthur's strategies appeared practicable-and did not undermine the navy's Central Pacific offensive. King's demeanor was often equal in petulance to that of MacArthur, and Nimitz's relationship with his superior suffered extra disadvantage early in the war, when he did not enjoy the King's full confidence (Nimitz was FDR's choice for Pacific commander, not King's). However, Nimitz earned King's trust quickly by exercising excellent strategic judgment at Midway and in the Solomons, and the two forged a solid working relationship that lasted for the duration. In the end, King helped persuade a hesitant Truman administration to appoint Nimitz as the first postwar CNO, a position the latter longed for as a crowning achievement to his career.
Admiral Nimitz: The Commander of the Pacific Ocean Theater offers a quick and informative read that introduces the reader to one of the U.S. Navy's leading personalities of the twentieth century. Students of naval history will enjoy the book. In addition, I recommend it with enthusiasm to junior officers and enlisted sailors seeking relevant insights on navy career dynamics, leadership style, inter-service relations, and strategy. Short chapter lengths (5-6 pages) divide the content into bite-size portions of reading, well-fitted to busy shipboard operations.
Working toward his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, Captain Mobley plans to trace the Navy's internal struggles from 1865 to 1945 - between the advocates of technical specialization, the champions of a broad, strategic outlook, and others. He will argue that the tensions emanating from this internal struggle transformed the Navy's intellectual and institutional paradigms.
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An American Adventure: From Early Aviation Through Three Wars to the White House
By William Lloyd Stearman, Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, MD (2012).
Reviewed by Dr. Richard P. Hallion
Mention "Stearman" among any group of aviation aficionados and an instant image of one of history's most influential and appealing aircraft comes to mind. The Stearman biplane occupies a unique place in the pantheon of American aviation, having produced, through its widespread use as a primary trainer, hundreds of thousands of Allied pilots before and during the Second World War. Afterwards it gradually gave way to more modern monoplanes, but found new life as an agricultural sprayer, and even a measure of cinematic fame as the murderous strafer chasing Cary Grant through the cornfields of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic North by Northwest. Today, nearly eight decades after its first flight, the "Yellow Peril" is readily sighted cavorting at air shows, and some still ply their trade as trainers, sailplane tugs, and crop-dusters.
William Lloyd Stearman is son of the trainer's legendary creator, Lloyd Stearman, and his book is at once both a hommage to his father and a fascinating accounting of his own remarkable life and the tumultuous times in which he lived. Stearman p�re was a brilliant designer, though less successful as a businessman (he was, in fact, at one point dethroned by a scheming associate from leadership of his own company). In 1924, he introduced young William to flight as the tender age of 22 months, holding him in his lap as he flew one of his first designs. Stearman fils ably traces his father's contributions to aviation and his role establishing America's aircraft industry during the interwar years. He offers many revealing insights both about his father and many other early aviator-entrepreneurs whose work collectively rescued American aviation from its doldrums in 1919, reshaping and elevating it to global prominence less than two decades later.
But the book's primary focus is the son. As a witness to history, William Stearman's life rivals the fictional Forrest Gump: a young naval officer aboard a LSM during the great Pacific amphibious invasions of 1944-45, landing troops and supplies under fire, facing enemy bombs, shells, and the occasional Kamikazes; lieutenant (senior grade) skipper shepherding a war-weary breakdown-prone heavily loaded ship on a perilous return from the far Pacific back to the United States, and through the Panama Canal to Charleston; multilingual graduate student on the GI Bill in Switzerland after the Second World War; Foreign Service Officer in Austria and Germany in the early (and occasionally deadly) days of the postwar US-Soviet confrontation, including a front-row seat at the Hungarian revolution; with President John F. Kennedy during his disastrous meeting with Khrushchev in June 1961; official traveler through Eastern Europe, avoiding various compromise and kidnap schemes by Soviet Bloc security services; foreign service in South Vietnam in the critical years from just after the murder of Ngo Dinh Diem to just before the Tet offensive; Nixon-era National Security Council staffer during the era of Vietnamization, and the North Vietnamese Spring Invasion of 1972; witness to the latter days of the Nixon Presidency and the Byzantine Ford transition ("Apart from combat, this was the most surreal event in my life."[201]); strategist at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University; a return to the NSC in the heady Reagan era and the final days of the Cold War; appointment as a Papal Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.
Stearman is proud of his many accomplishments, but the great strength of the book is that he is equally frank about decisions and beliefs that proved flawed or less than perceptive. Unlike many, he does not use the autobiographical genre to engage in petty sniping and self-serving score-settling or justification, and he shows an admirable regard for citing professional histories and other sources to buttress his arguments or to otherwise inform his narrative. The book has some minor stylistic flaws-occasional repetition of phrasing and references, and some small errors of fact that more careful review should have caught (Billy Mitchell, for example, did not use 1,500 bombers to sink the Ostfriesland [240]).
Stearman is blunt in his judgments, and though personally and politically strongly conservative, is no reflexive zealot. He is an astute observer of American-European relations, seeing much merit (and also weaknesses) in the social and cultural values of both, but believing that America's empowerment of the individual and "genuine religiosity" makes it unique among the world's nations [162-64]. Like many, he believes that after 1973 American politicians and bureaucratic careerists threw away the opportunity to preserve South Vietnam, but sees that loss as rooted in much earlier failures, beginning with the Kennedy administration's complicity in the overthrow of Diem in 1963 [194-97]. Although not a "battleship sailor," he has an abiding fascination for the big vessels from his time as a young amphibious assaulter, and argues energetically (and more persuasively than many other advocates) that their retirement as littoral fire support systems constituted a blunder of great potential consequence [239-52].
Overall, An American Adventure is a very informative, even entertaining work, offering much that historians of naval operations in the Second World War, Cold War historians, students of the Vietnam experience, and those interested in more recent foreign policy and national security studies will find of value. It offers a valuable "view from the trenches" perspective complementing (and counterpointing) other memoirs of notable Cold Warriors such as Paul H. Nitze's From Hiroshima to Glasnost.One leaves this work thankful that its author took the time and effort to write it, and that others-particularly Dr. Stephen T. Hosmer of The RAND Corporation-encouraged his literary efforts, steering him to the Naval Institute Press (which is to be commended for publishing what is, overall, an unusually fine and fascinating book).
Dr. Hallion is Research Associate in Aeronautics, at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
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Saving Big Ben: the USS Franklin and Father Joseph T. O'Callahan By John R. Satterfield, Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, MD (2011) Reviewed by Commander Paul W. Murphey, CHC, USNR (Ret.) Appearance wise, Saving Big Ben is an impressive book. Beautifully bound with an appealing jacket, featuring a pleasant type and format, and having enticing blurbs on the back cover, the book brings a sense of anticipation to a prospective reader. However, when an author undertakes to retell a well-known story, he needs more than pretty pages. This is one of the best known stories of heroism and valor during World War II, especially in the hard-fought naval and island battles of the Pacific. Even those already familiar with the incomparable Chaplain O'Callahan and the "never-say-die" determination of the Commanding Officer and crew of USS Franklin will find a new cause for admiration in this work by John Satterfield. While I found the book engrossing I also found it frustrating. It is engrossing because it brings Father O'Callahan to life again and makes his heroic exploits on USS Franklin all the more astounding. The author has taken great pains to search not only the Navy's archival records but to explore relevant treatments in the popular press and make extensive use of personal interviews with Father O'Callahan's relatives and friends. This is perhaps its greatest strength. The author has used those rich resources to present Joseph T. O'Callahan as a man with a background appropriate to his destiny and a life consistent with his faith. His story is told in such a way that each event is preparatory to the next, culminating in his extraordinary fulfilling of his calling in ministering to the dying, wounded, and survivors of the terrible devastation of the crippling airstrike against USS Franklin. . In spite of this, I had to read the book twice before I formed a very positive opinion; not because the story is not exciting but for other reasons. The author has taken meticulous care to document his work. While this is commendable and will be applauded by those who love the minutiae of the trees, it is disconcerting to those who want to experience the forest. I found the notes excessively redundant. I also found the use of Latin quotations at the beginning of most chapters more distracting than helpful. It was not clear what the author had in mind by using them. Father O'Callahan's Jesuit identification was already amply established and the book was not presented as a meditation needing the form of a formal prayer or familiar religious rites for its context. It is a venture into historical and biographical writing rather than a religious reflection and should be able to stand on the legitimacy of those areas of research and writing. One error of note -- while the author indicates David White was the Chief of Chaplains attending the funeral, it was in fact Admiral Joseph Floyd Dreith. (David White would not be Chief of Chaplains until about four decades later.) This error has been corrected for the next edition. Also frustrating was the insertion of what the author calls Prologue as Chapter One. A better place for that material would have been in an Appendix with attention drawn in the Introduction to its availability. It would have been far better for the author to start the book with the interesting background of the O'Callahan family and progressing smoothly from there in the manner of the rest of the book; making Chapter 2 actually Chapter 1. The Prologue seems to have been a stand-alone article which would have been more appropriately published in Naval Institute Proceedings or a similar journal. The notes in the Prologue are often used as opportunity for the author to take exception to other writer's positions or views. This may be exciting to scholars or persons already deeply immersed in the incidents and details of the War in the Pacific, but will do little to encourage the general reader to get to know either Father O'Callahan or USS Franklin. Fortunately, after the reader has made it through the Prologue the rest of the book shifts to the more readable style found the rest of the way. Now, having pointed out these areas of concern, let me express appreciation to the author for bringing to life again the magnificent story of the devastation suffered by Franklin and the incredible heroism of its crew, particularly its Chaplains. Chaplain O'Callahan acquitted himself well beyond the call of duty and made it an admirable thing to be a Navy Chaplain. The author brings his readers along as Joseph O'Callahan decides to become a Jesuit then with the same measure of devotion pursues service in the Navy as a Chaplain. He is presented as one who gave himself tirelessly to every task from the day he began active duty. His contributions to other duty stations, including early involvement in USS Ranger gave evidence that he was equipped to handle the rigors of carrier duty in Franklin as she went in harm's way. The author gives the ship a life of its own as he tells his readers of the preceding United States ships that bore that name and how difficult it was to even imagine what would happen to her. The author does not shy away from acknowledging and treating appropriately some of the conflicts in Chaplain O'Callahan's life, for instance, over attitudes toward the Japanese. His beloved sister's oppressive experiences as an interned missionary in the Phillipines and his acceptance of his sister-in-law who was Japanese-American were intertwined in his working his way through the role of the Japanese in his life and thought. Anyone who has heard the story of USS Franklin and its indomitable Chaplain O'Callahan will thrill to the place they both have in American naval history and be grateful to John Satterfield for making the story come alive again. Commander Murphey retired from the Navy as Command Chaplain, USS Midway (CV41). Prior to active duty he was Professor of Religion and Director of Interdisciplinary Humanities Program, Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky.
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DestroyermanBy John T. Pigott, (2006) Reviewed by Rear Admiral Peter B. Booth, U.S. Navy (Retired) The whaleboat was deep in the water, grossly overloaded with sailors hauled from the ocean. I grabbed the oil-soaked life jacket of the sailor who would have brought our total to thirty-five, and had started to heave him aboard when I felt the sea pour over my feet. I eased him back and let go. "We'll get you next trip!" Such was the terse beginning to a fascinating memoir of tough, wartime duty on two destroyers from mid-1942 to the fall of 1945. The author, John T. Pigott, a retired lawyer, only qualification for becoming an ensign on his first ship, the USS Lansdowne (DD 486), consisted of one course a year having something to do with Navy ships and a few weeks of summer training. Upon graduation from Yale, within one week, he was married, commissioned as a reserve ensign, stepped upon his first warship and set sail for wartime duty. The breadth of his over-three years of constant combat sea duty spanned both oceans from submarine hunting in the Atlantic and Caribbean (two confirmed sinkings) to the fast actions around Guadalcanal, to the Aleutians on his first ship. His second ship, with hardly a break, was the 2200-ton USS Barton (DD 722) where it supported the Normandy landings, then back to the Southwest Pacific fray, the three-month battle for Okinawa, Tokyo Bay and back to Conus at war's end. By my rough count, Pigott spent around 800 days underway and most likely, stood some 2,000 hours on the bridge as OOD or at his GQ station. Interestingly, his first CO was then-Lieutenant Commander William Smedberg III (later Vice Admiral) whom the author repeatedly described as a brilliant leader and ship handler. As I read the first few chapters, Pigott easily chronicled his hesitant growing steps as a young officer and his descriptions of the inner-workings of his old destroyer. There were no laborious training workups; it was the combat Navy from the start. Three months after joining the ship wherein his general quarters station was high atop the bridge, the ship was in the thick of fierce fighting in the southwest Pacific, one sad casualty being the loss of the carrier USS Wasp to Japanese torpedoes. In addition to the forgoing rescue vignette, Ensign Pigott made several round trips that day to the burning and listing carrier to rescue many dozens of sodden and lucky Navy sailors. And, while still in the year 1942, the Lansdowne, as described from his vantage point in the main battery director, was engaged in the most intense night combat imaginable. Coincidentally, I had read not long ago, Admiral Jim Holloway's Aircraft Carriers At War, the first chapter of which is devoted to his experiences as an ensign right out of the USNA directing gunnery and torpedo attacks against multiple Japanese targets in the same waters and about the same time frame as that of the Lansdowne. In both cases, the authors describe the actions of destroyers at thirty-knots plus, complete darken ship, antiquated radars, shoal waters all about and a competent enemy out to kill them. The writing is riveting, this reviewer unwilling to put the books down. DestroyerMan is exceptionally well written with great attention to detail and is as good a read as the best of the many maritime memoires I've read over many decades. Both of Pigott's ships were in the thick of constant battles with only two short forays back to the states for repairs, one for a grounding near Guadalcanal by the Lansdowne and the other by Barton after a significant collision at night. The book is only about 150 pages, but each page is chock full of combat lessons from yesteryear with numerous forays and vignettes of real sailors doing the tough combat job at sea for extremely long and arduous periods, with precious little time ashore and essentially no family. The forward to the book, published in 2006, by a law firm compatriot of Mr. Pigott described him thusly: John's war experiences forged his character. Something about the naval chain of command, the duty to protect the ship at all costs, and mortal danger of combat, fired in his soul a strong central core of principle. He came away from the smoke, fire and death risk knowing who he was and what he stood for. Forged by combat, his character was not to bend in the trade winds of commerce. The same could be said for the thousands of destroyer sailors, both officer and enlisted, who so ably and honorably served with heads held high on hundreds of these tough smaller ships over the millennium. I give Mr. John T. Pigott five stars for a most impressive, readable and captivating book that embraces the spirit of tough ships and tougher crews during WWII. Rear Admiral Booth served for fourteen peacetime months on the USS Buck (DD 761) following his graduation from the USNA in 1956.
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The German and the Austrian Navies: Vol. I and II  By Marc E. Nonnenkamp, CreateSpace: Charleston, SC, (2011). Reviewed by Walter "Winn" Price My immediate interest in these two volume stems from the presence in my manuscript of three Imperial German Navy ships: S.M.S. Olga, Adler, and Eber. Longer term I anticipated that Marc Nonnenkamp's research would under girt future writing leading up to the Great War. Indeed, The German and the Austrian Navies: Vol. I and II provide unmatched historical breadth covering 1,936 named ships from the German, West German, East German, Austrian ... Holy Roman and Hanseatic League navies. Equally impressive is the comprehensive, if not exhaustive, coverage of ship classes as illustrated by the title of Chapter 14 "The Smallest Sailing Vessels of the Austro-Venetian Navy (less than 80 tons displacement)." Not only does the author include ships that sailed under one or another Germanic flags but he includes ships planned but never built. I had a vague knowledge of an Nazi aircraft carrier left unfinished in 1945, but Nonnenkamp points out that "9 planned German aircraft carriers already had proposed names - 7 of which were already launched." Another obscure category of warship probably not well documented elsewhere are those ships captured by the Germans and placed into service with their navy. Mr. Nonnenkamp has done his homework here as well. Typical information on a ship class includes the name of each ship, key dates, name sources, armament, complement, and final disposition. As the ship's size and historical impact increases so does the associated history of each ship. But few ships receive more than a plump paragraph. Collected at the end of volume II are essays on a range of related topics such as "Operation Sealion", "Mediterranean Strategy of the Kriegsmarine", "Fatherland and Monarchy", and Modern Nautical Museums in Germany and Austria." The appendix includes suggested books and web sites. The annotated sources include books on the pending financial collapse, Nostradamus, and freemasons, which suggests more proofreading might be beneficial. Ah, but here is the rub. No index follows the appendix. For a title that will be mainly used as a research tool, the absence of an index is baffling. Furthermore the overall organization of the volumes seems inconsistent, causing the reader to miss the index all the more. Also disappointing is the relative lack of photos (Conway's and Janes comes to mind). However a small collection of working sailor photos from the Nonnenkamp family archives is a treasure. Several paintings by the noted marine artist Gunther Todt (available in color on the family website www.theborromeofamily.com ) are a treat as well. During the spot-checking of the two volumes, a few mistakes were found: the wrong Jean Bart is referred to on page 235 and the U.S. moon landing occurred in 1969 not 1968. Recalling my immediate interest above, the Adler (vol. I, pg. 137) as described as having three times the displacement than Adler in Conway's or on the official U.S. naval history web site. Another error perhaps -- a second Adler (vol. II, pg. 34) fits Conway's description. In summary these volumes are a remarkable compendium or catalogue of the warships of the German speaking peoples. While the occasional error is mildly distracting; the absence of an index, at least of ship's names, hampers the research for which the volumes were intended. Nevertheless, this reader will benefit from them for years to come. Winn Price anticipates by year's end a final draft of a historic novel based on the events surrounding the cyclone that disrupted the delicate diplomatic situation in Samoa in 1889. He aspires to follow a naval cadet's career in future books.
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Books Available for Review
We have a number of books here in our offices that are available to be reviewed. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Dave Winkler at dwinkler@navyhistory.org .
Admiral Boorda's Navy. Malcolm Steinberg, Infinity Publishing, 2011, 260 pages.
Iraq in Turmoil: Historical Perspectives of Dr. Ali Al-Wardi, from the Ottoman Empire to King Feisal. CDR Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, USN, Naval Institute Press, 2012, 188pages.
John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail. Tim McGrath, Westholme Publishing, 2010, 621 pages.
The Kissing Sailor. Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi, Naval Institute Press, 2012, 267 pages.
The Sea Was Always There. Joseph Callo, Fireship Press, 2012, 353 pages.
Warship 2011. Edited by John Jordan, Conway, 2011, 208 pages.
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