A classic account of the 40-year Naval career of Benjamin Franklin Isherwood, whose contributions to Naval engineering helped usher in the development of the modern American Navy. Focusing on the years during and immediately after the Civil War, this study chronicles the extensive contributions made by Isherwood in expanding the size and scope of the U.S. Navy. ...
When his electronic warfare plane, call sign Bat 21, was shot down on 2 April 1972, fifty-three-year-old Air Force navigator Iceal «Gene» Hambleton parachuted into the middle of a North Vietnamese invasion force and set off the biggest and most controversial air rescue effort of the Vietnam War. After twenty-five years of official secrecy, the story of that dangerous and costly rescue is revealed by a decorated Air Force pilot and Vietnam vetera ...
This was the first study to put 19th century American naval and diplomatic affairs in the Far East into clear perspective. Johnson examines the origins of the East India Squadron, defines its import role in the implementation of foreign policy and describes the dangers routinely faced by the squadron’s ships and sailors. Great and gallant ships move through the pages from the famous Olympia and the majestic Columbus to the plodding Pal ...
With a sharp eye and wry wit, Roger Hall recounts his experiences as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. First published in 1957 to critical and popular acclaim, his book has become a cult favorite in intelligence circles. The story follows Hall's experiences from a junior officer fleeing a tedious training assignment in Louisiana to his quirky and rigorous OSS training rituals in ...
This biography recounts the extraordinary life of I. V. Gillis, both as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1894 to 1919 and as a collector of rare Chinese books. China specialist Bruce Swanson captures the colorful, multi-faceted life of the man known as an innovative thinker, tactical practitioner, spy, and successful diplomat. Gillis, a second-generation Naval Academy graduate and the son of an admiral, was hailed a hero while serving aboard his ...
This acclaimed sequel to the Peattie/Evans prizewinning work, Kaigun, illuminates the rise of Japanese naval aviation from its genesis in 1909 to its thunderbolt capability on the eve of the Pacific war. In the process of explaining the navy s essential strengths and weaknesses, the book provides the most detailed account available in English of Japan s naval air campaign over China from 1937 to 1941. A final chapter analyzes the utter destructi ...
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, the U.S. found its merchants and traders locked out of their traditional markets in Europe and the Caribbean. Hoping for new and profitable American trade relationships, President Andrew Jackson dispatched an unemployed ship-owner and merchant with no diplomatic experience on a secret mission to negotiate with Eastern potentates in their courts. Edmund Roberts’ mission was to formalize American ...