Naval Historical Foundation Oral Histories

Oral History: In May 1996, the NHF, with a grant from Ambassador William H.G. Fitzgerald, initiated an oral history program. During the next 18 months, Dr. Winkler conducted numerous interviews with senior retired officer and enlisted personnel. He also compiled a Directory of Navy Oral History, a listing of some 1,300 Navy-related interviews compiled by over 60 repositories around the country. Dr. Winkler’s efforts have been augmented by members of the Foundation. Since 1997, over 100 individuals have volunteered to conduct or transcribe interviews. Members nominated numerous candidates to be interviewed. The matchmaking process continues. As of December 2008, over two hundred interviews and memoirs have been published and several others interviews are in some stage of completion. With the Foundation’s role in developing content for the Navy Museum’s Cold War Gallery, the oral history program is focusing on veterans of this conflict. Oral histories serve two purposes. They provide a primary source document for researchers to use in the writing of history. Perhaps more important though, the transcript serves as a pass down item for future generations of a family. The Naval Historical Foundation submits copies of the transcripts to the Operational Archives of the Naval History and Heritage Command, the Navy Department Library, and libraries at the Naval Academy, Naval Postgraduate School, and Naval War College. The Naval Historical Foundation is a founding partner of the Library of Congress Veterans History Program and NHF oral histories are included in the LOC online database.

Volunteers use the Naval Historical Foundation’s Oral History Guidelines.