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BOOK REVIEW – MacArthur and Halsey’s “Pacific Island Hoppers”: The Forgotten Fleet of World War II

By David D. Bruhn, Heritage Books, Inc., Berwyn Heights, MD (2014) Reviewed By Christopher B. Havern Through well-executed strikes by its land and naval forces, the Japanese Empire conquered vast stretches of Southeast Asia, the Southwest Pacific, and the Central Pacific in the six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the process they

BOOK REVIEW – The Men of the Arizona (BB-39): Revised Edition

By T.J. Cooper, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Charleston, S.C., (2013) Reviewed by LCdr. Jason P. Grower, USN December 7th marks a somber occasion – the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It was a seminal moment which changed the world and defined a generation.  Thus the date is a remembrance of those

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BOOK REVIEW – The Coast Guardsman’s Manual (10th Edition)

Edited by Jim Dolbow, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. (2013). Reviewed by Thomas P. Ostrom The Coast Guardsman’s Manual, first published in 1952, is now in print for its 10th edition, skillfully edited by Lt. Jim Dolbow (USCGR). Dolbow has served on active duty assignments, as a congressional legislative assistant on defense issues, and legislative

BOOK REVIEW – Big Guns, Brave Men: Mobile Artillery Observers and the Battle for Okinawa

By Rodney Earl Walton, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD (2013) Reviewed by Diana L. Ahmad, Ph.D. This well-researched and well-written book analyzed the role of forward artillery observers on Okinawa during the largest artillery battle in World War II’s Pacific Theater. Likely inspired by his father’s role as a forward observer for the 361st Field

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BOOK REVIEW – The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862-July 1864: Swamps, Forts and Fleets on Vicksburg’s Northern Flank

By Myron J. Smith, Jr., McFarland, Henderson, NC, (2012). Reviewed by John Grady Myron Smith has delivered a wonderfully detailed account of the stubborn fighting that continued along the Yazoo River for much of the Civil War. For the Union Navy, in particular, it was a sometimes brutish brawl that continued after the fall of

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BOOK REVIEW – The History of Canada: War In The St. Lawrence – The Forgotten U-Boat Battles on Canada’s Shores

By Rodger Sarty; Allen Lane-Penguin Group, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2012) Reviewed by Michael F. Solecki This book is the eighth installment to “The History of Canada” series. The War in the St. Lawrence is for the most part either forgotten or a printed glitch in the grander “Battle of the Atlantic.” The “Battle in the

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BOOK REVIEW – Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt, Jr.

By Larry Berman, Harper Collins, New York, NY (2013). Reviewed by Stephen Phillips Depending on one’s perspective, Admiral Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt is famous or infamous for transforming the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War era. His name is synonymous with long hair, beards, and social reform through “Z-Grams” – messages to the fleet that served

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BOOK REVIEW – The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy’s Greatest Victory

Edited by Thomas C. Hone  (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013). Reviewed by John T. Kuehn, Ph.D. No other naval battle in recent American history has garnered more attention than the aircraft carrier clash at the western extremity of the Hawaiian Island Chain in June 1942 than Midway. Ever since Samuel Eliot Morison’s seminal volume

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BOOK REVIEW – Rolling Thunder, A Vietnam War Novel

By L. Erik Fleming, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., Houston, TX, (2012). Reviewed by Jan Churchill Even though this book is called Rolling Thunder, it is not a history lesson of this operation but an entertaining story about a fictional Marine Captain Valentine Jordan, a fighter pilot assigned to a F4J Phantom II squadron

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BOOK REVIEW – Big Mother 40, A Vietnam War Novel

By Marc Liebman, Fireship Press, Tuscan, AZ, (2012) Reviewed by Thomas P. Ostrom It was my pleasure to review this magnificent book about U.S. Navy helicopter combat rescue operations for downed aviators and crews during the Vietnam War. Naval Historical Foundation Program Director Dr. David F. Winkler suggested I review this book because of my

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BOOK REVIEW – From the Revolution to the Cold War: A History of the Soviet Merchant Fleet from 1917 to 1950

By Martin J. Bollinger, World Ship Society Ltd, Windsor. UK. (2012). Reviewed by Ingo Heidbrink, Ph.D. Russian or to be more precise Soviet maritime history seems to be one of the most overlooked topics in global maritime history. Of course there is an explanation for this, the obvious language barrier many scholars are facing and

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BOOK REVIEW – Congo: The Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN

By Andrew C. A. Jampoler, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, (2013). Reviewed by Mark Lardas The nineteenth century United States Navy exploration efforts included the Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 that circumnavigated the globe and discovered parts of Antarctica and the 1848-49 hydrographic expedition charting the Dead Sea. Both were notable successes. On the other end

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BOOK REVIEW – Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine: Iron, Guns, and Pearls

By James P. Delgado, Texas A&M University Press, College Station: TX, (2012) Reviewed by Phillip G. Pattee, Ph.D When I saw the title of James P. Delgado’s most recent book, I mistakenly believed it would chronicle the storied life of the CSS Hunley simply because this was the only Civil War submarine with which I

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BOOK REVIEW – War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865

By James M. McPherson, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC, (2012). Reviewed by Kenneth J. Blume, Ph.D. Do we need yet another book about the naval side of the Civil War? When the book has been written by the nation’s preeminent scholar of the Civil War, the answer is certainly yes. James M.

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BOOK REVIEW – 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