2022 Plan of the Year

The 2022 PLAN OF THE YEAR!

By Rear Adm. Edward S. “Sonny” Masso, USN (Ret.)

Upcoming Second Saturdays

The centennial month of the Washington Naval Arms Conference is followed by the centennial of the commissioning of the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, USS Langley. Having just spent a year as the Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to draft a manuscript on the history of this ship, our staff historian Dr. Dave Winkler recently shared his findings during our March 12 webinar title “Centennial of USS Langley.”

On April 9, author of the recently published Admirals Under Fire and retired Senior Historian of the Navy Dr. Ed Marolda will discuss the 50th anniversary of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive with a specific focus on the leadership of Admirals Zumwalt and Holloway. Eventually, the United States would react by conducting a very effective mining campaign against Haiphong and other ports.

Our May 14 Second Saturday presentation will occur in the wake of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. With the loss of Lexington and damage to Yorktown, compared to Japan’s loss of “Scratch One Flattop” Shoho, Japan could claim a tactical victory. However, with the planned landings at Port Moresby deterred and the carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, rendered non-available for the forthcoming Midway operation due to damage and loss of aircrews, the United States could claim strategic victory— especially after the crippled Yorktown was repaired in time for the Battle of Midway, thanks to the herculean efforts of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. That repair effort and ship maintenance will be the focus of this program.

Our June Second Saturday presentation will coincide with our annual meeting and the Cdr. David T. Leighton Lecture, featuring Patrick K. O’Donnell, who will discuss his book The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware, highlighting the critical role mariners played as America struggled for its independence. The June 11 presentation will include prominent naval historians of the American Revolution to offer critique and commentary.

As the Navy celebrates the centennial of naval carrier aviation, for our July 16 program, we will look at Operation Desert Fox, the four-day air campaign against Iraq in

December 1998 that was initiated by air strikes launched from USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and complemented by Tomahawk missiles fired by other surface and subsurface combatants in the region. Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command Rear Adm. Sam Cox will brief the mission, and veterans of the campaign will recall their roles. On August 13, we will virtually travel to the Navy Recruit Training Station at Great Lakes to discuss the Battle Stations training regimen and the enlisted heroes who provide our future bluejackets inspiration. Former Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens will 2022 be our guide. In the wake of a study conducted by Rear Adm. Phillip Balisle that harshly criticized fleet upkeep, we intend to take a historical overview of this ongoing challenge to keep not only ships combatready but also their crews. Recently, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert Work pointed at the Navy’s insistence of forward presence being a mission area in itself as part of the problem. Consequently, our September 10 Second Saturday should engender constructive debate. On October 8, Dr. Ryan Wadle of the Naval War College, author of Selling Sea Power: Public Relations and the U.S. Navy, 1917–1941, will mark the centennial of Navy Day with a discussion of how the Office of Naval Intelligence engineered the advent of this annual holiday to generate public support for the Navy and how the October 27 event that coincided with Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday gained in popularity until the 1950s. The Second Saturday in November falls on the 12th, the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Naval Battle for Guadalcanal. We will welcome Trent Hone and Paul Stillwell, both of whom authored outstanding narrations of these surface actions, with Stillwell’s most recent being Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, Jr. On December 10, we close out the year on the gridiron to discuss the significance of the Army–Navy game over the decades. To liven up the discussion, don’t be surprised if we bring in some alums from that school up on the Hudson! All our Second Saturdays will be pre-announced on our Thursday Tidings e-letters, and you can preregister and forward questions beforehand, or you can just join us on the day of the program at www.navyhistory.org. Continued on page 6

2022 PLAN OF THE YEAR

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Returning to Live Events!

USNA Dinner: Barring yet another COVID variant, plans charge ahead for a series of in-person events, beginning with a dinner at 29 MAR the Doubletree Hotel in Annapolis on Wednesday March 30 to celebrate the winners of our annual Voices of Maritime History Competition for the Superintendent’s Leadership and Vision Award. Last December, nearly 60 midshipmen indicated interest in participating in this unique competition that features written and oral components. Besides the finalists, the March 30 dinner will welcome senior leadership and faculty from the U.S. Naval Academy, members from our distinguished panel of judges, NHF Knox Medal recipients, and individuals who have expressed interest in sustaining the program in the wake of the passing of the competition’s initiator, Dr. Jack London. If you have an interest in counting yourself in with this latter group and would like to join us for this festive occasion, please contact our executive director Rear Adm. Masso at emasso@ navyhistory.org. Falklands Seminar: The Navy Museum will serve as the backdrop for an afternoon seminar followed by a reception as the NHF 3 MAY commemorates the 40th anniversary largest naval combat confrontation in the post–World War II era. With the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano (ex USS Phoenix) torpedoed on May 2, 1982, and the HMS Sheffield crippled two days later, this is an appropriate time to mark the occasion with presentations capturing various aspects of the fight for sea control around this South Atlantic island group.

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Yorktown aflame following an air attack from Hiryu in the Naval Historical Foundation image that has been donated to the photo archives of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Midway Dinner: For two decades, the NHF has played a lead role in coordinating with a consortium of Navy support organizations to commemorate what this year will be the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. Join us at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia, as we celebrate a victory that many have referred to as the U.S. Navy’s Trafalgar.

Annual Meeting, Leighton Lecture, and

Reception: After a two-year hiatus, we intend to go back live for a Saturday 11 a.m. start time at the Navy Museum for our annual meeting. After a discussion of the accomplishments and future initiatives of your foundation, Patrick K. O’Donnell will give our annual Cdr. David T. Leighton Lecture. With the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Navy a mere three years away, he will discuss the colonial maritime community’s role in contributing to revolution against the British Crown.

Commodore Dudley W. Knox Medal

Luncheon: After last year’s inaugural luncheon to recognize Capt. Peter Swartz and Dr. Michael Crawford for their lifetime work within the naval history profession, we have tentatively scheduled this date at the Decatur House Carriage House, site of the former NHF Truxtun–Decatur House Museum, pending the availability of the 2022 recipients who will be announced at our annual meeting. The deadline for the submission of nominee packages once again is April 30. Visit www.navyhistory.org for submission details!

NHF Annual Five-Star Gala to Celebrate a

Century of Naval Carrier Aviation: Though USS Langley was commissioned in March 2022, the converted former collier did not get under way for sea trials until the fall, and this October marks the centennial of the aircraft carrier’s first flight operations. NHF Chairman Admiral Fallon looks forward to welcoming a large gathering of senior naval leaders from the naval aviation community, past and present, as well as others who cherish the history of naval aviation and support naval air power’s continuing contributions to the nation’s defense.

2022 PLAN OF THE YEAR

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Second Saturday Recaps!

Abelated Happy New Year as we leave the first two months of 2022 in our wake as this newsletter goes to press. Though it was a colder than normal winter in the nation’s capital, we have not been hibernating. If you missed out on our recent Second Saturday webinars, I would urge you to visit the Naval Historical Foundation on YouTube and click on some of our recent productions. In October, we reintroduced a presentation that was produced a decade ago by NHF content developer Matt Eng featuring our late former chairman Adm. James L. Holloway III, discussing his participation as the destroyer Bennion’s gunnery officer in a clash with the Imperial Japanese Navy at Surigao Strait—a critical component of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The video, which accumulated over a million views in the past decade, was enhanced with a new introduction by Navy Museum Director Dr. Chris Rentfrow and commentary by Trent Hone, author of Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898–1945, and Paul Stillwell, who recently published Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, Jr.

In November we commemorated the centennial of the arrival of the Unknown Soldier with a presentation by best-selling author Patrick K. O’Donnell, author of The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home. Our staff historian Dr. Dave Winkler and Marine Corps historian Kara Newcomer offered their observations of the cross-Atlantic mission of Olympia as that famed ship steamed head-on through a hurricane before arriving at the Washington Navy Yard.

Our December 7, 1999, the symposium to address an ongoing debate to posthumously restore the rank of full admiral to Husband E. Kimmel brought out passionate discussion by the participants. To mark the 80th anniversary of that Day of Infamy, we posted the transcripts of those proceedings in the oral history section of our webpage and invited NHF director Steven Honigman to offer our December Second Saturday presentation on the

issues presented to him a quarter century ago when he served as the Navy’s General Counsel. Two veterans of the 1999 symposium, historians Randy Papadopoulos and David Rosenberg, then offered commentary and provided additional context about recent historiography on the attack on Pearl Harbor, broadening our understanding of failures that led to the deaths of over 2,400 servicemen that fateful day. For a New Year’s resolution, the NHF committed to offer more deckplate historical perspectives, and the inaugural Second Saturday welcomed retired Master Chief Jim Leuci, author of The Initiation of Chief Petty Officers: A Tradition of Change, who addressed the evolution of a unique naval tradition. For commentary, retired Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens and Fleet Master Chief April Beldo provided additional context on preparing mid-grade petty officers for senior enlisted leadership and the role CPOs play in the fleet. February marked the centennial of the conclusion of the Washington Naval Arms Conference. Dr. John Kuehn of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College provided an overview of this historic gathering of naval leaders. Dr. Kuehn was subsequently joined by Dr. Ryan Wadle of the Naval War College and 2021 NHF Knox Medal recipient Dr. Thomas C. Hone to discuss the ramifications of the treaty that placed a moratorium on new battleship construction, assigned tonnage limitations, and forbade the United States from further fortifying its western Pacific possessions. Wadle and Hone weighed in on the domestic impact and technological consequences of the restrictions. In addition to uploading these Second Saturday webinars Patrick K. O’Donnell, featured in last November’s Second Saturday, will present the Leighton onto YouTube, we have been extracting 2- to 3-minute snippets from these productions for weekly release to social media platforms. For example, in one snippet from our Age Lecture at the June 11 of Sail fiction program, Dr. Craig Symonds answers the Annual meeting. question: “Who would you rather have a beer with: Jack Aubrey or Horatio Hornblower?” In the inaugural production titled “Six Bells,” Stillwell is joined by NHHC’s Dr. Regina Akers in a discussion of then Capt. Sam Gravely’s reaction to being bonged aboard his ship USS Jouett with the customary six bells rendered to flag officers—much to his surprise. Please visit our YouTube portal to check out our growing collection of presentations. After viewing, click the “like” and “subscribe” buttons to show your support for our efforts. A large following opens the potential for another revenue stream for your foundation!