June 7, 2013

Midway Operational Lesson

MIDWAY'S OPERATIONAL LESSON: THE NEED FOR MORE CARRIERSThe Japanese employing six aircraft carriers at one time, as they did in the attack on Oahu on December 7, 1941, proved a radical undertaking. The U.S. Navy's carriers, by contrast, had never numbered more than two or three during infrequent maneuvers, and the war's coming in 1941 found only

June 7, 2013

Midway Tactical Lessons

Tactical Lesson of Midway: The Thach WeaveWhen the U.S. Navy entered the war in the Pacific, fighting squadron aircraft strength stood at 18 planes. Operational experience, showed that more fighters were needed, to (1) protect the carrier herself and (2) to protect the attack groups composed of dive/scout bombers and torpedo bombers. Even when

June 7, 2013

Midway Strategic Lessons

Midway's Strategic Lessons"We are actively preparing to greet our expected visitors with the kind of reception they deserve," Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, wrote to Admiral Ernest J. King, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, on May 29, 1942, "and we will do the best we can with what

June 5, 2013

Remembering Midway

REMEMBERING MIDWAYby Captain Roy P. Gee, USN (Ret.)(The following post was written for the Battle of Midway Roundtable, in 2003. Note: CAPT Roy P. Gee passed away on December 28, 2009)Here I am, sitting at my computer, trying to recall the details of my involvement in a great naval battle that was fought 61 years ago. I'm 83 years old and as my

June 5, 2013

A Vivid Memory of Midway

A Vivid Memory of MidwayCommander Clayton E. Fisher, USN-Retby Ronald Russell(The following post is from the Battle of Midway Roundtable and originally appeared in Veterans Biographies, distributed during the annual Battle of Midway commemoration in San Francisco, June 2006)  In September 1941, upon completion of pilot training advanced carrier

June 4, 2013

Navy Cryptology and the Battle of Midway: Our Finest Hour

Navy Cryptology and the Battle of Midway: Our Finest HourA special feature of the BATTLE OF MIDWAY ROUNDTABLEby LCDR Philip H. Jacobsen, USN-Ret(Editor's note: the following is the text of an address given by LCDR Jacobsen to a gathering of Naval Security Group personnel at San Diego in 2000. It has been edited slightly for clarity and to better

June 3, 2013

Synopsis of the Battle of Midway (June 3-7, 1942)

Those who have only a casual knowledge of the Second World War might know little more about the Battle of Midway than the fact that it was an important American victory in the Pacific Theater. After all, the war had countless major battles, and a great many of them involved far more men and arms than fought at Midway. A tally of the forces engaged

May 15, 2013

The Legend of the USS ENTERPRISE

 The month of May historically has been an important time for?the USS Enterprise. On May 12, 1938 the USS Enterprise CV-6 was commissioned and on May 18, 1775 the Enterprise I was captured from the British Fleet. These historic May events have led us to take a look at the history of the USS Enterprise, which represents a name that has been a

April 10, 2013

April 10, 1963: Search for the USS Thresher

This article was published in the May 1964 issue of Proceedings as "Searching for the Thresher" by Frank A. Andrews, Captain, U.S. Navy.The Thresher search was very much an ad hoc operation. On 10 April 1963, the day of the Thresher's loss, there was no real search organization, no search technique, nor specific operating procedures for locating an

April 1, 2013

USS Thresher (SSN-593) 3 August 1961 - 10 April 1963

On 10 April 1963, the U.S. Navy suffered the loss of the nuclear submarine Thresher, the nation's third peacetime submarine loss since World War II, and by far the United States' greatest single submarine disaster in terms of loss of life. The public, both in the United States and abroad, reacted with compassion for the families of these men who