Army, Navy, and That Old-Timey Football October 30, 2024
Last spring, nearly four thousand college-football players entered the “transfer portal,” as the online database of athletes signalling their availability is known in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s bylaws. Some of them returned to the...
Religion of Technology October 28, 2024
UFOs—or, UAPs as they have now been pointlessly renamed[2]—are an endless tease. We are offered coy little glimpses but never the pay-off of “full disclosure.” As Carl Jung once said, UFOs are “not photogenic.”[3] Whenever the government discloses in...
The Evolution of Paige Bueckers October 04, 2024
Paige Bueckers glances at the legends gracing the imposing navy-blue walls here in the Connecticut women’s basketball film room. There’s Rebecca Lobo. Maya Moore. Sue Bird. The photos show each of them dominating. Winning. Celebrating. Just outside, ...
The US Navy from Sail to Steam February 07, 2023
Naval history typically evokes battles at sea and other heroic episodes. Lord Nelson’s attack on the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar in 1805 that ended with his own death amidst triumph is a famous example. Americans might recall John Pa...
The Cold War at Sea June 08, 2022
Ralph DeFalco reviews James D. Hornfischer's book,Who Can Hold the Sea, which is about the U.S. Navy during the Cold War....
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Is an Ode to the 1980s June 06, 2022
Arriving 36 years after the original movie, “Top Gun: Maverick” drops nostalgia bombs with precision. Back are the gongs and synthesizer chords of the first movie’s musical score and the “Danger Zone” jet montage. Tom Cruise, age 59, is back in the l...
What Makes Seapower States? June 13, 2019
If Andrew Lambert is correct, China is a sea power “wanna be” and not a seapower state. That Means she will ditch her current naval aspirations if things go economically or politically south internally just as quickly as Russia did when the Soviet Un...
A Sea Dog Recalls Heroic SEALS Actions May 20, 2019
When I was a teenage sailor serving aboard an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War, “sea stories” was a pejorative term, meaning an embellished tale of braggadocio, as in, “Oh, no, Davis is telling sea stories again!” In the opening of William H. ...
The Aviator Behind the Real 'Top Gun' May 03, 2019
It's hard to read Dan Pedersen's “Topgun” and not think of Tom Cruise rock-'n'-rollin' through the California mountains in the similarly named motion picture more than 30 years ago. The name—when it refers to the naval-aviator training school—is prop...
The Destroyer Deserves a Special Place in Naval History April 25, 2019
Battleships pounding through high seas and aircraft carriers launching planes from pitching decks are the images most frequently associated with 20th-century naval might. The destroyers that attended and protected these ships are bridesmaids—part of ...
How the Navy Revolutionized Air Combat April 22, 2019
Navy aviation officials were stunned in the late 1960s at the heavy losses sustained in Operation Rolling Thunder, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara's attempt to win the Vietnam War with a sustained aerial blitz.This, despite confidence that Ameri...
How Maritime China Courts Confrontation March 15, 2019
This extraordinarily detailed work delivers a stark message: “Maritime China poses challenges now that America, its allies, and its friends overlook at their peril.”The warning carries special significance because the authors relied “heavily on Chine...