Naval History and Heritage Command
Director's Corner
In November 2016, Director Cox initiated a series of "H-grams." Inspired by the late Admiral Zumwalt’s series of Z-grams used to communicate with Sailors throughout the Navy, H-grams are an avenue by which NHHC provides significant historical context to aid today’s decision-makers. H-grams and associated attachments reflect Director Cox’s personal assessment, aided by NHHC historians, of significant events in U.S. Navy history. Each H-gram draws on archival material, historic imagery, and written and oral history. In addition to the H-grams reproduced here, you’ll find links to Director Cox’s regular contributions to The Sextant, NHHC’s blog. The linked content explores a variety of topics, but consistently emphasizes the importance of honoring the service of Sailors throughout history and understanding the relevance of the past to today’s Navy.
The just-published H-Gram Special Edition covers the passing of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court John P. Stevens. In it, Director Cox relates some lesser-known information about Justice Stevens's assignment as a U.S. Navy cryptologic officer in World War II and then-Lieutenant Stevens's role in breaking Japanese codes. Among other events, Stevens's efforts contributed to the downing of Japanese Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's aircraft (and the death of Yamamoto) over Bougainville, Solomon Islands, in 1943.
In his H-Gram 033, published on 29 July, Director Cox covers the Japanese-German Yanagi strategic submarine supply missions during World War II and their interdiction by U.S. submarines in the Pacific and by U.S. hunter-killer groups in the Atlantic; the attack by U.S. submarine Parche (SS-384) on a Japanese convoy on 31 July 1944, resulting in a Medal of Honor for Commander Lawson “Red” Ramage and a Presidential Unit Citation for the boat; the catastrophic accidental explosion at the ammunition-handling pier at Port Chicago, California, on 17 July 1944 that killed 320 people, most of them U.S. Navy African-American stevedores, and the resulting action that became known as the “Port Chicago Mutiny”; the successful U.S. landings on Tinian on 24 July 1944 and the most effective Japanese shore-battery fire of the war against the battleship Colorado (BB-45) and destroyer Norman Scott (DD-690); the Apollo II moon landing on 20 July 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s U.S. Navy service; and the sinking of the U.S. minesweeper Richard Bulkeley on 12 July 1919 during the dangerous clean-up of the North Sea mine barrage.
Click the links below to access previously issued H-grams and earlier blogs from Director Cox. For biographical information and text of speeches given by Director Cox, please see his biography page.
