Naval History and Heritage Command

Finding Aid (PDF, 21KB)

Scope and Content Notes

The Papers of Captain John P. Sylva consist of news clippings, slides, personal papers, military correspondence, reports and photographs.

The collection is organized in four series. Series I is a file on Laos. It deals mainly with military papers and correspondence while Sylva was in Laos but there are also personal photographs, construction paperwork and United States Information Services papers. Of note in this series are foreign language documents as well as a transcript of a letter dated 1683. This date has been verified, and is not an error.

Series II are newspapers and magazines dating from 1961-1972. There are folders of Time magazines as well as some Navy publications. There are numerous newspaper clippings and five oversize boxes of newspapers.

Series III is a collection of reports and guides belonging to Captain Sylva. There are three boxes with just reports in them; mainly dealing with construction.

Series IV is a collection of slides related to construction and general activities in Laos from 1960-1961.

Series V is a collection of charts and maps related to SE Asia.

Subject Headings

United States. Navy-Military Construction Operations
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975
Laos-Photographs
Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)-Newspapers
Bangkok (Thailand)-Newspapers
Laos-Maps

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Papers of John Sylva, Archives Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.