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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

The Navy Department Library

Related Content
Topic
  • Aviation
  • Boats-Ships--Submarine
Document Type
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials

Colombia University

New York, NY

Butler Library
Columbia University
535 West 114th St. 
New York, NY 10027

 

Anderson, Walter S.
Oral History, 1962

Childhood and education; Naval Academy; Naval War College; teaching at Naval Academy and St. John's; New York Harbor Supervisor; sea commands; Naval attaché, London, 1934-1937; Director of Naval Intelligence, 1939-1941; Pearl Harbor attack; Board of Inspections; Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier; Automatic Electric Company, 1946-1956. Impressions of Admirals Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, and Hugo Osterhaus, and of Josephus Daniels and Frank Knox.

 

Armstrong, James S.
Oral History, 1972

Illinois Republican party; Commissioner Securities and Exchange Commission, 1952-57; Dixon-Yates case, Adams-Goldfine affair; Assistant Secretary for Financial Management of the Navy, 1957; military spending, closing down of naval installations; aircraft carriers, destroyer escorts; phasing out redundant weapons systems; Polaris.

 

Ballantine, John J.
Oral History, 1964

Childhood and education; interest in naval air during World War I; flight training, Pensacola, Kelly Field; testing and development work, Dahlgren Naval Proving Grounds; Norden bombsight; Japanese naval aviation; air support, Operation Torch; command of USS Bunker Hill; Pacific operations: Raboul, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok; fleet liaison with General MacArthur for Japanese surrender; Military Staff Committee, United Nations, 1947; Mediterranean, 1947-48; Commander, 6th Fleet. Impressions of Admirals Ernest King, H.K. Hewitt, Chester Nimitz, Richmond Turner and Generals George Patton and Douglas MacArthur.

 

Bare, Robert O.
Oral History, 1968

Early life in Iowa; Naval Academy 1920-1924; expeditionary duty China, 1925-1927; barracks, school and sea-going assignments 1927-1928; Command and General Staff School; instructor, Marine Corps Schools, pre-war fleet landing exercises, 1938-1941; duty with Commander, Naval Forces, Europe; observer, Normandy landings; Okinawa; on staff of the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet; Naval War College; Director, Amphibious Warfare School, 1948-1951; Korea, 1952-1953; Director, Marine Corps Development Center, Director of Personnel for the Marine Corps.

 

Berkeley, James P.
Oral History, 1969

China duty, Peking, 1932-1934; formation of Fleet Marine Force, prewar communications training, procedures, and equipment; World War II communications personnel procurement; Iwo Jima, occupation of Japan; duty in office of Secretary of the Navy, Joint Army-Navy Secretariat; Adviser, Argentina: Naval War College and Marine Corps; student and instructor, Armed Forces Staff College. Naval War College; Chief of Staff, 1st Marine Division, Korea, 1954-1955; Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1, Headquarters Marine Corps, 1955-1958, personnel; subsequent commands, major United States Marine Corps events, decisions, personalities.

 

Beach, Edward L.
Oral History, 1967

Early Navy days; World War II submarine service; Atomic Defense Section, Naval Operations; atomic submarine development; Admiral Hyman Rickover; Peace Ship; naval aide to Generals Omar Bradley and Dwight D. Eisenhower; White House social aide; arrangement of presidential trips; ship launchings; National Security Council; USS Williamsburg; Camp David; Secret Service; press conferences; Atoms for Peace; President Eisenhower at ease: family relaxation, hobbies; Eisenhower's relations with staff. Recollections of Sherman Adams, Robert Schulz, Lewis Strauss.

 

Black, Richard B.
Oral History, 1962

Education in North Dakota and on New York University's floating university, 1926-1927; mining, rescue, and recovery work; Admiral Richard Byrd and second Antarctic expedition, 1933-1934; Hawaii, 1936; Antarctic Service Expedition, 1939; Hawaii and Pearl Harbor, 1941; Antarctic Support Forces, 1954-1956; on Admiral Byrd's staff, 1956-1957; Office of Naval Research.

 

Bonney, Henry M.
Papers, 1863

1 volume

 

Burke, Arleigh A.
Oral History, 1973

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Eisenhower administration: missile weapons systems, Polaris and bases, Suez Crisis, foreign navies, recollections of President Eisenhower.

 

Carney, Robert B.
Oral History, 1964

Family background, Naval Academy, 1916; first cruises, assignments; World War I convoying; navigation instructor, Naval Academy, 1923-1924; Interior Control Board manual, 1928; Orange Plan and naval preparedness, 1940; Admiral Arthur Bristol, organization of Support Force Operation; North Atlantic convoy duty; Chief of Staff, Admiral William Halsey, South Pacific theater: strategy, operations, logistics, personalities, problems; theater of war approach, Admiral Chester Nimitz, General Douglas MacArthur; 3d Fleet operations, Central Pacific; Leyte Gulf and China Sea, 1945; British participation; Japan's defeat and surrender; Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Logistics, 1946-1950; computers; War College, problems of command and staff training, postwar Navy; unification of services, 1947; impressions of many military figures.

 

Chrystie Family
Papers, 1789-1946

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, memorabilia, and printed materials. The earliest document is Charles Ludlow's appointment as a Midshipman in 1788, signed by President John Adams. There are also documents signed by U.S. President James Monroe and by New York Governors William L. Marcy and Thomas E. Dewey. The correspondence includes letters to Thomas Mackaness Ludlow Chrystie, 1841-1914, from Admiral David G. Farragut and Asa Bird Gardiner, of the Society of the Cincinnati, and his letterbook for 1896-1914. In Addition to Dr. Chrystie's medical practice and his personal life, some 25 pages in the letterbook are copies, in his hand, of letters from Captain Charles Ludlow, et al., aboard various ships in the U.S. Navy, 1801-1811. Papers of Thomas Ludlow Chrystie, 1872-1954 include letters from Nicholas Murray Butler, Benjamin Cardozo, and Seth Low and manuscripts from his post as secretary for the Citizen's Committee on Reorganization of the New York Police Force, 1905-1906. There are 20 photographs relating to the Chrystie Family and Columbia University, including one of Dwight D. Eisenhower when President of Columbia. There are also 20 volumes from the Chrysties' libraries, notable among them are Thomas Ludlow Chrystie's law books, a number of Columbia University publications referring to the Chrysties, and family memorabilia.

3 feet

 

Clark, Joseph J.
Oral History, 1962

Early life in Indian Territory; Oklahoma A & M; Naval Academy; World War I convoys and patrols; Turkey; destroyer duty; teaching at Naval Academy; naval aviation; Admiral William Moffett and General William Mitchell; Naval Air Stations; stunt and test flying; relationships with members of Congress; Inspector of Naval Aircraft; early Pacific operations; North African landings; "Fighting Lady," 1943; detailed descriptions of Pacific operations; Task Group Commander, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Air; the "Revolt of the Admirals," Korea; Command of 7th Fleet, 1952. Impressions of many military, naval, and political figures, especially Admirals John H. Towers, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, Arthur Radford, Marc Mitscher, and Raymond Spruance, and Secretaries of the Navy John L. Sullivan and James V. Forrestal.

 

Conolly, Richard L.
Oral History, 1959

Early education and training at Annapolis; junior naval officer experiences aboard destroyers and battleships; World War I; Washington, Geneva, and London Conferences; naval training schools, 1920s and 1930s; Pearl Harbor; wartime experiences in the Pacific; Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington; invasion of North Africa; assault on Sicily; Operation Avalanche (assault on Salerno); cooperation with the British; Guam, Saipan, and the Philippines; Paris Peace Conference, 1946; Commander United States Fleet in Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean; 6th Fleet; struggle over unification of the armed forces; President, United States Naval War College.

 

Cooper, David
Oral History, 1974

Basic training in San Diego; operations aboard ship; morale and discipline problems in the Navy; defects in military justice system; actions off the coast of Vietnam; racial relations among sailors.

 

Curtis, Donald
Oral History, 1970

Naval Academy, 1914-1917; World War I, balloon training; early assignments; duty in office of Judge Advocate General of the Navy; 4th Marines, Shanghai and the Philippines; experiences in prisoner of war camps, liberation, 1942-1945; military secretary to Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1946-1948.

 

Custer, Benjamin S.
Oral History, 1965

Family background, childhood; Naval Academy; early cruises; Pensacola, flight training; flying boat squadron, Alaska; teaching at Annapolis; Caribbean Sea Frontier, Admiral John Hoover; executive officer, USS Croatan; Admiral John Vest; command of USS Norton Sound; World War II; Atlantic and Pacific theaters; atomic bomb; Flight Safety Board, Pay Board; Naval Attaché to Canada; Northwest cruise to Hudson's Bay; Floyd Bennett Field; Strauss Commission; Princeton, Impressions of contemporaries in the Navy and of government officials; discussion of strategy and battle plans, World Wars I and II.

 

Dawson, Marion L.
Oral History, 1970

Education, Naval Academy, 1923-1927; patrols and bandit skirmishes in Nicaragua, 1928-1929; student naval aviator, Pensacola, 1929-1930; early aviation assignments; parachute training school, Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1940-1942; Solomon Islands, 1943-1944; Naval Air Training Command, Pensacola, 1944-1945; 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, China, 1946-1947; air commands; Senior Member, Military Armistice Commission, Korea, 1960.

  

Del Valle, Pedro A.
Oral History, 1966

Family background, Naval Academy, 1911-1915; World War I: sea duty, surrender of German Fleet; Naval War College; Haiti, Nicaragua, training duty; Assistant Naval Attaché, Rome, observer with Italian forces, Italo-Ethiopian War; duty in Office of Naval Intelligence, 1935-1937; Army War College; Division of Plans and Policies, 1938-1941; evolution of Fleet Marine Force and fleet landing exercises; World War II: Guadalcanal, Guam, Okinawa; Inspector General of Marine Corps and Director of Personnel, 1945-1948.

 

Diehl, Walter S.
Oral History, 1965

Pensacola; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1917; work in aerodynamics, aeronautics, 1918-1946; designing and testing Navy planes, World Wars I and II; Taylor Model Basin.

 

Duncan, Donald
Oral History, 1964

Education, Michigan and Naval Academy; World War I; naval aviation, Pensacola, 1920; experience in ordnance, communication; Fleet Aviation Officer, 1930-1931; training aviation unit, Naval Academy; Plans Division, Bureau of Aeronautics, 1933; carrier duty, air tactics, group tactics; development of auxiliary carriers: USS Long Island; World War II: Admiral Ernest King's staff, Tokyo raid, commanding USS Essex, War Plans Officer for Admiral King, detailed description of Joint Chiefs of Staff and Combined Chiefs of Staff, Harry Hopkins, Quebec and Yalta conferences, Pacific carrier task groups; postwar chief of staff to Commander-in-Chief, Pacific; atom bomb tests; reorganization; Deputy Chief for Air, 1947; National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; missiles; Naval air bases; 2nd Task Fleet; Korean War; Vice Chief of Naval Operations, 1951-1956.

 

Emery, John
Papers, 1798

A journal kept on USS Constitution.

1 volume

 

Fechtler, William M.
Papers, 1962

Education, Naval Academy, training cruises, Yangtze River Patrol; teaching at Naval Academy; Hawaii, 1940-1942, Pearl Harbor; Bureau of Naval Personnel; Pacific operations; demobilization problems; Hook Commission; Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, 1951; Chief of Naval Operations, 1951; unification; North Atlantic Treaty Organization relationships; impressions of Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Dan Kimball, and Forrest Sherman.

 

Ferrell, Thomas J.
Papers, 1850-1853

Journal kept on USS Germantown.

1 volume

 

Foster, Paul F.
Oral History, 1966

Family background, Oklahoma and the land rush, Utah, Idaho; Naval Academy, cruises; gunnery and fire control; occupation of Vera Cruz, 1914; submarine service; Navy recruiting; engineering duty; resignation from Navy, 1929; Wall Street, adventures in business; Naval service World War II; Panama, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Assistant Naval Inspector General, Navy Manpower Survey Board; merchandising, Mandel Brothers, 1946-1950; World Bank, 1950-1954; Atomic Energy Commission, Atoms for Peace Program, Operations Coordinating Board, General manager, Atomic Energy Commission; United States representative International Atomic Energy Agency, 1959. Impressions of Admiral Thomas Hart, Lewis L. Strauss, John McCone, Vyacheslav Molotov, and many others.

 

Franke, William B.
Oral History, 1972

Description of duties as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1954-1957, as Under Secretary of the Navy, 1957-1959, and as Secretary of the Navy, 1959-1960; finances.

 

Fulton, Robert
Papers, 1796-1815

Material relating to Fulton, including two letters, three deeds, and eight other items dealing chiefly with lands and matters concerning Fulton's steamboats. Also, an unidentified photograph and three letters, 1828-1830, to Walter Edwards, a lawyer living in New York, from his father and two brothers, but having no clear reference to or connection with Fulton.

21 items 

 

Gates, Thomas S.
Oral History, 1967

Experiences in World War II; Under Secretary and Secretary of the Navy, 1953-1959; Deputy Secretary and Secretary of Defense, 1959-1960.

  

Good, George F.
Oral History, 1970

Education, Naval Academy 1919-1923; early assignments, Haiti, Nicaragua; aide to commandant, 1932-1937; USS Pennsylvania 1937-1939; defense battalions, Iceland and Ellice Island, 1941-1943; Okinawa, occupation of Japan, 1944-1945; training duty post war; liaison to Chief of Naval Operations, 1952-1953; command of 2nd Marine Division, 1953-1954, of Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, 1954-1957; of Department of the Pacific, 1957-1958.

 

Granger, Lester B.
Oral History, 1961

Lester B. Granger was a Special Representative of Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.  The oral history discusses his background and education; experiences as a black soldier in World War I; early encounters with discrimination and segregation; extension work, counseling, social work; Urban League, studies of employment structure and placement facilities; racial questions in labor unions; National Negro Congress; segregation in the armed forces; community relations projects; approaches to leaders of industry; American Association of Social Work; international conferences; blacks in international relations; Congress of Racial Equality; sit-in movements; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; black nationalism; new African leadership; federal record on equal rights in employment.

 

Hall, John L.
Oral History, 1963

William and Mary, Naval Academy, athletics; early cruises; instructor, Naval Academy; Naval War College 1937-1940; North African campaign 1942-1943; Commander Amphibious Forces, landings in North Africa, Sicily, Italy; invasion of Normandy, Omaha Beach, 1944; commands in Pacific, 1945; Okinawa; Commandant, Armed Forces Staff College 1948-1951. Impressions of military leaders, especially Admirals Ernest King and Thomas Hart and Generals George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and Omar Bradley.

 

Halloway, James L.
Oral History, 1962

Education, Naval Academy; convoy duty, World War I; Atlantic Fleet; World War II, exercises off Puerto Rico, Operation Torch; Bermuda training exercises; Director of Training, 1943-44; Holloway Plan for Naval Academy; Superintendent Naval Academy; Chief of Naval Personnel; reserve officers; relationship with Congress; impressions of Harry Truman, James Forrestal, Admiral Louis Denfeld.

 

Hart, Thomas C.
Oral History, 1962

Childhood and education; Spanish-American War; ordnance, teaching, submarines; Army War College; command of USS Mississippi; submarine command; Superintendent, Naval Academy, 1931-1934; heavy cruisers, 1934-1936; General Board, 1936-1939 and 1942-1945; Asiatic Fleet, 1939-1941; Hart Investigation of Pearl Harbor; Senator from Connecticut, 1945-1947. Impressions of many political and military figures, including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Frank Knox, James Forrestal, General Douglas MacArthur and Admirals William Leahy, Harry Ervin Yarnell, Ernest King, Arthur Hepburn, Chester Nimitz, and Harold Stark.

 

Hewitt, H. Kent
Oral History, 1961

Youth and education, Naval Academy; world cruise, 1907; teaching at the Naval Academy; hydrographic survey work; Cuban Revolution, 1917; destroyer duty, 1918; Naval Institute; War College; President Franklin Roosevelt's trip to Buenos Aires, 1936; fleet exercises, ammunition depot, Bremerton; Panama Canal Zone; Pearl Harbor; neutrality patrol; amphibious training; training for combined operations, London; Operation Torch; Commander U.S. Naval Forces, Mediterranean, 1943; Operation Husky; Salerno. Impressions of many political and military figures.

 

Hill, Henry W.
Oral History, 1967

Naval Academy; early cruises, gunnery training; World War I: Scapa Flow, German Fleet surrender; Navy Department reorganization; arms limitation, naval budget, congressional liaison; Hoover good will cruise to South America, 1928; Naval War College, 1937; War Plans Division, 1940; World War II: United-Canada Joint Board Armed Defense, convoys and patrols, Murmansk, Iceland; Pacific theater commands: detailed analysis of amphibious assault at Tarawa; operations at Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, Okinawa; plans for assault on Japan; National War College, Naval Academy superintendent; Naval Home. Accounts of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Holland M. Smith; Admirals Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, Raymond Spruance, Kelly Turner, and other military, naval, and political figures.

 

Hoover, John H.
Oral History, 1964

Family background; Annapolis; United States Navy of 1910-1930; early cruises, torpedo training, destroyer duty; growth of naval aviation; World War I duty at Channel ports and in eastern Mediterranean; submarine training, Submarine Desk, 1923-1928; USS Lexington and carrier duty; naval air stations, San Diego and Norfolk; World War II and Caribbean Sea Frontier, 1941-1943; convoying and anti-submarine efforts; impressions of Admirals Ernest King, John R. Edwards, Raymond Spruance, and Henry Wilson.

 

Horton, Mildred McAfee
Oral History, 1982

Family background and early religious influences; Dean of Women, Oberlin College, 1934-1936 and President, Wellesley College, 1936-1949: increasing number of women attending college, demographic shifts of applicants, change in attitudes regarding selection of faculty, career options, military service, sexuality; Director, Women's Naval Reserve, 1942-45; women's role in armed forces, World War II, uniform designs for women; member, World Council of Churches, 1960s: churches' role in civil rights in developing nations; observer Vatican II, 1963-1965: women's issues in Roman Catholic Church; delegate, White House Conference on Aging, 1981; Gray Panthers, discussions on social security.

 

Hunsaker, Jerome C.
Oral History, 1960

Naval Academy, 1904-1908; naval architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; research in Europe, stability analysis and wind tunnels; Navy duty, World War I: flying boat, Material Division; first aircraft carrier, 1922; non-rigid air ships; Zeppelins; Goodyear, 1929-1930; coordinator of research for Navy, 1940; impressions of General William Mitchell, Admiral William Moffett.

 

Hussey, George F.
Oral History, 1965

Background and education; Naval Academy; USS Pennsylvania, 1920; courses in ordnance, ballistics; Australian cruise, 1925; Bureau of Ordnance, Armor and Projectile Section, Proof Officer, Naval Proving Ground; Gunnery Officer USS Salt Lake City, destroyer command; command of Mine Division and Mine Squadron; command offshore patrol, Pearl Harbor, December 1941-April 1942; Bureau of Ordnance; Director of Production, Assistant Chief, later Chief of Bureau until September, 1947; contractor-operated ordnance plants; basis for postwar ordnance research; many military and naval vignettes.

 

Ingersoll, Royal E.
Oral History, 1964

Naval Academy; early cruises; Paris Peace Conference; War Plans Division, 1935; London Naval Conference, 1935; Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, 1942-1944; Operation Torch; Atlantic convoys.

 

Johnson, Alfred W.
Oral History, 1962

Naval family background; Annapolis; Spanish-American War; early cruises; naval inventions; instructor at Naval Academy 1907-1910.

 

Kinkaid, Thomas C.
Oral History, 1961

Education, Naval Academy; world cruise, 1908; Turkey, burning of Smyrna; Geneva Conference, 1932; Naval Attaché, Rome and Belgrade, 1938-1941; Benito Mussolini, Galeazzo Ciano, Bernard Berenson, Spanish Royal family; destroyer squadron, convoy duty; Pearl Harbor, 1941; Task Force II, carrier operations, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Eastern Solomons; Commander North Pacific Fleet, Aleutians; combat intelligence; preparations for Philippine campaign; detailed description of Leyte Gulf and subsequent operations; Yellow Sea and Korea; Shanghai, Chungking; impressions of General Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek, many prominent naval and political figures.

 

Kirk, Alan G.
Oral History, 1961

Background and education, Naval Academy; European cruises, Asiatic Fleet, Canton, 1911, Sun Yat Sen; World War I, fleet exercises; Naval Proving Ground, testing ordnance; Presidential yachtMayflower, Warren G. Harding; Bureau of Ordnance; Australia, 1925; fleet gunnery officer; Naval War College, 1928-1929; Naval Attaché, London, 1939-1941; Joseph P. Kennedy; Director of Naval Intelligence, 1941; codes and war plans; Atlantic Fleet; naval mission to London, 1942-1943; Mediterranean; amphibious force, 1943; John Mason Brown; North African landings; Operation Husky; planning for Normandy; impressions of many outstanding naval and political figures.

 

Klachko, Mary
Papers, 1852-1995

Naval historian Mary Klachko is the author of a number of histories of naval affairs. Among them is the important biography of William Benson, entitled Admiral William Shepherd Benson: First Chief of Naval Operations. This work is the only authoritative and exhaustive account of Benson's life and contribution to American naval success during World War I. As the first Chief of Naval Operations, it largely fell upon Benson to prepare the Navy for entry into the First World War. Klachko's extensive notes go far beyond a mere descriptive account of Benson's life and offer an insightful perspective into British and American naval policy and competition during the first three decades of the 20th century.

The Klachko papers are almost entirely made up of her research notes for her biography of Admiral Benson. The material covers all aspects of his life, including his early naval career, his tenure as Chief of Naval Operations, and his chairing of the U.S. Shipping Board. The catalogued correspondence are mainly replies to Klachko's appeal for information about Benson, the naval and political milieu of early 20th century, and help to publish, review and edit her growing manuscript. The catalogued manuscript is Klachko's biography of Benson bound in 5 parts. The rest of the collection is comprised of photos of Benson and other important naval and political figures of the time, and Klachko's extensive research notes.

22 feet

 

Land, Emory S.
Oral History, 1963

Naval Academy, athletics; early cruises; naval architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Bureau of Ships, Bureau of Aeronautics; Harry Guggenheim and air research; Charles A. Lindbergh; Fleet Naval Construction, 1930-1932; Chief, Bureau of Ships, 1933-1937; Maritime Commission, 1937; Joseph Kennedy; Merchant Marine Academy; shipbuilding for National Defense Agency; William Knudsen; Liberty Ships; War Shipping Administration; Air Transport Association, 1946-1953. Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Bernard Baruch, Jesse Jones.

 

Lockwood, Charles A.
Oral History, 1965

Youth in Missouri, Naval Academy, early cruises; Asiatic Fleet, submarine duty and command; Philippines, command of 1st Asiatic Submarine Division, 1917; Japan, 1918; New London submarine base; captured German submarines; interwar training cruises and submarine experiences; fleet operations; Naval Mission, Rio de Janeiro, 1929; USS Squalus rescue operations; Naval Attaché, London, 1941; Commander Submarines, Pacific Fleet, 1943; wolfpack techniques, sonar and radar, periscope photography, rescue operations; postwar career; nuclear propulsion, development of atomic submarine.

 

Lundahl, Arthur C.
Oral History, 1981

Arthur Lundahl served in the Navy during World War II as an officer at Navy Radio Operators School, student Navy photo interpretation, assignments in Aleutians and Washington DC. After the war, he was a civil service photo interpreter, Navy and Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to retirement; U-2 incident; Open Skies for Peace program; Cuban missile crisis; improvements in photo interpretation: comparison of American and European equipment; National Photo interpretation Center: establishment, incentive program, equal opportunity application; future use of photo interpretation: natural disaster predictions, food source location, mapping, computers; American Society of Photogrammetry; stereo photography; philosophy of photography.

 

Miller, Henry L.
Oral History, 1971

In 1953 Miller joined Op60 to work on new strategy for Eisenhower Administration under Admiral Arleigh Burke; 1955 Commanding Officer Naval Air Base, Philippine Islands, Commander Fleet Air, Philippines; 1957-59 Director of Progress Analysis; 1959-60 in command of attack carrier USS Hancock.

 

Mitchell, Dana P.
Papers, 1925-1960

Professional and personal correspondence, administrative records, manuscript lecture notes, and some miscellaneous printed materials. The general correspondence file, 1927-1958, contains letters, both personal and professional, with colleagues, with and about his students, about laboratory equipment, about weapons for the Army and Navy, and with industry concerning his research. The subject file, 1926-1960, contains some additional professional and personal correspondence, a number of administrative records on property control of laboratory equipment, particularly for government research projects, other Columbia Physics Department matters, several typescripts on cyclotron coil designs, Mitchell's personal records relating to employment, and other miscellaneous personal files. There are handwritten lecture notes for Mitchell's courses, the most complete being those for Physics R6 and General Studies Physics 18.

1,500 items 

 

Moore, Charles J.
Oral History, 1967

Family and early life; Naval Academy, early cruises; World War I convoys; Naval Overseas Transportation Service; teaching at Naval Academy, Navigation Department; Yorktown Sesquicentennial; Naval War College duty; Pacific Fleet: Gilberts campaign, attacks on Kwajalein, Truk, Saipan; diversion of forces to the Marianas, Philippine Sea Battle; impressions of Admirals. Chester Nimitz, Edward Kalbfuss, H. Kent Hewett, Raymond Spruance, and others.

 

Nimitz, Chester W.
Oral History, 1965

Early life in Texas; family background; career at Naval Academy; early commands; reorganization of Pearl Harbor after Japanese attack.

 

Parker, Ralph C.
Oral History, 1963

Education at Naval Academy and early cruises; destroyer duty, World War I convoys; Naval War College 1921-1922; War Plans Division, 1929; cruiser duty; Command of Alaska Sector, 1941; Japanese attack on the Aleutians, 1942; training school at Princeton; Admiral Chester Nimitz's staff at Pearl Harbor. Impressions of Admirals Husband Kimmel and Samuel E. Morison.

 

Pegram, George B.
Papers, 1903-1958

Nuclear physicist, professor of physics, and Dean of Graduate Faculties at Columbia University. Pegram, a prominent nuclear physicist, conducted a great deal of defense-related research and was responsible for the famous meeting between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and American nuclear scientists prior to World War II that eventually led to the establishment of the Manhattan Project.

The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, and subject files on most aspects of Pegram's career, and information on nuclear engineering and the Navy.

41,000 items

 

Rabb, Maxwell M.
Oral History, 1970

Secretary of the Cabinet, 1953-1958; civil rights under Eisenhower, desegregating naval bases and veterans' hospitals; President's Contract Compliance Committee.

 

Read, William A.
Oral History, 1964

Harvard, National Guard Service; naval aviation; World War I, Pensacola; banking career, Dillon, Read; Hanover Bank; Naval Reserve from 1939; special assistant to Admiral John Towers, 1942; experiences with fast carrier task forces as staff officer to Admiral Marc Mitscher: logistics, morale, air-sea rescue, buildup; death of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; operations in New Caledonia, Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Saipan, Philippines, Formosa, Leyte Gulf; plans for Iwo Jima, Okinawa; kamikaze attacks; postwar naval activities; impressions of Admiral Ernest King.

 

Robinson, Samuel M.
Oral History, 1963

Naval engineering, electric ship propulsion; Puget Sound Navy Yard, 1927-1931; Chief of Bureau Engineering, 1931; development of high speed diesel engine; Chief of Bureau of Ships, 1940; Chief of Procurement and Material, 1942-1946; Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, 1946-1951.

 

Smith, Frank
Papers

Frank Smith was confidential clerk to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.

 

Stump, Felix B.
Oral History, 1965

Family background; Naval Academy; early cruises, Central and South America; naval aviation training, Pensacola, 1919; aeronautical engineering, 1922-1924; shore and sea commands, 1924-1940: cruiser duty, dive bombing squadron, war games, Naval Air Maintenance Procurement Division, Bureau of Aeronautics; executive officer, USS Enterprise, 1940: ship organization manual; USS Langley, 1941; World War II: duty in Java, Australia, 1942; Captain of the new USS Lexington, 1943-1944; the Marshalls, Truk; Commander, Carrier Division 24, 1944-1945: operations in Western Pacific and Philippines areas, Leyte, air strikes; technical training command, Chief of Naval Air Technical Training, 1945-1948; Korean War; Commander NATO striking fleet. Comments on naval colleagues, especially Admirals William Halsey, Hart, William Moffett, and Arthur Radford.

 

Sullivan, William A.
Oral History, 1965

Education, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; naval construction; Annapolis; navy yards in United States; Philippines; Shanghai, 1934-1937; Trans-Siberian Railroad; Model Basin, Washington Naval Gun Factory; salvage and admiralty law; diving; Merritt, Chapman & Scott; San Diego salvage depot; equipment and personnel, procurement problems; Assistant Naval Attaché, London; British World War II salvage operations: training personnel, blocking channels, enemy interference, financial aspects of salvage and marine insurance, rescue tugs; Bureau of Ships, 1941, salvage branch, training personnel; Pearl Harbor: communications problems, Naval districts; salvage off United States and Canadian coasts; clearing Cape Cod Canal; Chief of Navy Salvage, World War II; Normandie fire and sinking; salvage training exercises and school; divers; civilian training; development of equipment; salvage award claims; clearing Casablanca harbor after North African landings; salvage problems in Mediterranean Theater: Bizerte Channel, Ferryville, Tunis; Operation Husky; landings in Sicily, Salerno, Naples; plans for landing at Kwajalein; London, preparations for D-Day; Normandy landings: demolition teams, artificial harbors, mine-sweeping; operations at LeHavre, Marseilles; clearing Manila Harbor; impressions of Admirals Alan Kirk, John Hall, Ernest King, Benjamin Manseau, and Generals Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, and many others.

 

Tarrant, William T.
Oral History, 1963

Naval Academy; Spanish-American War; instructor, Naval Academy; cruises and engineering duty; troop transport, World War I; commands afloat and ashore; adviser to Office of Strategic Services, World War II.

 

Train, Harold C.
Oral History, 1965

Naval Academy; South American cruise; Nicaraguan Revolution, 1912; Navy Department Communications Office, 1916-18; Washington Disarmament Conference, 1921; Geneva Naval Conference, 1927; Herbert Hoover's 1928 tour of Latin America; London Naval Disarmament Conference, 1930; World War II: counter-attack at Pearl Harbor, Director of Naval Intelligence, Commander Southeast Pacific Force and Panama Sea Frontier; Eleanor Roosevelt's Caribbean Cruise; Dumbarton Oaks Conference; 1945 Inter-American Conference; postwar career. Impressions of J. Edgar Hoover, Admirals Hilary P. Jones, H. E. Kimmel, W. S. Pye, Frank H. Scofield, and others.

 

Vietnam Veterans Project
Oral History, 1973-1975

A sympathetic civilian interviewer here debriefs black and white enlisted men and a few officers on every facet of life during the war in Vietnam. Interviewees range from infantry "grunts" to veterans involved in intelligence, interrogation, helicopter duty, and "the rear." Their tours of duty came in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They discuss search-and-kill missions, bombing raids and other combat operations, life in camp, hospital, and stockade, tactical and morale problems, impressions of the South Vietnamese and of the Vietcong. They speculate, months before the war ended, on how it would end and what it was about. The project provides a view of the war, by Americans who fought it, in barracks language.

 

Wight, John W.
Oral History, 1956

Changes in McGraw-Hill military education training manuals after World War II: choice of authors instead of technical writers, publication of classified books for the military, specific writing style for naval publications; medical publishing: purchase of Blakiston's, physicians' demands on medical book publishers, medical publishing market; editors; medical book distribution, pricing and discounting.

 

Williams, Henry
Oral History, 1963

Naval Academy; Spanish-American War; graduate course in naval architecture, Paris, 1899-1901; naval construction specialist, 1901-1933: launching problems, development of plastic ship bottom paint, submarine rescue chamber; Army Industrial College, 1933; administrative officer, Bureau of Ships, and later for Secretary of Navy, World War II; Munitions Board; Maritime Commission; allocation of strategic materials, laying up surplus vessels, disposal of shipyards. Accounts of Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Edison, Frank Knox, and Admirals William Sims, Henry Taylor, Samuel Robinson, and Emory Land.

 

Wilson, Eugene E.
Oral History, 1962

Childhood and education, Montana; United States Naval Academy; Navy Rifle Teams; engineering and gunnery service at sea; Engineering School, Columbia; World War I experiences with Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow; Aviation Mechanics School at Great Lakes; Bureau of Aeronautics; pilot training; Aircraft Squadrons Battle Fleet, 1927; development of carrier task force; resignation from Navy, 1929; United Aircraft Corporation; aircraft industry developments and problems; air-cooled engine; controllable angle propeller; new types of planes; helicopter; airmail contract cancellations; aircraft industry through World War II; postwar industry problems. Impressions of industrial, political, naval, and military leaders, notably Admirals William A. Moffett, Ernest J. King, and Joseph M. Reeves, General William Mitchell, Chance M. Vought, Charles A. Lindbergh, Thomas F. Hamilton, Frederick B. Rentschler, Igor Sikorsky, William Boeing, and James Forrestal.

 

World War II Periodicals
Collection, 1939-1946

Primarily a collection of overseas editions of popular magazines for the Armed Forces distributed by the Special Services Division, U.S. Army, and by the Bureau of Navy personnel. Among the titles represented are: EsquireThe New YorkerNewsweekTimePicReader's DigestDown Beat; and an array of comic books. In addition, there are guides to foreign countries, War Department education manuals in the G. I. Roundtable Series, books on the organization and administration of an army library, training manuals for army hospital librarians, and a copy of the R.B. (Reference and Recreational Book)Library Catalog: An Index to the Books Included in the 1945 Recreational Libraries for American Soldiers Overseas (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1944). Also included are two small containers of U.S. Office of Price Administration ration tokens, one red the other blue.

 

Zerbe, Jerome
Oral History, 1979

Childhood, family, education, Yale University, 1924-1928; art student in Paris; interests in portraiture, architecture, French culture and history; theatrical roles; art director, Parade, 1931-1933; photographer and society editor, Town and Country, 1931-1976; photographer, El Morocco nightclub, 1935-1939; contributing photographer, Life; Navy photographer, World War II; author of several books; recollections of parents, theatrical personalities, artists, writers, political and society figures.

Published: Thu Jun 26 17:07:29 EDT 2014