The U.S. Naval Institute Memoir Collection

The U.S. Naval Institute’s Memoir Collection honors and preserves the personal stories of those who served in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. For family members, friends, shipmates, and researchers, the growing Collection serves as a valuable source of firsthand accounts and primary-source history.

  • Many rank their military service as a defining milestone in their lives.
  • While service memoirs generally face tough hurdles in the publishing market, the Naval Institute Memoir Collection provides authors with an accessible, central online location for the preservation of their autobiographical accounts, viewable today and by future generations as well. Whether already self-published or never published, their stories have a welcoming venue in perpetuity with the USNI Memoir Collection.
  • Others may have a memoir - of their own or of a family member's service - simply gathering dust somewhere, unseen but nonetheless a part of the overall American historical record. With the Memoir Collection, such memories - be they in the form of a shorter vignette or a fuller autobiography - now have a valued place in a permanent, searchable online archive.
  • Learn more by clicking below.

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Captain William Green
Memoir

Adventures on USS Bonita (SSK-3)

William C. Green
Cold War
Adventures on USS Bonita (SSK-3) Captain Green graduated from the University of Southern California’s NROTC program in 1952 and was immediately assigned to the cruiser USS Helena (CA-75) in Korean waters. Next came duty in various submarines, culminating in command...
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Captain William Green
Memoir

Fleet Sonar School San Diego

William C. Green
Cold War
Fleet Sonar School San Diego Captain Green graduated from the University of Southern California’s NROTC program in 1952 and was immediately assigned to the cruiser USS Helena (CA-75) in Korean waters. Next came duty in various submarines, culminating in command...
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Port bow view of the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) underway while performing sea trials in the Atlantic.
Memoir

Admiral Rickover, A Personal Memoir

Admiral Hyman George Rickover
Cold War
Admiral Hyman George Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy”, was a career officer in the United States Navy, having graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1922. In the early part of his career, he served in...
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Captain William Green
Memoir

Time Aboard USS Sea Fox

William C. Green
Korean War
Time Aboard USS Sea Fox, 1956-1958 Captain Green graduated from the University of Southern California’s NROTC program in 1952 and was immediately assigned to the cruiser USS Helena (CA-75) in Korean waters. Next came duty in various submarines, culminating in...
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Captain William Green
Memoir

My Affair with Esther

William C. Green
Cold War
My Affair with Esther Captain Green graduated from the University of Southern California’s NROTC program in 1952 and was immediately assigned to the cruiser USS Helena (CA-75) in Korean waters. Next came duty in various submarines, culminating in command of...
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Captain William Green
Memoir

Hunters Point Shipyard, San Francisco

William C. Green
Cold War
Hunters Point Shipyard, San Francisco Captain Green graduated from the University of Southern California’s NROTC program in 1952 and was immediately assigned to the cruiser USS Helena (CA-75) in Korean waters. Next came duty in various submarines, culminating in command...
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Gene Parola
Memoir

A Pearl Harbor Secret

Gene J. Parola
Korean War
Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii is a pretty well known tourist destination now, in addition to its task of ‘projecting power in the Pacific’. It attracts an equal number of both American and Japanese tourists to this site of...
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