Oral Histories

Admiral Steele was the eighth individual to command a nuclear-powered submarine in the U.S. Navy. The oral history contains a great many observations concerning Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the founder of the Navy’s nuclear power program. Steele began his career as a Naval Academy midshipman, 1941-44. After graduation, he attended ...

In telling of his life and career, Chaplain Stevenson made it clear that he wanted to contribute more than just a collection of sea stories. As a result, he emphasized more than a dozen issues while doing the telling. One point that he made repeatedly was that members of the ...

The son of four-star Admiral Joseph Strauss, Elliott Strauss followed his father into the naval profession. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1923 and soon went on the shakedown cruise of the light cruiser USS Concord (CL-10). He subsequently was in the battleship USS Arkansas (BB-33), various destroyers, and ...

After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1933 and being designated a naval aviator, Bernard Strean reported to Patrol Squadron Eleven in San Diego in 1938. In 1940 he was flight instructor at NAS Jacksonville, and then a member of Flight Standardization Board. In 1943 he had duty as commander ...

After graduation and duty in the USS Arkansas (BB-33), Admiral Stroop competed in gymnastics in the Olympic Games of 1928. He then trained and was designated naval aviator. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, he served as staff officer for Commander Task Force II in the USS Lexington (CV-2), participating in ...

The most significant part of Admiral Struble’s memoir is comprised of descriptions of his role in the area of amphibious warfare in World War II and Korea. Struble graduated from the Naval Academy in 1915 and served in several ships as a junior officer, including the refrigerated stores ship USS ...

After three years of college, Frank Sublett enlisted in the Navy in 1942. After training at Hampton, Virginia, as a machinist's mate, he was sent to Boston's section base machine shop and operated submarine-detecting sonar on board auxiliary patrol craft in the Atlantic. In early 1944 he was sent to ...

The bulk of this narrative deals with Tarbuck's World War II experiences--as an instructor for Army Air Forces personnel in such skills as warship recognition; as a member of General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific staff, including Tarbuck's planning of the Leyte landing in the Philippines; and as chief of staff ...

This is a delightfully told memoir from the man who was probably the Navy's foremost fighter plane tactician of World War II. He is best known as the inventor of the "Thach Weave," whereby U.S. fighters could successfully combat Japanese Zeros. Thach tells of devising the maneuver at home with ...

Admiral Tolley's colorful life and skill as a storyteller make him the perfect subject for an oral history. In Volume I he discusses his early years as an Army brat and his midshipman years leading to graduation in 1929. His career followed relatively normal channels as junior officer with duty ...

Tomlinson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1917 and became a naval aviator shortly after the conclusion of World War I. In the 1920s he was very much his own man, defying both official regulations and abominable flying weather. His descriptions of flying through ice, fog, rain, and other hazards ...

Because he grew up in a Navy family, Train was imbued from childhood with the goal of attending the Naval Academy. His career as a midshipman included playing center on the football team that played to a notable tie against West Point in 1948. After graduation in 1949, Train served ...