Oral Histories

This memoir covers Shellenbarger’s service in both the Navy and the merchant marine. He enlisted in the Navy in 1938 and before his enlistment expired in 1941 he was assigned to the old sailing ship USS Constellation, the battleship USS Colorado (BB-45), the destroyer USS Herbert (DD-160), the light ...

Following boyhood in Missouri, Shelton entered the Navy in 1939 as an enlisted man. He served in the battleships USS New Mexico (BB-40) and USS California (BB-44) before attending prep school and then the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1944. He had wartime duty in the light cruiser ...

After growing up in California, Siler attended Santa Maria Junior College, 1938-40, and then was a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy. He was in the class of 1944, which graduated in 1943 because of the need for wartime officers. During World War II he served in the attack transports ...

A man of considerable enthusiasm and energy, Smedberg was in the class of 1926 at the Naval Academy and reported afterward for a year of duty in the USS New Mexico (BB-40). He then spent three years in the destroyer USS Mullany (DD-325) before reporting to the commissioning crew of ...

The main ingredients in this oral history are Admiral Smith's recollections of service in two battleships, the USS Arizona (BB-39) in 1928-29 and the USS Missouri (BB-63) in 1949-50. As a captain he commanded the Missouri until shortly before her grounding in January 1950 and then again shortly afterward to ...

This is a revealing memoir because of the candor with which Admiral Smith discusses his career. Graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934, he served in the destroyer USS Perry (DD-340) under future CNOs Denfeld and Fechteler and then was in the first crew of light cruiser USS Honolulu (CL-48) ...

In this account, which spans a period from working on a farm in Alabama to receiving an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, Admiral Smith provides an unusual degree of openness in describing his career. His uncle, Admiral Harold Page Smith, was an able role model and mentor, as was ...

After graduation from the Coast Guard Academy in 1933, Smith served a tour in the cutter USCGC Saranac before reporting to Washington for the first of two tours as aide to long-time commandant Russell Waesche. After flight training, Smith was involved in aerial surveying of Alaska and then served with ...

Anyone with an interest in the operations of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet during the pre-World War II period will find much of interest in this memoir. Following graduation from the Naval Academy in 1922, Smith-Hutton had several tours of duty on the old China Station and then went to Tokyo ...

After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1923 and earning his MA in Eengineering from Penn State in 1930, Smoot served in the submarine USS Narwhal (SS-167) until 1933. During World War II he was CO of the USS Monssen (DD-436), which was one of the escort ships for the ...

Most of the oral histories in the Naval Institute collection deal with the active service of career naval personnel. Mr. Smoot spent only four years on active duty, and this memoir covers only one operation from one tour of duty. But it is a powerful one, because Smoot had an ...

The Naval Institute Press is proud to present the long-awaited oral history of Admiral James G. Stavridis, USN (Ret.). Admiral Stavridis, who recently retired as Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, is a native of Florida. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and spent ...