Paul Stillwell is an independent historian and retired naval officer. He worked for thirty years at the U.S. Naval Institute as an oral historian and editor of Naval History magazine. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including four on battleships and an award-winning volume on the Navy's first African American officers, The Golden Thirteen.

Articles by Paul Stillwell

Morning Thunder by Robert Taylor ©The Military Gallery

Plenty of Blame to Go Around

By Paul Stillwell
December 2016
Virtually everyone in a position of authority, from Washington to Honolulu, was culpable for being so thoroughly taken by surprise by the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Billy Hurley III raises the Quicken Loans National PGA trophy

From Annapolis to the Pros

By Paul Stillwell
October 2016
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in late June, a previously obscure golfer named Billy Hurley III won the Quicken Loans National PGA Tournament at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda ...
DoctorMacro

The Caine Mutiny

By Paul Stillwell
June 2014
In brief, Ensign Willie Keith, a fictional alter ego for author Herman Wouk, was commissioned as a 90-day wonder reserve officer. He traveled to Pearl Harbor in 1943 to join ...
Painting of USS Thresher underway by Carl Evers

Thresher and the CNO

By Paul Stillwell
March 2013
Just as spring was spreading its renewing warmth to the nation, the stunning news in 1963 was chilling. Nuclear submarines had been in service since only the mid-1950s, yet in ...
Navy Medical Department (Hugh Doyle)

The End of a Nation

By Paul Stillwell
July 2012
Although it doesn’t appear in statute books, one particular law has wide application nonetheless: the law of unintended consequences. Forty years ago this summer, the phenomenon known as “Watergate” was ...

Books by Paul Stillwell