Thomas J. Cutler is a former petty officer second class and retired lieutenant commander who has been serving the U.S. Navy in various capacities for more than fifty years, including a combat tour in Vietnam and service in aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and patrol craft. The author of many articles and books, he is the Gordon England Chair of Professional Naval Literature at the U.S. Naval Institute and Distinguished Fleet Professor of Strategy and Policy with the Naval War College. He has received the William P. Clements Award for Excellence in Education as military teacher of the year at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Naval Literature, the U.S. Maritime Literature Award, the Naval Institute Press Author of the Year Award, and the Commodore Dudley Knox Lifetime Achievement Award in Naval History.

Articles by Thomas J. Cutler

 A destroyer leads transports through heavy seas in Lieutenant Commander Griffith Baily Coale’s Convoy off Iceland—Increasing Gale. Coale’s first assignment as a U.S. Navy combat artist was in the North Atlantic.

The Key Role of the Convoys

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2020
Well before the United States formally entered World War II, U.S. Navy destroyers were in the thick of it in the U-boat–infested North Atlantic.
A crewman on board the USS Fletcher (DD-992) performs maintenance on one of the ship’s gas-turbine engines. Gas turbines—the most prevalent form of propulsion on board Navy ships today—combine the functions of the boiler and the turbine into one element and do not need feedwater.

Moving Ships through the Water

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2020
After manpower and wind were replaced by thermodynamic systems for marine propulsion, ships used paddle wheels, then propellers, and today water-jets to harness fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Sonar operators recieve bearings

Sonar in the Sea Services

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
April 2020
Dolphins have been using sound for object detection for millions of years, but the earliest recorded instance of man’s venturing into the realm of hydroacoustics occurred in 1490, when Leonardo ...
Ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 lost on the rocks at Honda Point in 1923

Chaos at the Devil’s Jaw

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
March 2020
On a foggy night in 1923, the USS Delphy (DD-261) and six other destroyers in her squadron were lost—the worst disaster in U.S. Navy history at that time.
Operation Crossroads’ Task Unit 1.2.6

Organizing for the Fight

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2020
The U.S. Navy’s operational forces are divided into numbered fleets that are organized into geographic areas of responsibility.
Seven different editions of the Bluejacket's Manual on a table

An American Classic

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
October 2019
While The Bluejacket’s Manual has evolved through its 25 revisions (and counting), its original purpose has remained steadfastly on course.

Books by Thomas J. Cutler