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

Sailors directing an F-35C Lightning II multirole fighter aircraft assigned to the “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147 on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in December 2018.

Naval Aviation 101

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
April 2019
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps perform a wide variety of missions from the decks of ships and from Navy and Marine Corps air stations all over the world.
F-14 “Fast Eagle 102” from Fighter Squadron 41 on board the carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68)

‘USN 2, Qaddafi 0’

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
September 2018
On 19 August 1981 two Libyan Fitters attacked the U.S. Forces in the Gulf of Sidra and were destroyed.
U.S. Navy

Securing a Ship to a Pier

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
June 2018
If you have ever watched a movie in which the captain of a Navy ship yells down from the bridge wing, telling his deck crew to “Cast off all lines,” ...

Leopard Attacks the Chesapeake

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
March 2018
On the morning of 22 June 1807, the U.S. frigate Chesapeake slipped past Cape Henry at the mouth of the bay for which she was named and headed for the ...

Talking Between Ships

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
August 2017
The U.S. Navy’s use of shipboard radiotelephone (RT)—also known as “voice radio”—for tactical communications began in 1916, when the first RT message was sent from ship to ship. During World ...

Wouk's Gift to the Navy

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
July 2017
Leadership is a difficult subject to teach. Textbooks can go only so far, often merely providing laundry lists of admirable attributes that are worthy of emulation but quickly lose their ...

Why “Lest We Forget”

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)
February 2017
U.S. Navy (Jeffry A. Willadsen) There are two kinds of sailors in today’s Navy. One is the individual who sees the Navy as a job. He or she might be ...

Books by Thomas J. Cutler