Written by a naval officer who taught English at two service academies, this is the third edition of the premier guide to professional writing for the naval services. The book is widely used by officers, enlisted men and women and civilians in both the Navy and Marine Corps. Shenk provides sound, practical advice on all common naval writing assignments. This third edition adds a new chapter on writing emails and updates the whole book to take account of the way naval writing is done in today's computer age.
The best way for todays sailors to learn about a battle is from those who fought it. The Battle of Midway, commemorated annually in the U.S. Navy, warrants close attention. This Naval Institute guide includes some of the most vibrant and informed accounts by individuals who fought on both sides of the June 1942 battle. The anthology pulls together memoirs, articles, excerpts from other Naval Institute books, and relevant government documents to help readers understand what happened and explain why the battle was so significant to the naval service. The core of the book focuses on events leading up to the battle and the battle itself, with a separate section examining how others have interpreted the battles often desperate engagements. When the U.S. Navy stopped the Japanese steamroller off Midway Island, it not only turned the progress of the war but set the Navys foundation for future counter offensives. The Navys comeback spread to the Solomon Islands and on to the other key strategic areas in the Pacific. While many know that Midway was a crucial American victory, they often do not know the details of the battle. This book tells how, for example, the American PT boats contributed to the victory, how the carrier planes formed up for their attacks, and what role radar played in the battle. In addition to excerpts from books and articles, the guide includes selections from several important Naval Institute oral histories. From the enlisted mans perspective all the way to the admirals, for both Americans and Japanese, readers see the U.S. Navys greatest victory as the participants saw it.
A Brief Guide to Maritime Strategy is a deliberately compact introductory work aimed at junior seafarers, those who make decisions affecting the sea services, and those who educate seafarers and decision-makers. It introduces readers to the main theoretical ideas that shape how statesmen and commanders make and execute maritime strategy in times of peace and war. Following in the spirit of Bernard Brodie's Layman's Guide to Naval Strategy, a World War II-era book whose title makes its purpose plain, it will be a companion volume to such works as Geoffrey Till's Seapower and Wayne Hughes's Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat, the classic treatise that explains how to handle navies in fleet actions. It takes the mystery out of maritime strategy, which should not be an arcane art for practitioners or policy-makers, and will help the next generation think about strategy.
Today’s Navy is a massive and complex organization, with hundreds of ships, thousands of aircraft, hundreds of thousands of people, and an annual budget in the billions of dollars that make the U.S. Navy a powerful and important component of the American defense establishment, playing a vital role in maintaining our national security, protecting us against our enemies in time of war, and guarding our economic lifelines and supporting our foreign policy in peacetime. Despite its obvious importance, most Americans know very little about their Navy, and learning about it has been a daunting task. Until now. Derived from another Naval Institute Press book by the same author, NavCivGuide: A Handbook for Civilians in the United States Navy (which is used by civilians who work for the Department of the Navy), this informative book is a highly accessible guide that explains the strange ways of the Navy in terms that non-Sailors can understand. In ten short chapters, the author reveals such things as the many titles that military people have, the various alphanumeric designations that military personnel use to identify and distinguish themselves, the organization of the Navy and the Department of Defense, the origins and practices of such things as saluting, flag etiquette, side boys, and odd language (such as “aye-aye”), and an explanation of the many missions of the Navy. Also included is an introduction to the Navy’s colorful history, a primer on the various ships and aircraft that make up today’s fleet, a guide to “reading” a uniform, and the demystification of such things as the phonetic alphabet and military time. Designed to be an easy read for those who want the whole story, The Citizen’s Guide to the Navy is also a useful reference work. Each chapter ends with a section called “QuickRefs,” which are lists of the essential facts presented in the chapter itself. While not everyone need be an expert on the Navy, there is a middle ground that this book serves by providing a readable, edifying, and often entertaining explanation of this important but sometimes mysterious branch of the U.S. armed forces.
J. F. Leahy chronicles the transition of eighty-one men and women from civilians to sailors at the U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois. Granted unlimited and unprecedented access to the recruits during the fall of 2000, his examination of the unique American institution -—popularly known as boot camp -—offers a look into the hearts and minds of a group of young people who are a cross section of the nation. The work offers a unique view into the training experience of all recruits and sheds light on the differences between those entering the military services and the society they serve.
This practical guide advises officers of all paygrades, experience levels, and warfare communities on life and work in Washington, D.C., and in the Pentagon, in particular.
In the U.S. Navy, “Wheel Books” were once found in the uniform pockets of every junior and many senior petty officers. Each small notebook was unique to the Sailor carrying it, but all had in common a collection of data and wisdom that the individual deemed useful in the effective execution of his or her duties. Often used as a substitute for experience among neophytes and as a portable library of reference information for more experienced personnel, those weathered pages contained everything from the time of the next tide, to leadership hints from a respected chief petty officer, to the color coding of the phone-and-distance line used in underway replenishments. In that same tradition, the new Naval Institute Wheel Books will provide supplemental information, pragmatic advice, and cogent analysis on topics important to all naval professionals. Drawn from the U.S. Naval Institute’s vast archives, the series will combine articles from the Institute’s flagship publication Proceedings, selections from the oral history collection and from Naval Institute Press books to create unique guides on a wide array of fundamental professional subjects. Strategy is described by the Dictionary of Modern Strategy and Tactics as having “a permanent nature, but an ever-changing character.” For more than a century, both the nature and the character of this essential discipline have been explored in depth by contributors to the Naval Institute’s magazines, books, and oral histories. Drawing from those powerful resources, this collection makes clear why naval strategy has always straddled the boundaries between art and science and why its study and employment are essential components of the sea service profession.
"This practical guide will advise newly commissioned naval officers from all service communities in basic leadership, naval policy, service etiquette, and personal and professional administration. Using insights and writing from those who have recently made this transition, the book also serves as a gateway to the many online and print assets available to newly commissioned officers, serving as a user-friendly first stop for advice and information."--Provided by publisher.
