Naval Training Center - Rudder Yearbook (Orlando, FL)

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The War between the States developed courageous fighting men in both the Union and Confederate Navies. David Dixon Porter became famous on the Mississippi River. Captain Raphael Semmes in the com- merce raider CSS ALABAMA captured sixty-nine Union ships before he was destroyed off Cherbourg, France, by Winslow in the USS KEAR- SABGE. Perhaps the outstanding Civil War naval hero was David Glas- gow Farragut f Damn the torpedoes, full speed aheadlnl, whose fleets enforced the blockade of the Confederacy . One generation of fighting men breeds its successors. Dewey and Sampson, our naval leaders in the Spanish-American War, were fore- runners of the naval leaders of our next war. Wilson, Simms, Hart, Taus- sig, and many others next guided our Navy in the defeat of the German U-boat menace and convoyed our armies safely to France in the war with Germany during 1917 and 1918. Between the World Wars the Navy devoted its meager resources of manpower, ships, and funds to research and development in aviation and submarine warfare. Striclcen at Pearl Harbor and the Phillipines in 1941 and practically blockaded by German submarines operating off H tif , ,sh Battle Of New Orleans - 24 April 1862 p N.. 5 ff 8 1 Battle Of Lake Champlain - 11 September 1814 ' ' , ,ixgawmwwn-WM ...M

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THE UNITED STATES NAVAL HERITAGE Bon Homme Richard vs.-Serapis - 23 September 1779 From the days of wooden sailing ships with black-powder guns to today's nuclear powered combatants armed with missiles and jet air- craft, the heritage of our modem Navy has been established by coura- geous and dedicated seafaring men. Their individual maritime achieve- ments are woven into a brilliant tapestry of collective accomplishments which have made the United States Navy the vital instrument of nation- al defense that it is today. To john Paul jones went the honor of first hoisting the Stars and Stripes over an American man-of-war, the USS RANGER, and of first receiving a national salute in Quiberon Bay on February 14, 1778, from France. In command of BONHOMME RICHARD he defeated and cap- tured the British man-of-war SERAPIS off Flamborough Head, giving our Navy its famous retort to an invitation to surrender I have not yet begun to fight. With such inspiration thousands of American sailors have followed in his wake, making individual courage the collective spirit of our Navy. Commodore Edward Preble likewise filled his officers and men with esprit and fighting courage. Some of Preble's boys became the great leaders of the War of 1812, Stephen Decatur, james Lawrence, and Thomas MacDonough. Perry swept the British sea power off Lake Erie. I-Iull and Bainbridge in CONSTITUTION, along with Decatur in UNITED STATES, established American naval power on the high seas during the first year of the War of 1812. As our nation grew in stature in the world family, so did our naval of- ficers grow in stature as diplomats. Typical of their exploits were Com- modore Matthew Calbraith Perry's negotiations with the Emperor of japan in 1853-54. T 55,

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our East Coast ports, the nation built, in three short years, the most powerful naval force in the history of the world. The indomitable spirit of our carrier dive bomber and torpedo plane pilots tumed the tide of the war in the Pacific in the Battle of Midway, june 4, 1942. From that day on, naval power drove the japanese imperi- al forces into their home waters. Powerful amphibious forces, protected by carrier air power and submarines, swept the japanese armies off the Pacific islands. Our fast carrier task forces dealt destruction to the japa- nese fleets. Possibly the greatest air battle in naval annals was the Marianas Turkey Shoot in june 1944, in which carrier pilots of Admi- ral Marc Mitcher's Task Force 58, along with anti-aircraft fire, account- ed for most of the 346 japanese planes destroyed. The exploits of our silent service , the men who fought under the sea in our submarines, were nothing short of spectacular. Ranging throughout the Pacific and into the very harbors of japan itself our fighting submarines sank 214 japanese naval vessels 677,626 tons? and 11778 merchant vessels 15,053,491 tonsl, a momunment to the greatest submarine force in history. MMM ls m ww USS Constitution vs. HMS Java - 29 December 1812