Naval Training Center - Rudder Yearbook (Orlando, FL)

Page 21 text:

UNITED STATES 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 modern Navy has been established by courageous and dedicated seafaring men. Their individual maritime achievements are woven into a brilliant tapestry of collective ac- complishments which have made the United States Navy the vital in- strument ot national 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. NAVAL HERITAGE 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 es- prit and fighting courage. Some ot PrebIe's boys became the great leaders ot the War of 1812, Stephen Decatur, James Lawrence, and Thomas MacDonough. Perry swept the British sea power off Lake Erie. Hull 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 officers grow in stature as diplomats. Typical of their exploits were Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's negotiations with the Emperor of Japan in 1853-54. Bon Homme Richard vs Serapis-23 Sept 1779

Page 20 text:

which includes two carrier type ships for the operation of helicopters. And the merchant marine of the USSR is now the sixth largest in the world, and one of the most modern. The existence of such a large and potentially hostile foreign naval force must again be evaluated in our equation ot sea power, just as it was during the years preceding World War Il. The Navy is concerned not only with its basic mission of national security, but also with all other national interests in the ocean. Certainly one of the most important national interests in the ocean is its use for maritime commerce which has been growing at unprecedented rates. As maritime commerce knits the free world into a unified economic complex, new types of demands will be placed upon marine transport. Defense of sea lines of communication and protection of ocean shipping are traditional tasks of naval power, and these tasks will increase as the volume and importance of maritime commerce in- crease. A second area of national interest that is growing and changing dramatically now lies in the way man looks at the ocean. He is in- creasingly turning to the sea for new uses: food and fresh water, lor minerals and energy, perhaps for a key to weather controlg perhaps, even, for living space. Already about 16 !o of world petroleum comes from beneath the seabed and all of the magnesium used by the United States comes from the sea. And with all this, the total resources of the ocean have scarcely been tapped. Certainly man will continue and even accelerate his move to utilize the ocean. But there are three important points to keep in mind in considering this prospect: First, as man moves into the ocean, he is not moving into some alien extraterrestrial space. He is extending and expanding the area of his present world. Second, the knowledge and technology gained by the Navy will contribute to and accelerate this ex- pansion into the ocean. And third, national activities in the ocean will constitute new national interests within the Navy's operating environ- ment. lt appears certain that new Navy missions, new Navy tasks, and new Navy capabilities will develop. ln summary, the United States Navy today is engaged in im- plementing our nation's interests through sea power. And sea power means many things. lt means security for the ocean commerce that is the very life blood of our free economy, and, security for our homeland against attack on the sea or from the sea. For the United States sea power also means the ability to control up to seventy percent of the earth's surface when our national interests require. Sea power-an instrument of national policy so vital to the freedom of the United States and the free world. The very survival of our nation may well depend upon itl v 1, 1. -Q' ,,,, ,. if, t 4. . 'QI' ,. as me V ,,.-. x .W 'lt -' fiw' Qvmvv , m H wa .HE . f -M.. if QNAVY - Nrgvym... L,

Page 22 text:

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 KEARSARGE. Perhaps the outstanding Civil War naval hero was David Glasgow Farragut C'Damn the torpedoes, full speed aheadl l, whose fleets enforced the blockade of the Confederacy. One generation ol fighting men breeds its successors. Dewey and Sampson, our naval leaders in the Spanish-American War, were forerunners of the naval leaders of our next war. Wilson, Simms, Hart, Taussig, 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. Stricken at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines in 1941 and practically blockaded by German submarines operating ott our East Coast ports, the nation built, in three short years, the most powerful naval force in the history ol the world. The indomitable spirit of our carrier dive bomber and torpedo plane pilots turned the tide ol the war in the Pacific in the Battle of Midway, June 4, 1942. From that day on, naval power drove the Japanese imperial 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 Japanese fleets. Possibly the greatest air battle ln naval annals was the Marianas Turkey Shoot in June 1944, in which carrier pilots ot Admiral Marc Mitcher's Task Force 58, along with anti- aircraft fire, accounted tor most of the 346 Japanese planes destroyed. Battle of Lake Champlain-11 Sept 1814 ,L , 1 Battle of New Orleans-24 Sept 1862 it 'B Qi if r A! it. 1 . 3 17, lm, W, , T -ravi V, ,4- W ,