Navy Reading List

Navy Reading List

"A" list: required reading list

The Fighting Liberty Ships — A Memoir by A. A. Hoehling
A Sailor's Log: Recollections of Forty Years of Naval Life by Rear Adm. Robert D. Evans with introduction by Benjamin Franklin Cooling
Tin Can Sailor - Life Aboard the USS Sterett, '39-'45 by C. Raymond Calhoun
Battleship Sailor by Theodore C. Mason
Brave Ship, Brave Men by Arnold S. Lott
We Will Stand By You — Serving in the Pawnee, 1942-1945 by Theodore C. Mason
Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's WWII Odyssey by Alvin Kernan
Thunder Below by Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey, USN(Ret.)
The Battle of Cape Esperance — Encounter at Guadalcanal by Capt. Charles Cook, USN(Ret.)
The Golden Thirteen — Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers by Paul Stillwell with Colin L. Powell
The Last Patrol by Harry Holmes
Raiders from the Sea by John Lodwick
Submarine Diary — The Silent Stalking of Japan by Rear Adm. Corwin Mendenhall
Devotion to Duty — A Biography of Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague by John F. Wukovits
Every Other Day: Letters from the Pacific by George B. Lucas
In Love and War: Revised and Updated by Jim and Sybil Stockdale
Nimitz by E. B. Potter
Ship's Doctor by Captain Terrence Riley
What a Way to Spend a War: Navy Nurse POWs in the Philippines by Dorothy Still Danner
Naked Warriors by Cmdr. Frances Douglas Fane and Don Moore
Iwo by Richard Wheeler
Descent Into Darkness by Cmdr. Edward C. Raymer
Blood on the Sea by Robert Sinclair Parkin
On Watch by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt
Wake of the Wahoo by Forrest J. Sterling
Quiet Heroes by Cmdr. Frances Omori
The Fast Carriers — The Forging of an Air Navy by Clark G. Reynolds
A Most Fortunate Ship — Narrative History of Old Ironsides by Tyrone Martin
A Voice From the Main Deck by Samuel Leech
Amongst My Best Men — African Americans in the War of 1812 by Gerald T. Altoff
Life in Mr. Lincoln' s Navy by Dennis J. Ringle
Divided Waters — The Naval History of the Civil War by Ivan Musicant
That Gallant Ship: Yorktown by Robert Cressman
By Sea, Air, and Land — An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia by Marolda
Shield and Sword — The U.S. Navy and the Persian Gulf by Marolda and Schneller
My Father My Son by Zumwalt and Zumwalt
Good Night Officially by William M. McBride
Tin Can Man by E. J. Jernigan
Raiders of the Deep by Lowell Thomas, introduction by Gary E. Weir

"B" List: Reference

American Naval History — An Illustrated Chronology of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present by Jack Sweetman
The Book of Navy Songs by The Trident Society
Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U. S. Navy, 1912-92 by Thomas Wildenberg
Sea Power: A Naval History by E. B. Potter
Air Raid: Pearl Harbor! – Recollections of a Day of Infamy by Paul Stillwell
E-Boat Alert — Defending the Normandy Invasion Fleet by James Foster Tent
Heroes in Dungarees — The Story of the American Merchant Marines in WWII by John Bunker
Unsung Sailors — The Naval Armed Guard in WWII by Justin F. Gleichauf
The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway by John B. Lundstrom
The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942 by John B. Lundstrom
Admiral John H. Towers — The Struggle for Naval Air Supremacy by William F. Trinmble
The Magnificent Mitscher by Theodore Taylor
At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange
Prisoners of the Japanese by Gavon Daws
The Two Ocean War by Samuel Eliot Morrison
History of the U. S. Navy, Vol. One, 1775-1941 by Robert W. Love, Jr.
Clash of the Titans by Walter J. Boyne
Okinawa — The Last Battle of World War II by Robert Lackie
Normandy by Vice Adm. William P. Mack
War at Sea by Nathan Miller
War Beneath the Sea by Peter Sudfield
Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prance
Authors at Sea: Modern American Writers Remember Their Naval Service by Robert Shenk
Rocks & Shoals: Naval Discipline in the Age of Fighting Sail by James E. Valle
The Unsinkable Fleet: The Politics of U.S. Navy Expansion in World War II by Joel R. Davidson
Run Silent/Run Deep by Captain Edward L. Beach
Decision and Dissent with Halsey at Leyte Gulf by Carl Solberg
PT 105 by Dick Keresey
Submarine Commander by Paul Schratz
We Pulled Together and Won! Personal Memories of the World War II Era by Reminisce Books
War in the Boats by Captain William J. Ruhe
Submarine Admiral by Adm. J. J. Galntin
All at Sea by Louis R. Harlany
Slow Dance to Pearl Harbor — A Tin Can Ensign in Prewar America by Captain William J. Ruhe
The People Navy by Kenneth J. Hagan
Longitude by Dava Sobel
U-Boat Commander by Peter Cremer
Kinkaid of the Seventh Fleet: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN by Gerald E. Wheeler
Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War against Japan by Richard A. Russell
Assault from the Se — The Amphibious Landing at Inchon by Curtis Utz
Cordon of Steel: The U.S. Navy and the Cuban Missile Crisis by Curtis Utz
Swift and Effective Retribution — The U.S. Sixth Fleet and the Confrontation with Qaddafi by Joseph T. Stanik
Revolt of the Admirals by Jeffrey Barlow
A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A Dahlgren by Robert J. Schneller
One Hundred Years of Sea Power: The U.S. Navy, 1890-1990 by George Baer
Great US Naval Battles by Jack Sweetman
History of the U.S. Navy Part II by Robert Love
Black Shoes and blue Water: Surface Warfare in the USN 1945-1975 by Malcolm Muir
Quiet Warrior: A Biography of ADM Raymond A. Spruance by Thomas Buell
Anchors and Eagles by Paul Adkisson
Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 by S. I. Rochester and F. Wiley
And I was There by Rear Adm. Edwin T. Layton
The Lost Ships of Guadalcanal by Robert D. Ballard
Crossed Currents: Navy Women from WWI to Tailhook by Jean Ebbert/Marie-Beth Hall

"C" List: Reference

History of U. S. Naval Operations in World War II by Samuel Eliot Morrison:
- Vol. I: The Battle of the Atlantic
- Vol. II: Operations in North African Waters
- Vol. III: The Rising Sun in the Pacific
- Vol. IV: Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions
- Vol. V: The Struggle for Guadalcanal
- Vol. VI: Breaching the Bismarks Barrier
- Vol. VII: Aleutions, Gilberts and Marshalls
- Vol. VIII: New Guinea and the Marianas
- Vol. IX: Sicily — Salerno — Anzio
- Vol. X: The Atlantic Battle Won
- Vol. XI: The Invasion of France and Germany
- Vol. XII: Leyte
- Vol. XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines, Luzon, Mindinao, the Visayas
- Vol. XIV: Victory in the Pacific