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What defended the U.S. after the attack on Pearl Harbor, defeated the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and is an essential tool in the fight against terror? Aircraft Carriers. For seventy years, these ships remained a little understood cornerstone of American power. In his latest book, On Wave and Wing , Barrett Tillman sheds light on the history of these floating leviathans and offers a nuanced analysis of the largest man-made vessel in the history of the world.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This DVD traces the rise of the biggest warships in the world as the United States air power went from early biplanes landing on converted battleships to the huge modern supercarriers of today.

• Super carrier
• Thunder ballet
• The golden age
• The Kitty Hawk
• Cold wars and hot spots
• Next-generation aircraft
• New developments
• Vietnam
• The Forrestal fire
• Turning point and aftermath
• Evolution
• Challenges
• A dangerous world
• Into the sunset
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Technical data
• Appendix B: Individual ships
• Appendix C: Aircraft technical data
• Appendix D: Air wings.

The book covers the Forrestal class supercarriers and the follow-on ships, which are basically of the same design, i.e. the Forrestal CV-59, Saratoga CV-60, Ranger CV-61, Independence CV-62, Kitty Hawk CV-63, Constellation CV-64, America CV-66 and Kennedy CV-67. (The Enterprise CVN-65 is unique and is not covered beyond an explanation of the reasons for returning to conventional power in the America and Kennedy that followed her.) As in The Essex Aircraft Carriers and The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers, the main emphasis is on the operational history of these ships, which covers a span of over fifty years. There are 81 photographs included in four signatures covering the whole history of the supercarriers interspersed within the body of the book. Maps include the Western Pacific, Vietnam, Mediterranean, Middle East, Indian Ocean and Caribbean. The front end paper illustration shows the Saratoga as representative of the Forrestal class with port and starboard profiles and an overhead view. The rear end paper shows similar views of the Constellation as part of the Kitty Hawk class. Appendix A gives a brief overview of the design technical data for the ships including their dimensions, propulsion systems, arresting gear, catapults, armament, and radars. Illustrations include an annotated inboard profile of the class as built, as well as annotated cross sections comparing the differences between Forrestal and the John F. Kennedy. Appendix B profiles individual ships with a short description of significant items that are not included in the main body of the book. Data for each ship includes the builder as well as dates for keel laying, launch, commissioning, redesignations and decommissioning. Illustrations include the command shield for each ship. Appendix C provides technical data (power plants, dimensions, weights, performance, crew, and armament) for aircraft that operated from the ships over the course of their careers. Included is a table comparing the old Navy designations with the uniform system adopted in 1962 as well as an explanation of each system. Appendix D includes a description of the air wing and its component squadrons and how they have evolved over time, as well as an explanation of the tail code system. For each ship, every deployment is covered with tables showing the dates of deployment, the squadrons assigned within the air group/air wing, the modex and aircraft types. Where the tail code letters are different from the air wing, they are shown next to the modex.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

With the advent of the atomic bomb in 1945 and its impact on strategic thinking, the future of naval aviation looked bleak. Rapid demobilization after the war eliminated many carriers, and most policy makers believed that future wars would be fought with nuclear weapons delivered by land-based aircraft. In "Nuclear Weapons and Aircraft Carriers", Jerry Miller traces the struggle of respected naval leaders to promote a different vision and the innovations in the design and engineering of carriers and aircraft that resulted. He argues that the Navy's hard-won nuclear capability played a significant role in ending the Cold War.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Super carrier
• Thunder ballet
• The golden age
• The Kitty Hawk
• Cold Wars and hot spots
• Next generation aircraft
• New developments
• Vietnam
• The Forrestal fire
• Turning point and aftermath
• Evolution
• Challenges
• A dangerous world
• Into the sunset
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Technical data
• Appendix B: Individual ships
• Appendix C: Aircraft technical data
• Appendix D: Air wings.

The book covers the Forrestal class supercarriers and the follow-on ships, which are basically of the same design, i.e. the Forrestal CV-59, Saratoga CV-60, Ranger CV-61, Independence CV-62, Kitty Hawk CV-63, Constellation CV-64, America CV-66 and Kennedy CV-67. (The Enterprise CVN-65 is unique and is not covered beyond an explanation of the reasons for returning to conventional power in the America and Kennedy that followed her.) As in The Essex Aircraft Carriers and The Independence Light Aircraft Carriers, the main emphasis is on the operational history of these ships, which covers a span of over fifty years. There are 81 photographs included in four signatures covering the whole history of the supercarriers interspersed within the body of the book. Maps include the Western Pacific, Vietnam, Mediterranean, Middle East, Indian Ocean and Caribbean. The front end paper illustration shows the Saratoga as representative of the Forrestal class with port and starboard profiles and an overhead view. The rear end paper shows similar views of the Constellation as part of the Kitty Hawk class. Appendix A gives a brief overview of the design technical data for the ships including their dimensions, propulsion systems, arresting gear, catapults, armament, and radars. Illustrations include an annotated inboard profile of the class as built, as well as annotated cross sections comparing the differences between Forrestal and the John F. Kennedy. Appendix B profiles individual ships with a short description of significant items that are not included in the main body of the book. Data for each ship includes the builder as well as dates for keel laying, launch, commissioning, redesignations and decommissioning. Illustrations include the command shield for each ship. Appendix C provides technical data (power plants, dimensions, weights, performance, crew, and armament) for aircraft that operated from the ships over the course of their careers. Included is a table comparing the old Navy designations with the uniform system adopted in 1962 as well as an explanation of each system. Appendix D includes a description of the air wing and its component squadrons and how they have evolved over time, as well as an explanation of the tail code system. For each ship, every deployment is covered with tables showing the dates of deployment, the squadrons assigned within the air group/air wing, the modex and aircraft types. Where the tail code letters are different from the air wing, they are shown next to the modex.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Originally published in 1968, this now classic study is considered essential reading for its analysis of fast aircraft carrier development. It provides a fascinating record not only of the U.S. Navy's metamorphosis from a battleship-oriented to a carrier-centered fleet, but also of the heated debates that took place over the changing naval strategy. With an insider's grasp of the personalities involved, award-winning naval historian Clark G. Reynolds takes readers from the war rooms of Washington to the flight decks of the Pacific. He vividly describes the battles over the concept of fast carriers between the air admirals and battleship admirals and offers little-known details gleaned from personal interviews and private diaries.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

By the summer of 1945, Adm. Bull Halsey's U.S. Third Fleet had fought its way far enough in the Pacific that its carrier-based fighters could launch attacks on Japan itself in preparation for the invasion of the home islands, planned for the fall of 1945. This mission U.S. Navy fighters, fighter-bombers, dive-bombers, and torpedo-bombers-Hellcats, Avengers, Helldivers, and more-carried out with a vengeance, striking airfields, industrial targets, and coastal facilities while flying into the teeth of Japanese air defenses. Meanwhile, the fleet's aircraft continued to attack the Japanese navy (sinking a submarine from the air, attacking-but not sinking-the famous battleship Nagato, and attacking other ships), interdict enemy merchant shipping, and defend against kamikaze attacks on Third Fleet. As late as the morning of August 15-the day the ceasefire took effect (before the formal signing on September 2)-the fighters saw hard fighting, downing Japanese fighters making last-ditch, almost literally last-minute attacks on the U.S. fleet. Numerous books have covered the American bomber war against Japan in World War II, from the Doolittle Raid to Curtis Lemay's strategic bombing campaign, the firebombing of Tokyo, and the dropping of the atomic bombs. But other than memoirs and bit parts in air war histories, fighter and fighter-bomber operations have received short shrift. Setting the Rising Sun corrects that oversight, zooming in on fighters during the war's final two months. In this carefully researched narrative history, Kevin Mahoney recounts this vital period of the Pacific War with drama and attention to detail. He draws on both American and Japanese perspectives to reconstruct intense combat missions and place them in the context of a war that was hurtling toward its conclusion in two mushroom clouds in Japan.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Jack Fletcher *Proposes a new theory on radio intelligence which mitigates Fletcher's decisions *Based on an abundance of primary sources never before used An abundance of new evidence demanded this re-evaluation of Frank Jack Fletcher, the 'black shoe' admiral who won his battles at sea but lost the war of public opinion. A surface warrior (as opposed to a 'brown shoe' naval aviator), Fletcher led the carrier forces that won against all odds at Coral Sea, Midway and the Eastern Solomons. These and other early carrier victories decided the Pacific War, not only because they inflicted crippling losses but also because they denied Japan key strategic positions in the region. Despite these successes, by 1950 Fletcher was portrayed as a timid bungler who failed to relieve Wake Island in December 1941, and who deliberately abandoned the Marines at Guadalcanal. Fletcher once remarked that 'after an action is over, people talk a lot about how the decisions were deliberately reached, but actually there's always a hell of a lot of groping around'. In this dramatic reappraisal of his career, Lundstrom explores the notion of Fletcher's 'groping around', and, drawing on new material, offers a fresh look at his decisions and actions. The first major reassessment in more than fifty years of this oft maligned naval officer, it provides a careful analysis of the effect of radio intelligence on decision-making in the carrier battles during the first nine months of the war in the Pacific. This new assessment is based on thousands of documents, despatch files and personal papers that no historian has previously employed. John B. Lundstrom is Curator Emeritus of History at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he has worked since 1967. He is the author of five books, including The First Team and The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

"The ability of the United States Navy to fight and win a protracted war in the Pacific was not solely the result of technology, tactics, or leadership. Naval aviation maintenance played a major role in the U.S. victory over Japan in the second World War. The naval war against Japan did not achieve sustained success until enough aircraft technicians were available to support the high tempo of aviation operations that fast carrier task force doctrine demanded. When the United States realized war was imminent and ordered a drastic increase in the size of its aviation fleet, the Navy was forced to reconsider its earlier practices and develop new policies in maintenance, supply, and technical training. Not only did a shortage of technicians plague the Navy, but the scarcity of aviation supply and repair facilities in the Pacific soon caused panic in Washington. While the surface navy's modernization of at-sea replenishment was beneficial, it did not solve the problems of sustaining war-time aircraft readiness levels sufficient to a winning a naval air war. Fisher outlines the drastic institutional changes that accompanied an increase in aviation maintenance personnel from fewer than 10,000 to nearly 250,000 bluejackets, the complete restructuring of the naval aviation technical educational system, and the development of a highly skilled labor force. The first comprehensive study on the importance of aircraft maintenance and the aircraft technician in the age of the aircraft carrier, Sustaining the Carrier War, provides the missing link to our understanding of Great Power conflict at sea."-- Provided by publisher

• Prologue: the airman's admiral
• From Mississippi to the sea
• Naval aviation
• South Pacific Command
• Guadalcanal
• The war in Washington: The Bureau of Aeronautics
• Washington and the Pacific: DCNO (Air)
• Task Force Command
• Task Force 38
• Luzon and the South China Sea
• Carriers against Japan
• Triumph and tragedy.

Admiral John S. McCain and the Triumph of Naval Air Power covers the life and professional career of Adm. John S. McCain Sr. (1884-1945). McCain was among the select few officers who reached the heights of carrier task force command during World War II in the Pacific. Spanning most of the first half of the twentieth century McCain's life and career highlight the integration of aviation into the Navy emphasizing the evolution of the aircraft carrier from a tactical element of the fleet stressing sea control to a strategic force capable of long-range power projection. Although much of the book focuses on carrier aviation McCain was instrumental in the emergence of flying boats (VPs) considered essential for long-range reconnaissance in the Pacific. One of the senior officers branded as ""Johnny-Come-Latelys"" by pioneer aviators McCain nevertheless brought fresh approaches and innovation to naval aviation during the interwar and war years. His prewar and initial wartime commands encompassed tender-based and shore-based aviation which were critical to early operations in the Pacific. Yet McCain also understood the power and potential of carrier-based aviation initially as commanding officer of the Ranger before the war then as a carrier task force commander under Adm. William F. Halsey in the Pacific in 1944 and 1945. Moreover he served tours as Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics and the first Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air) in 1942-1944. In these varied capacities he witnessed and played a role in the culmination of naval air power as a means of delivering crippling blows to the enemy's homeland. McCain was among only a handful of officers who achieved prominence during the war who had experience in all of these varied and challenging levels of command.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Figures Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction
• Chapter 1. Carrier Interpretation
• Chapter 2. "Combustible, Vulnerable, and Expendable"
• Chapter 3. Triptych
• Chapter 4. Pearl
• Chapter 5. Amalgamation
• Chapter 6. "Well Done, Massie Hughes"
• Chapter 7. "Luminous Metallic Underworld"
• Chapter 8. "Better Part of Six Years"
• Chapter 9. "The Lord Looks Out for Drunks, Small Children, and CVEs"
• Chapter 10. "Quickening of Pulse"
• Chapter 11. "Like Bananas in Bunches"
• Chapter 12. "Rocket Business"
• Chapter 13. Denver Omelet Sandwiches
• Chapter 14. "Long Haired Scientists"
• Chapter 15. Massie
• Chapter 16. "Stand by to Repel Boarders!"
• Chapter 17. Buoyant Battlefield
• Chapter 18. Crucible
• Chapter 19. "Seeing Ghosts"
• Chapter 20. St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• Chapter 21. Okinawa
• Chapter 22. The Last D-Day
• Chapter 23. "Yanks Are on Their Way!"
• Chapter 24. Magic Carpet
• Chapter 25. Remembering Conclusion: Void of Memory Notes Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Recounts the stories of the USS Block Island CVE-21 and CVE-106 and their crews, many of whom served on both ships in the Atlantic and Pacific theatres In Valor and Courage: The Story of the USS Block Island Escort Carriers in World War II Benjamin Hruska explores the history and commemoration of the USS Block Island-or, more properly, the Block Islands, as two escort carriers bore that name during WWII. The first, CVE 21, bears the distinction of having been the only American aircraft carrier sunk in the Atlantic Theatre after being torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of North Africa. Of the CVE-21's 957 crew members, six sailors were killed and eighteen injured in the strike, and four of the Block Island's fighter pilots were lost later in the day searching for a safe place to land their planes. When the CVE-106 was commissioned to replace its predecessor, Captain Massie Hughes successfully persuaded the Navy to keep the CVE-21's crew together in manning the new ship. After resurrection as the CVE-106, the Block Island was assigned to the Pacific theater where it fought until the end of the war. The saga of these two ships and the crew that navigated two very different theaters of war offers a unique lens on naval strategy and engineering as it evolved during WWII, especially as pertains to the escort carrier class-generally underappreciated both in naval studies and in public memory. Using archival materials, dozens of oral histories, primary sources, and official records, Hruska traces the life of the Block Island from the CVE-21's construction through its missions in the Atlantic, its work as an antisubmarine hunter, its destruction, and the lasting impact of those experiences on its crew. Hruska's study juxtaposes traditional military history with an examination of the acts of remembrance and commemoration by veterans who served on the escort carriers, how those practices evolved over time, and how the meanings of personal wartime experiences and memories gradually shifted throughout that process.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Examines the role of the air force in World War II, including the nonstop bombing over Germany and the slow island by island battles in the Pacific.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

During the 1920s and 1930s Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves (1878-1948) emerged as the most important flag officer in American naval aviation. He took command of the U.S. Navy's nascent carrier arm during a critical period and, imagining the aircraft carrier's possibilities as an offensive weapon, transformed it from a small auxiliary command in support of the battle line into a powerful strike force that could attack far in advance of the fleet. All the Factors of Victory is the first full-length biography of this eminent naval officer, whose story makes an important contribution to our understanding of not only the development of carrier warfare, but also how intraservice rivalries and the development of new technologies affected the Navy's mission.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This extensively illustrated volume tells the dramatic yet successful story of US aircraft carriers in World War II by class, ranging from early pre-war designs to escort carriers built from destroyer hulls, to the gigantic fleet carriers serving as the predecessors of modern-day super carriers. Besides covering the famous great carrier battles in the Pacific, this book also tells of the equally important actions of US flat tops hunting and destroying German U-boats in the Atlantic, making an enormous contribution to the elimination of the U-boat dangers and the safe arrival of transatlantic supplies, so desperately needed for the launch of D-Day. Including profiles and explanatory text boxes, the concise text gives a clear overview of each ship's career, its fate and its significance in American naval history. Moreover, the reader learns about the technical evolution of US carriers throughout the war, and the various aircraft launched from these magnificent vessels to engage their Japanese or German foes. This volume provides an overview of preserved World War II flat tops serving as floating museums for future generations as well as a dive to the sunken USS Saratoga at Bikini Atoll.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)