President Franklin D. Roosevelt at lunch with his son Elliott Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., and George Durno during the 1943 Casablanca Conference.

Casablanca with the FDRs

Future Navy Rear Admiral Edward K. Walker's gunnery officer on board the Mayrant in 1942 was Lieutenant Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.

A. Denis Clift
May 2024
Serving on the flag staff ashore in Manila when the Japanese attacked then-Yeoman Cecil King made his way to Corregidor, and in late December boarded the four-stack destroyer USS Peary (DD-226) for a hair-raising escape to Port Darwin.

Yeoman Through the Ranks

An excerpt from the Naval Intitute oral history of Future Chief Warrant Officer Cecil S. King Jr.

A. Denis Clift
April 2024
Though his winning Prize Essay never made it to the pages of Proceedings, Professor Philip Alger believed in the power of the open forum. As Lieutenant Commander Roy Smith wrote in Proceedings in October 1923, “Professor Alger’s advice to [Naval Academy] graduates was always to take up a specialty; and he advised them further that in no other way could they keep in touch with their profession save by careful study of the progress marked out in the Proceedings.”

‘To Speak His Thoughts’

Though his winning Prize Essay never made it to the pages of Proceedings, Professor Philip Alger believed in the power of the open forum.

A. Denis Clift
March 2024
Future Vice Admiral J. Victor Smith was tapped as aide to Admiral William Leahy (behind Roosevelt) in early 1944 and was with him at Yalta, where postwar reorganization in Europe would be determined.

Aide to Leahy

In these edited excerpts from his oral history, Vice Admiral J. Victor Smith shares his experience as aide to Admiral Leahy during his time as Chief of Staff to FDR.

A. Denis Clift
February 2024
Graduating from the Naval Academy in 1944, future Vice Admiral Bernard Forbes joined the USS Barton (DD-722) as gunnery officer, serving on that destroyer for the remainder of World War II and during the first atomic tests at Bikini Atoll.

A-Bombs to Bikini

Vice Admiral Bernard B. “Beetle” Forbes Jr. recalls his time as on the USS Barton (DD-722) during World War II.

A. Denis Clift
January 2024
Captain Raymond Peet

From Little Beavers to Nuclear Bainbridge

Future Navy Vice Admiral Raymond E. Peet recalls his time as a gunnery officer in the heat of the battle of the Pacific in his 1984 oral history.

A. Denis Clift
February 2023
ship's stern

Mighty Mo Hard on Sand

The USS Missouri (BB-63), otherwise known as “Mighty Mo,” was launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in January 1944 and commissioned that June.

A. Denis Clift
January 2023
ADM Meyer

‘Aegis to Sea’

Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer recalls his time as weapons system manager, Advanced Surface Missile System (Aegis), Naval Ordnance System Command in his oral history.

A. Denis Clift
December 2022
Marines

The Marine Band

In these edited Proceedings excerpts, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Edwin N. McClellan details how the Marine Corps band came to be.

A. Denis Clift
November 2022
The Soviet ship Poltava en route to Cuba in September 1962.

Task Force 135 On Course for Cuba

Admiral Alfred Ward commanded the U.S. forces that enforced the Cuban quarantine following the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A. Denis Clift
October 2022