Kaplan Paints in a Monsoon

by Bill Doughty

Robert Kaplan paints words from a palatte of nearly forgotten colors and memories.

In “Monsoon” -- a top pick on the CNO’s Professional Reading Program, Kaplan literally (and littorally) travels the breadth of the Indian Ocean and, like an artist, reveals the people, places and history of the dynamic and vital IO Rim.

His words evoke sights, smells, tastes, dimensions and sensations for the reader.

Case in point:

“A few minutes from the Shah Jahan Mosque is the necropolis on Makli Hill: tombs from the Samma, Arghun, Tarkhan, and Mughal periods, made of sandstone and glazed bricks.  These, too, were dynasties with both Turkic and Mongol blood.  And yet the tombs remind one of so many similar buildings in India, demonstrating that what we think of as Indian is itself a mélange of Near Eastern cultures.  Everywhere there are brick plinths, rectangular pillars, imposing ramparts, and cracked bulbous domes.  The buckling, glazed brick is peeled away in layers, like old mascara, with faint touches of milky blue.  These lonely monuments appear to soar into the clouds, each occupying its own little hill.  Some, with their intricate fretwork, have an almost Byzantine stateliness.  Others bear the proportions and complexity of the pharaonic buildings at Karnak.  All stand in majestic separation from one another amid a destitute wasteland, with garbage everywhere, like at so many historical and cultural sites in Pakistan. It is as though in the last sixty years -- unlike during the dynastic centuries recounted by these tombs -- there has been no state here; nothing but marauders.”

This is beautifully constructed prose, and there is a lot of it.  Kaplan’s words frame the abstract into the tangible and help us understand people and situations in Oman, Baluchistan, Bangladesh, several regions of India, Burma, Sri Lanka and Zanzibar and along the Indus River. 

Camões

Several diverse and sometimes unexpected themes link his narrative.  These include the voyages of Zheng He and Vasco de Gama; the poem “The Lusiads”  (“Os Lusíadas”) by Luís Vaz de Camões; environmental and seismic issues, including climate change, tsunami; the influence of world religions; and, of course, the drift of monsoon seasons and winds.

“The southwest monsoon that arrives in the Bay of Bengal in early summer provides a new dimension to rain.  This is the time of tropical cyclones, and it is as though the ocean was continually emptying itself upon you.  For days at a time, the sky is a low, claustrophobic vault of angry clouds.  Absent sunlight, the landscape -- however intrinsically rich in color, with mountains of hibiscus and bright orange mangoes, and the flowing saris of women -- becomes scrubbed over in a grainy mist.  Mud is the primary color, but it is not depressing.  It is the coolness that you notice first, not the leaden darkness.  You are filled with energy.  No longer are your clothes dissolving in sweat or your knees hollow from the heat.  No longer is the air something thick and oppressive that your body needs to push against.”

Kaplan notes that a million ships pass through the Indian Ocean straits each year.  Countries like India and China are building more ships, competing for resources and influence as they develop various cooperative relationships.

Kaplan’s canvas is wide.  He combines long and deep descriptions with sudden flashes of pinpoint insights expressed in just one or two sentences.  Some examples:

• “The Indian Ocean is small in a cultural sense but too vast even in the jet age for one power to gain real sway over it.”

• “History is as much a series of accidents and ruined schemes as of great plans.”

• “The Indus signals the western edge of the Subcontinent, from where its political unity was frequently breached by invaders coming out of the plateau and deserts of Afghanistan, Iran, and Baluchistan.  It is thus a lesson in the feebleness of borders.”

• Regarding India’s democratic spirit: “A spirit that is truly breathtaking in terms of what it can overcome. That is india’s ultimate strength.”

• “Strategic, romantic, and a moral catastrophe, Burma is a place that tends to consume people.”

• “The future of American power is related directly to how it communicates its concern about issues like climate change to Bangladeshis and others.”

Jakarta, Indonesia

As a book of thoughtful influence and reflection, “Monsoon” is an important read on the two-year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami March 11 and U.S. Navy’s humanitarian response.  Next year will be the ten-year anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami which slammed Indonesia at the end of 2004.  The U.S. Navy’s humanitarian response was a milestone cultural and historical event that, according to Kaplan, made a difference for the littoral nations throughout the region.

“Monsoon: the Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power” is presented in three parts, with the third predominantly focused on China and filled with naval power insights -- from Alfred Thayer Mahan in the late 1800s to current scholars from the U.S. Naval War College today, including James R. Holmes and Toshi Yoshihara.

Robert D. Kaplan

Kaplan’s analysis in Chapter 15 -- “China’s Two-Ocean Strategy?” -- is especially important to the U.S. Navy especially since Kaplan presciently touches on budgetary challenges, which he wrote two years before the threat of the Sequester, starting to bite this month. 

Respected thinkers Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and Pankaj Mishra of India and Great Britain (author of the insightful “From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals who Remade Asia”), both referenced in Monsoon, warn Americans about seeing Asia (and China, in particular) through an American prism that assumes people in the region want to be just like us.  Many people in and around the Indian Ocean hunger for freedom and democracy, but we would be best served if we see their region through their eyes.  Kaplan helps make that happen.  He helps us see the big picture.

A Long Arc Toward Justice

by Bill Doughty

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was one of the first people to learn about President Lincoln's commitment to free enslaved human beings in the South.  Lincoln confided in Welles and Secretary of State William Seward on July 13, 1862, according to Seward’s diary, that emancipation was part of a military strategy.

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, center, at Lincoln's right hand.

Was Lincoln motivated by morality or practicality -- or both?

A new book by John Burt, “Lincoln’s Tragic Pragmatism,” joins over 16,000 titles published to date about the 16th president and explores the question. 

Regarding Lincoln's practical motivation, Burt writes:

“He explained to Welles that emancipation ‘was a military necessity absolutely essential to the salvation of the Union, that we must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued.’ Such an act would, at the least, weaken the power of the Confederacy, since it used its slaves to do such things as dig intrenchments or move supplies, jobs which otherwise would have to be performed by white soldiers. He further noted that the border states would do nothing, left to themselves, and could only be persuaded to free their slaves if the slaves were freed in the Confederacy first.”

Burt’s book was showcased this week on one of America’s best radio shows,  Tom Ashbrook’s On Point, and is available as a podcast. The acclaimed new book examines Lincoln’s philosophy and approach to democracy.  Listen to the discussion here.

Ashbrook opens his podcast with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

He quotes a passage from Burt:

“Lincoln provides a model for moral agency in a complex world in which one must make one’s way among various half-understood alternatives, none of which leaves ones hands clean.”

Burt discusses conflicting beliefs and values, the tension between democracy and morality, and the fundamental principles of persuasion.

He tells Ashbrook, “My conscience commands me, but it has to persuade you.  And, indeed, if I don’t persuade you and compel you, then I’m not behaving in a democratic way either.  It may be a high-minded tyranny, but it’s still a tyranny.  I have an obligation to get you to accept defeat on things that matter to you highly.”

The On Point conversation brings out contemporary parallels -- from Martin Luther King’s strategy in the 1960s to current challenges of the ongoing Continuing Resolution and impending Sequestration in 2013.  In considering Lincoln, the lessons in leadership, compromise and warfare -- concessions without “fatal sacrifices” -- are striking.

Another one of the 16,000+ Lincoln titles (used as a backdrop by CNO Adm. Greenert to announce his revamped Professional Reading Program) is Ronald C. White, Jr.’s “The Eloquent President.”  White examines some of the president’s greatest speeches, addresses and public letters between 1861 and 1865, pulling them apart and looking at the poetry, cadences and conviction inside.

Like Burt, White also describes the role of Welles and Seward as Lincoln’s close confidants on the issue of emancipation.

Welles wrote detailed entries in his diary and recounted Lincoln’s growing belief in “Divine Will.” According to Welles, Lincoln saw victory in the Battle of Antietam as an indication that “God had decided this question in favor of the slaves.”

In "The Eloquent President," White writes:

“What was most remarkable, in an atmosphere charged with religious fervor and hyperpatriotism, was Lincoln’s new belief that God’s purposes may not be able to be identified by either side.  What sets him apart, in this musing, from his contemporaries in both North and South was his absence of pretension.”

White puts Lincoln’s passionate and compelling speeches under a magnifying glass, peeling off words and phrases and examining the inspiration, techniques and underlying morality of the president’s rhetoric.

He considers the Annual Message to Congress, delivered Dec. 1, 1862, as  “Lincoln’s finest message to Congress.” In that address, Lincoln calls for a “plain, peaceful, generous, just” way to save the Union.

Lincoln’s conclusion includes the phrase “fiery trial”:

“Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.”

White concludes, “His words transcended the limitations of the event.  He used this occasion not simply to report to Congress but to mobilize public opinion. He offered a powerful appeal to history but also invited Americans to think in the future tense.  Lincoln’s message represented a breadth of conception and height of imagination in his expanding rhetorical arsenal.”

Lincoln balanced the highest ideals of morality with a tough, clear-eyed practical approach to achieve compromise and cooperation.  Using the art of the long view, he kept his commitment to the arc of the moral universe that would lead to justice for future generations.

Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Found Haiku’

by Bill Doughty

Haiku: Insights distilled to three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables only.

Originally from Japan and traditionally nature based, haiku are poems that can bring out subtle but deep insights in a few words.  Sometimes, haiku can be found in other people’s words.  The ‘found haiku’ on this page come from the published works of President Abraham Lincoln.  These are his words:

with other pillars

hewn from the solid quarry

of sober reason

(Speech before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, Jan. 27, 1837)

his ruling passion --

a love of liberty and

right, unselfishly

(Eulogy of Henry Clay, July 16, 1852)

steadily as man’s

march to the grave, we have been

giving up the old

(Speech at Peoria, Illinois on Kansas-Nebraska Act, Oct. 16, 1854)

We live in the midst

of alarms, anxiety

beclouds the future

(Speech before the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, May 29, 1856)

In my opinion...

a house divided against

itself cannot stand

(Speech before the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, June 17, 1858)

that if a man says

he knows a thing, then he must

show how he knows it

(Speech at first Lincoln-Douglas debate, Aug. 21, 1858)

Let us have faith that

right makes might; and in that faith

...dare to do our duty

(Speech at New Haven, Connecticut, March 6, 1860)

touched, as surely

they will be, by the better

angels of our nature

(First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1861)

Let us proceed in

the great task which events have

devolved upon us

(First Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1861)

Slavery is the

root of the rebellion...

it’s sine qua non

(Reply to a committee from Chicago religious denominations, Sept. 13, 1862)

The subject is on

my mind, by day and night, more

than any other

(Reply to a committee from Chicago religious denominations, Sept. 13, 1862)

Sorrow comes to all

and to the young it comes with

bittered agony

(Letter to Fanny McCullough, Dec. 23, 1862)

Peace does not appear

so distant as it did. I

hope it will come soon

(Letter to James C. Conkling, Aug. 26, 1863)

with malice toward none,

with charity for all, with

firmness in the right

(Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865)

We shall sooner have

the fowl by hatching the egg

than by smashing it

(“On Reconstruction,” his last public address, April 11, 1865)

President Lincoln, 1864

Lincoln was a master of prose whose writing feels like poetry.  His Gettysburg Address and his inaugural addresses are some of the finest examples of writing in American History.  As we reflect on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Navy Reads will continue to periodically feature works by and about our 16th President. As we end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, deal with perils of a continuing resolution and sequestration, and even contemplate asteroids and meteors in 2013, Lincoln’s words offer inspiration, perspective and hope.

The haiku in this Navy Reads post were "found" by Bill Doughty from works published in “The Essential Abraham Lincoln,” from the Library of Freedom, published by Gramercy Books, distributed by Outlet Book Company, Inc., a Random House company. The works are from Lincoln’s original papers, collected in The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln (twelve volumes, 1905), edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay, and prepared with the cooperation of Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s son.

For Navy Leaders, Readers - ‘On Writing Well’

Review by Bill Doughty

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the phrase “All men are created equal,” reportedly said this about writing: “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

William Zinsser would agree.

Zinsser’s “On Writing Well” shows how to achieve good nonfiction writing by removing clutter and striving for unity. “Unity is the anchor of good writing,” he said.

Also, good writing comes from clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity, according to Zinsser, who provides plenty of examples by writers and thinkers -- Lewis Thomas, H. L. Mencken, James Baldwin, Diane Ackerman, Woody Allen and many others.

JFK's PT-109 essay, June 17, 1944

Excerpts by these writers show that principles like brevity and simplicity don’t have to result in colorless prose.   New Yorker magazine is brought up continually as a good source for great writing -- prose and poetry, nonfiction and storytelling.  Zinsser, himself, has written for New Yorker throughout his career.

In "On Writing Well" Zinsser writes about the art of choosing the right nouns, verbs and images to communicate effectively.

“This is a book about decisions -- the countless successive decisions that go into every act of writing,” he writes.  That includes choosing how to organize the sentences, paragraphs and entire piece to achieve that all-important unity.

“All your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don’t keep remembering that writing is linear and sequential, that logic is the glue that holds it together, that tension must be maintained from one sentence to the next and from one paragraph to the next and from one section to the next...”

Salt caravan in Timbuktu.  (file photo)

In a chapter called “A Writer’s Decisions,” Zinsser dissects his own long travel article, “The News from Timbuktu.” He takes the reader to Mali, Africa to witness a rare salt caravan from across the Sahara, where nervous camels walk in undulating unison carrying huge slabs of salt “like dirty white marble.”  Throughout the chapter, the author explains why he chose images, themes and even particular words.

Writing with brevity doesn’t negate eloquence.  Like Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln believed in choosing words that conveyed deep meaning.

Zinsser briefly examines Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (the speech at the conclusion of the Spielberg movie, “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis).

Lincoln gave his address March 4, 1865 near the end of the Civil War as slavery was being abolished.  His address concludes with words of transcendence: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Lincoln reads with son Tad. (Photo from National Archives)

Zinsser says the speech “affects me more than any other American document” because “Lincoln tapped some of Western man’s oldest teachings about slavery, clemency and judgment.”

“On Writing Well” is recommended for anyone who writes.  That includes every Navy leader.  I first heard about this book as a recommendation by Navy’s Chief of Information, Rear Adm. John Kirby, who shared his list of essential 15 books last year.  Kirby’s list was picked up and posted on ForeignPolicy.com by Tom Ricks, author of “The Gamble” and “The Generals.”

Kirby’s diverse list includes works by Ernie Pyle, Mark Twain and John F. Kennedy.  It also features books about Lincoln, North Pacific history, and a collection of poems by Kipling, Emerson and others.  Kirby’s list starts with Zinsser’s “definitive book” and includes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Stride Toward Freedom,” reviewed last month on Navy Reads.

King, Lincoln and Jefferson loved books.  They were great readers, thinkers and writers.  They could create works with clarity, cadence, humanity, etc.  And they had something to say about unity -- in and through their writing.

Posted on NFL Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013.

War on the Waters – How the Navy Saved the Nation

by Bill Doughty

When the USS Monitor was lost in a storm Dec. 31, 1862, exactly 150 years ago, the future of the nation hung in the balance.

In his insightful new book, “War on the Waters,” James M. McPherson shows how Union naval leaders, technology and strategies combined to overcome setbacks and losses to the Confederacy – and eventually win the war.

Civil War SECNAV Gideon Welles

“To say that the Union navy won the Civil War would state the case much too strongly.  But it is accurate to say that the war could not have been won without the contributions of the navy,” concludes McPherson.

The Pulitzer Prize winning author writes about the wisdom of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, the courage of Rear Adm. David Glasgow Farragut and the power of working jointly.  General Ulysses S. Grant worked hand-in-hand with Rear Adm. David D. Porter, the son and namesake of the War of 1812 hero.

Rear Adm. David D. Porter

We also meet Cmdr. John Rodgers (another son and namesake of a War of 1812 Captain) and Cmdr. George H. Preble (grandson of one of the Navy’s greatest leaders, Capt. Edward Preble).  The ties to the War of 1812 – in people, foreign alliances and brown-water naval tactics – are enlightening.

President Lincoln ordered the Army to provide its fleet of vessels to the Navy but promoted the idea of one-two punches by the Navy and Army from river ports to river forts. McPherson describes the fearless leadership of 19-year-old ship driver Colonel Charles Rivers Ellet.

Quoting letters, diary entries, first-person reports and dispatches, the author presents a broad history of naval warfare on both sides of the Civil War.  He describes “asymmetrical war on the waters” in blockades and blockade running, riverbank guerrilla warfare, subterfuge at sea, and night attacks, and he follows the development of ironclad ships, submersible vessels and mines (torpedoes).

Civil War gunship USS Commodore Perry.

The Civil War saw the watershed shift from wooden ships of previous centuries that would lead to the development of battleships by the end of the century.  Innovation would continue.  Less than 50 years after end of the Civil War the era of naval aviation would begin.

Well-worn strategies of blockading commerce and targeting blockade runners would be expanded into the next century.  A naval embargo against Imperial Japan in 1941 led to the beginning of the War in the Pacific.

Against the Confederacy in the 1860s, blockades were important in preventing the exporting of cotton and importing of salt.  The role of salt in the southern economy and the targeting of salt production in the south by the Union Navy are fascinating side notes showing the importance of a healthy economy to a strong military.

McPherson describes the overall sociological effect of naval strategies on people in the north and south, too.

“Modern historical scholarship has shown how the Union army became a powerful force in the liberation of slaves, and how the 180,000 liberated black Union soldiers (most of them liberated slaves) in turn helped the Union army win the war.  Less well known is the role of the Navy in freeing slaves and the vital contribution of black sailors to the navy’s campaigns.  In 1861-1862 the Navy penetrated earlier and more deeply than the army into tidewater regions of the South Atlantic coast and into the valleys of the lower Mississippi River and its tributaries...”

“War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861-1865” starts as a dry treatise but picks up steam.  With nearly two dozen photos and illustrations and 19 easy-to-read maps, this book is filled with information, details and insights.  It deserves a place on every military historian’s book shelf.

McPherson proves his conclusion: The Navy played a key role in winning the Civil War and saving the United States – a mere 150 years ago.

Photos courtesy of National Archives and Naval History and Heritage Command.

Senator Inouye - Passing of an American Hero

by Bill Doughty

When Senator Daniel K. Inouye was a young man going to war in 1943 to fight in Europe his father told him, “...if you must die, die with honor.”  After a lifetime of honorable service, Medal of Honor recipient Inouye passed away Dec. 17, 2012.

A statement from his office conveyed the loss.  President Obama issued a statement, calling Inouye “a true American hero” who  “worked to strengthen our military, forge bipartisan consensus, and hold those of us in government accountable to the people we were elected to serve.”

A Navy Reads post, “Honor by Fire,” describes the commitment and sacrifice of Inouye and his compatriots and the saga of Americans of Japanese Ancestry in World War II in a review of "Honor by Fire" by Lyn Crost.

Ten days prior to his death Sen. Inouye, an eyewitness of the attack on Pearl Harbor, reflected on the “magnitude and cost of the war.”

Statement by Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Dec. 7, 2012:

“In 1941, the date December 7th was a day that evoked anger, fierce patriotism and dangerous racism. Soon after that day, I suddenly found myself, pursuant to a decision by the government and along with thousands of Japanese Americans declared 4C, enemy aliens. It was a difficult time. I was 17.”

“I joined many of my classmates and sent petitions to the government, pleading for the opportunity to fight. We wanted to affirm our loyalty and pride of citizenship. The request was granted in the final days of 1942.”

“The government decided to form a combat team made up of young Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA), the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In Hawaii, they asked for 1,500 volunteers. About 10,000 signed up, more than 85 percent of the eligible Japanese American males in Hawaii.”

“The day I rushed down to the draft board to volunteer, I was a freshmen in college. I was a pre-medicine major. There were 36 AJA’s in my class, 34 volunteered, and all were wounded or killed. As a result, after the war, there were very few AJA doctors in Hawaii.”

Inouye, front left, and AJA buddies.

“During one of our first fights, my best friend, Jin Hatsu Chinen, was killed in an artillery barrage. We were to open a clinic in Honolulu together after the war. He was teaching me to play the guitar. His death, reminded me, reminded all of us, of the magnitude and cost of the war we were fighting.”

“The 442nd went on to become the most decorated unit of its size in the history of the United States Army, but we suffered horrific losses and those of us lucky to survive the fight swore we would live life for our brothers who did not come home. I shall always be grateful to President Roosevelt for giving us the opportunity to demonstrate our love of country.”

“On this day, let us remember all those who have had the courage to put on the uniform and sacrifice for our great nation. Our way of life has always, and will always be, protected and preserved by volunteers willing to give their lives for what we believe in. I thank each of you for your service to the nation, I thank you for your many sacrifices, and I thank you for being an American patriot.”

Navy Reads: Conversation with the Creator II

by Bill Doughty

In a world of Hulu, Halo, Android, Facebook and Reddit, who has time to read a book ... and why bother?  

The new-and-improved Navy reading program, now known as Chief of Naval Operations Professional Reading Program (CNO-PRP), shows why a commitment to literacy, education and critical thinking is still relevant, recognizing that a “book” today can be experienced not only on paper but also via Nook, Kindle or iPhone app.

The new reading program breathes online; lists are no longer tied to rank, some titles are presented on the program’s website “for further consideration,” and Sailors can even check out books electronically for loan through Navy Knowledge Online.

U.S. Naval War College (NWC) professor John Jackson, creator of Navy’s reading program, believes in promoting and encouraging reading as fun.  The program’s goal is to create a “culture of reading” on ships and at shore commands.  We first interviewed Jackson in July 2009.  In this October 2012 conversation he speaks about how the program has evolved for the digital generation.

Professor Jackson, the biggest change to the list is the alignment to Adm. Greenert’s tenets -- “warfighting first, operate forward and be ready.”  How did the CNO’s Sailing Directions guide the selection of books for the list?

Professor Jackson and CNO Adm. Greenert

When CNO published his Sailing Directions, he was providing his vision for the thrust that all Navy activities and actions should take. They provided a shorthand list of priorities. Since the CNO-PRP is designed to help develop the professionalism of all Sailors, it was relatively easy to identify books which aligned with the three tenets.

What was the CNO’s direct role?

The CNO personally reviewed and approved the titles recommended by the CNO-PRP Advisory Group (which includes U.S. Naval Academy, Naval Postgraduate School, Naval War College, Naval History and Heritage Command, and the Senior Enlisted Academy). He discussed the program at the all Navy Flag Officer and Senior Executive Service Conference in October 2011 and asked these Navy leaders to provide input on what they would like to see in the program. Seven of the 18 books on the “Essential” list were recommended by Navy Flags.

With the new structure, will there no longer be collections based on rank or position (for example, no junior enlisted collection or division leaders collection)?

The CNO-PRP Management office at NWC received some significant level of feedback that said that the rank-based book categories were considered too restrictive, and may have left the impression that some books were too difficult for some Sailors to read. While the rank based categories were always merely advisory in nature, and all books were always available to all Sailors, we decided to eliminate the rank designations, and allow Sailors to make their own decisions on which books they will read.

A Sailor visits her library in 2012.

Does the list consider the skills and competencies in the previous list (for example, leadership, critical thinking and management and strategic planning)?

The skills identified in the previous program are still the key competencies we believe need to be mastered by 21st century Sailors. The CNO-PRP Advisory Group specifically looked at books which addressed these skills, but in order to simplify the program matrix, we have stepped back from listing them in each case.

Was it difficult to limit the number of books on the essential list and recommended list, considering the many great books published on naval history, strategy, etc.?

You are absolutely correct! There are literally thousands of great books out there, and it would be easy to identify 100 titles that are particularly valuable. Restricting the CNO-PRP to 42 titles allows the program to be more manageable. It should be remembered that the Navy is the only service that actually buys and distributes the books in its Professional Reading Program. We don’t want just a list, we want an accessible program.

Sailors read online in their ship's library in 2004.

It must be personally rewarding to see the program you created and managed from the beginning continue to flourish. In our first interview you shared a few anecdotes about how CNO-PRP has been (literally) taken aboard by Sailors. Do you have any other examples to share about the impact the reading program has had?

I am honored to still be in charge of this terrific program. I have seen it prosper under three CNOs, and ADM Greenert’s level of involvement has been remarkable. It is truly HIS program, and it has his full backing in every way. I am always pleased when we get emails from the Fleet asking for more books, telling us how the Program is used aboard ship for General Military Training, and telling us about shipboard essay contests based on CNO-PRP books. I also find it interesting that the Navy Exchange has sold nearly 100,000 books directly to Sailors who want to build their own personal libraries. I have been associated with the Navy for over 43 years, as a student, a commissioned officer, and now as a DON civilian employee, and I can tell you that I have gotten greater satisfaction from managing the CNO-PRP than I have from any other job I’ve had in the Navy. I think the program really makes a difference in the intellectual development of our Sailors, and hopefully contributes to the professionalism of our Navy. You can’t do better than that!

Should the CNO-PRP still be considered a springboard? Is Naval Institute Press a good option for getting other titles?

The 42 books in the CNO-PRP are merely a starting point. They should be a springboard to greater study and reading. The Naval Institute Press has a huge number of good books available. I would also recommend that readers seek out the Naval War College Press, which publishes a quarterly journal, The Naval War College Review, and a number of books and monographs on maritime subjects.

How are you progressing in the era of e-books, other audio versions and social media integration of the reading program?

One of the primary directions we received from CNO was to embrace e-books as a growing format for reading books, magazines and articles of interest. The Navy General Library Program on Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) provides hundreds of books and magazines that can the download (on a loan basis) by authorized users. It must be recognized that not all books are available in electronic format, and some formats are not compatible with some reading devices. We are still in the early days in the electronic publishing industry, but the CNO-PRP will work hard to use electronic books as much as possible. We still value hard-copy however, and that is why we have just purchased 22,000 books for distribution around the Fleet.

In our first interview you responded passionately about the value of reading in giving Sailors the knowledge needed to sharpen their fighting spirit and giving us all a better perspective on history.  You said, “good books entertain, illustrate, and educate.” How does reading make us better citizens of our nation and world?

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: "Learn from the mistakes of others... You can't live long enough to make them all yourself!" I think this is the essence of why you want to read and learn from the successes (and mistakes) of others. Books are a treasure trove of knowledge, gathered across the eons, all waiting to be discovered by the curious Sailors of today. The CNO-PRP is committed to making great books available, wherever Sailors work and live.

For more information, read!