How Dr. Craven and Navy Won 'Silent' Cold War

Review by Bill Doughty

Dr. John Piña Craven, 1924-2015.

The world lost an American hero last February when John Piña Craven passed away at the age of 90.  Memorial services are being held this week in Hawaii.

Dr. Craven, who served as an enlisted Sailor in World War II, was a scientist, professor and Cold War warrior as Chief Scientist, U.S. Navy's Special Projects Office.

He reveals provocative information in "The Silent War" – how USS Halibut (SSGN-587) and deep undersea technology discovered a lost rogue Soviet submarine and how "the United States Navy successfully challenged the Soviet Black Sea Fleet." The result, according to Craven: President Gorbachev became convinced that Soviet leadership was being corrupted and right-wing chauvinistic zealots were gaining control of the military.

He explains the development of the Polaris missile and submarine, SeaLab (which "signaled the occupation of the sea by humans as marine mammals"), and DSRV – Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle, featured in "The Hunt for Red October."

During the Cold War, Craven writes, "A major issue for both sides was freedom of navigation, the right of commerce and the military to have full access to the ocean."

"The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea" shows how science, technology, logic and reason can be employed for the preservation of peace.

Though written before 9/11, Craven's book is prescient about the threat of global warming, the need for innovation, and the danger of privatization in fracturing command and control, especially with respect to nuclear weapons. He even comments on the danger of growing income inequality.

Imagine, this was written in 2001:

"The recent events in North Korea and the Balkans demonstrate that new forms of policing are required. We must guard the undersea and the littorals of the world in the new era of global instability. The coastal zone, the home of our burgeoning population, is also affected by a widening gap between the rich and poor."

Navy Captains Scott and Mark Kelly at NASA.

He compares undersea exploration to NASA missions in space. "Our dive to the floor of the Atlantic was at least as difficult technologically as Apollo touching down on the moon, if not more so."

Reading in 2015 his comparison with space exploration and a discussion of undersea psychological tests brings to mind the upcoming Mars-related mission involving twin naval aviators turned astronauts, Captains Scott and Mark Kelly.

Bringing it back to earth, Craven describes his complicated relationship with Adm. Hyman Rickover, comparing their upbringing in families of immigrants in Williamsburg, New York – Craven's family via Scotland and Rickover's from Russia.

Tunis Augustus MacDonough Craven, U.S. Navy

Craven traces his naval lineage through several generations on his father's side, including the commanding officer of USS Tecumseh, sunk by the Confederates at the Battle of Mobile Bay in the Civil War. On his mother's side, the Hispanic "Piña" were once Moorish pirates, he candidly reports.

Dr. Craven's humility, sense of humor and love of science come alive in this book, which is filled with surprises, intrigue and fascinating revelations. For his actions, Craven was most often awarded quietly behind the scenes.

One of Craven's two Distinguished Civilian Service Awards was presented by former Secretary of the Navy John Chafee for the scientist's work with USS Halibut to locate and identify the missing Soviet submarine. President Nixon secretly visited Hawaii to award the Presidential Unit Citation to Halibut's crew, according to Craven.

After his service with the Navy Dr. Craven was marine affairs coordinator for the state of Hawaii. He also served as dean of marine programs at the University of Hawaii and was appointed as director of the Law of the Sea Institute before serving as president of the Common Heritage Corporation.

USS Halibut (SSGN-587). Photo from New York Times.

In "Silent" Craven is careful about what he reveals, neither confirming nor denying certain classified specifics of projects or missions.

"The discipline of tight security is such that until you are specifically released from its constraints you must follow them to the grave," he writes. 

His family provided this obituary: "John moved his family to Honolulu in 1970 for 'one year' and ended up staying for over forty more. John was known for his professional accomplishments as a nationally recognized ocean scientist and marine educator. But with equal zest he embraced music, art and poetry, which he loved to share with everyone he met."

"The Silent War" concludes with a poetic paragraph in tribute to the military and civilian public servants who, with him, helped win the Cold War:

"They also taught us to walk softly and display strength; to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves; to prepare a world for future generations that cannot speak for themselves; to know that actions speak louder than words and, acting as children of the ocean, in the silence of the ocean deeps, to create a silence that is heard around the world."

From his obituary, published in the March 29 Honolulu Star-Advertiser: "A celebration of John's remarkable life will be held at Central Union Church on Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 5:00 pm, with visitation at 4:30 pm and a reception following the service. In accordance with his wishes, John's ashes will be spread at sea. He was dearly loved and will be greatly missed.

"In lieu of flowers, the John P. Craven Marine Education Fund (#127-0620-4) at the University of Hawaii Foundation has been established to honor his life and passion. The fund will support student scholarships in the Marine Option Program. Checks should be written to UH Foundation and sent to UH Foundation, PO Box 11270, Honolulu, HI 96828-0270. Please include either the fund name or fund number when sending checks."

("The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea" by John Piña Craven, former Chief Scientist, U.S. Navy's Special Projects Office, 2001, Simon & Schuster)

‘Opening the Great Depths’ for What?

Review by Bill Doughty

At the end of John Piña Craven’s masterful memoir, “The Silent War,” Craven praises the team of military and civilian warriors who supported the silent service and helped win the Cold War: “They taught us that eternal vigilance is not enough. They taught us that society must organize for the deterrence of nuclear war and the preservation of world peace. These are still missions of the people of the world’s free democracies, and we must again organize a band of individuals whose lives are dedicated to these missions.”

I reached for Craven’s book, subtitled “The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea,” after reading a new comprehensive history of deep-sea exploration: “Opening the Great Depths: The Bathyscaph Trieste and Pioneers of Undersea Exploration” by Norman Polmar and Lee J. Mathers (Naval Institute Press, 2021).

Polmar and Mathers credit Craven’s innovative role in leading key Cold War tactics including creating systems to “rescue trapped crewmen in sunken submarines down to crush depth, allow divers to work at 600 feet, and locate and recover small objects down to 20,000 feet.” The Navy deployed Craven’s brainstorming ideas in classified intelligence missions, according to the authors. In 1964 “Craven had succinctly defined a program that the Navy would pursue until the end of the Cold War and beyond.”

The first practicable idea for a vessel capable of reaching the bottom of the ocean came from an eccentric European scientist who served as a balloonist in the Swiss Army in the First World War. Auguste Piccard was at the center of the “excitement and turmoil that physics was experiencing” one hundred years ago. Piccard “rubbed elbows with” Albert Einstein, Max Born, and Marie Curie, among other revolutionary scientists and explorers.

“Opening the Great Depths” opens with a get-together in New York hosted by Amelia Earhart, where Piccard meets fellow adventurer Charles Lindbergh. Piccard envisioned a metal “balloon” that could sink to the bottom of the ocean and then –– with a system of lead pellets and petroleum as ballast –– be able to float back to the surface.

Auguste Piccard’s development of the first bathyscaphe, spelled “bathyscaph” by Polmar and Mathers (who also present measurements the English rather than metric system), is a story of international cooperation. The first working bathyscaphe was funded by King Leopold of Belgium. Development was led by scientists in Switzerland and supported by the French Navy. It was built in Italy and tested in Portuguese territorial waters and near the Horn of Africa.

Lieutenant Larry Shumaker, Assistant Officer in Charge; Lieutenant Donald Walsh, Officer in Charge; Dr. Andreas B. Rechnitzer, Scientist in Charge; Jacques Piccard, Co-Designer and Technical Advisor of Bathyscaphe Trieste, Nov. 16, 1959.

Jacques Piccard, Auguste’s son, took over for his father and accelerated development of Trieste, named for the town in Italy where it was built. The younger Piccard, who stood 6’5” according to John Craven, reached out to coordinate directly with the United States Navy in further development of the new technology. The Navy acquired Trieste in the mid 1950s through the new Office of Naval Research.

ONR was created after the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. With a bathyscaphe, the “Navy would gain the capability to operate in the deepest ocean depths.” Exploration of the ocean’s depths would be spurred by the Soviet Union’s advances in space, leading to the launch of Sputnik in 1957.

In late 1958, a young submarine officer who saw himself stuck behind a desk in an administrative billet at Submarine Flotilla 1, volunteered to oversea, operate, and maintain Trieste. Lt. Don Walsh conducted the first dives near San Diego. Trieste was “re-welded to Navy standards” and readied for deep dives off Guam. Other key members of the early dives were Dr. Andy Rechnitzer, Navy Lt. Lawrence Shumaker, Giuseppe Buono, and Jacques Piccard.

Polmar and Mathers provide a brief history of discovery of the deepest trenches in the ocean. Their book is comprehensive and detailed, often reading like a logbook filled with names of personnel, places, support ships, and missions. The authors describe “white” and “black” operations, focused on finding either U.S. or Soviet debris or equipment on the ocean bottom.

Walsh and Piccard aboard Trieste

The Navy first deployed the Trieste, in part, to search for life at the deepest part of the ocean for a specific purpose: “Was there a depth below which complex life could not survive? The answer to that question might determine whether the deep-ocean trenches would be used for the long-term disposal of radioactive and other hazardous waste material.”

In the best chapter in the book, Polmar and Mathers describe the tension as Piccard and Walsh took a long “elevator ride” through the thermocline, passing two layers of phosphorescent plankton, and heading into the hadal depths for the first time. The bathyscaphe suffered small leaks and a cracked entry tube window. The temperature inside the bathyscaphe was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Piccard and Walsh ate chocolate bars and peered out as best as they could, unsure when the bottom would appear. After more than four and half hours they reached the “six-three hundred fathoms” –– 37,800 feet, significantly deeper than anticipated.

Their discovery of “a shrimp and a fleet of madusae proved that the ocean’s deepest depths contain complex life forms.” Piccard thought he saw a "sole" on the bottom, but that sighting was unlikely a fish.

The team received a heroes’ welcome  in Guam, Hawaii, and Washington D.C. President Eisenhower presented Piccard, Walsh, Rechnitzer and Shumaker with awards in the presence of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Arleigh Burke. Lt. Walsh received the Legion of Merit. He would go on to have a distinguished naval career, retiring as a Navy captain. Jacques Piccard, a non-citizen, was awarded the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award.

“Piccard was especially proud of a White House letter dated 9 February 1960 that stated in part, ‘As a citizen of Switzerland, a country admired by all the free world for its love of freedom and independence, you have the gratitude of all the people of the United States for helping to further open the doors of this important scientific field. Sincerely, Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

As the general who led the liberation of Europe from Nazi fascism in WWII, Eisenhower was revered in the free world. America’s commitment to international cooperation –– along with a “major influx of American dollars through the U.S. government’s Marshall Plan” –– led directly and indirectly to the development of shipyards, refineries, and research that helped build the Trieste bathyscaphe.

President Eisenhower dines in the crew's mess aboard USS Seawolf (SSN-575) off Newport, Rhode Island, Sept. 26, 1957. With him are Chief Hospital Corpsman Milton W. Tucker; Press Secretary James Hagerty (partially visible); and Seaman Apprentice W.J. Dooling, the youngest man in Seawolf's crew. (NHHC)

Meantime, the Cold War and space race were heating up at the end of the 1950s and through the 1960s, where relations with the Soviet Union were about competition, not cooperation.

The Navy saw that “advancing undersea technology was vital to the security of the United States,” according to Polmar and Mathers. “Classified operations for the Trieste were suggested in the summer of 1961.” The Navy, Air Force, and CIA reportedly considered using Trieste to locate and retrieve debris from the ocean floor. 

Trieste was deployed for the search of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), a nuclear-powered submarine lost 220 miles east of Boston on Apr. 10, 1963. The Navy was concerned about the sub’s nuclear reactor “potentially contaminating waters close to the U.S. eastern seaboard,” according to the authors. “And, the Navy had to examine the wreckage in an effort to determine the cause of her loss.”

"Overhaul and Refiitting Bathyscaphe Trieste," painting, watercolor on paper, Salvatore Indiviglia, 1961. (NHHC)

Unfortunately, the Trieste itself was subject to numerous casualties and limitations over the years, including fires, leaks, corrosion, mechanical failures, insufficient battery power, and propulsion motor issues –– a “maintenance nightmare.” Mare Island Naval Shipyard architects, under the supervision of chief design engineer Herbert L. Graybeal, designed a more advanced float that was stronger and safer. The Trieste II was born. Eventually three versions of Trieste would serve, but nomenclature was (perhaps deliberately) confusing for what would be Trieste, Trieste II, Trieste III, and/or DSV-1. For simplicity, I’ll refer to all versions of the Trieste bathyscaphe throughout this review as “Trieste.”

As the Cold War heated up, on May 28, 1964, Secretary of the Navy Paul H. Nitze assigned Trieste and the Deep Submergence Program to the Special Projects Office. The “Deep Submergence Systems Project” became a separate agency under the direction of chief scientist Dr. John Piña Craven. (Craven is a descendant of a long line of Navy officers; he served as an enlisted battleship sailor in World War II, and he earned his PhD with help from the G.I. Bill. Craven's Special Projects team developed the Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missile.)

Among other duties leading DSSP, Dr. Craven headed the recovery effort for a hydrogen bomb that had fallen near Palomares after a U.S. Air Force B-25G strategic bomber collided with a refueling tanker off Spain’s Mediterranean coast on January 17, 1966.

USS Scorpion (SSN-589) outside Claywall Harbor, Naples, Italy, 10 April 1968, one of the last known photos of Scorpion before the submarine was lost with all hands in May 1968 while returning to the U.S. from this Mediterranean deployment (NHHC).

Chapter 14 of “Opening the Great Depths” begins with this chilling line: “The year 1968 was a very bad year for submarines.” The authors refer to the losses of Israel’s diesel-electric submarine Dakar and France’s Minerve, both lost in the Mediterranean; the Soviet Golf II ballistic missile submarine K-129, lost in the Pacific; and the USS nuclear-propelled submarine Scorpion (SSN-589), lost in the North Atlantic. Even the U.S. Navy’s deep submersible Alvin, operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was lost off the coast of Massachusetts in October, 1968. Response to any recovery operations was complicated by events on the world’s stage involving the Navy: the War in Vietnam and North Korea’s seizure of the U.S. intelligence ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2).

Polmar and Mathers present the history of Trieste’s role in the late 60s matter-of-factly with emphasis on personnel, dates, stats, and details. For a more personal account and for context, readers may want to do what I did and turn to Craven’s “The Silent War.” Craven writes about his lead role in the search for USS Scorpion and then the clandestine search for the missing Soviet submarine.

Always the innovative thinker, Craven proposed a way to go inside a sunk submarine. According to Polmar and Mathers, “Dr. Craven’s idea was that a vehicle small enough to enter one of the Scorpion’s 21-inch torpedo tube might help to determine if her loss had been caused by an internal or external torpedo explosion.” That idea resulted in “flying eyeballs” developed by the Naval Undersea Center in San Diego.

USS Ruchamkin (APD-89) in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with USS Mountrail (APA-213) beyond, Jan. 16, 1967. (NHHC)

Fifty-three years ago this month, above the site of the USS Scorpion, Craven and his team were aboard the support ship USS Ruchamkin (APD-89) when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, July 20, 1968. They listened to Voice of America's report and thought of how their efforts at reaching the limits of inner space coincided with what was happening in outer space. After all, their team had reached the deepest part of the ocean less than ten years earlier.

“Dr. Craven recorded that when Armstrong placed his foot onto the Moon’s surface everyone in the wardroom thrust their hands above their head –– a sporting celebration for ‘score!’ An anonymous voice shouted out, ‘No, dammit, no! Two small steps!,’ referring to Trieste’s simultaneous work at a depth of 11,100 feet.”

On July 30, the team retrieved some debris from the Scorpion, including the ship’s sextant. Subsequent testing showed that the main battery had exploded; the submarine was not torpedoed.

Trieste and the Deep Submergence Program entered the 1970s in “neglect and decline,” a period when funding trickled away, support evaporated, and billets dwindled. The future would be with unmanned vessels. Nevertheless, Trieste and other submersibles were used in recovery operations off Hawaii as well as monitoring for radiation contamination from transponders near Midway Atoll.

The Navy’s eccentric and ubiquitous Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, who headed the Naval Reactors Directorate, had the bathyscaphe deployed in response to the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. The mission: investigate USS Seawolf’s nuclear reactor, which had been dumped in 1959 in 9,000 feet of ocean 120 nautical miles off the East Coast.

Among Trieste’s last missions was a series of dives in the eastern Pacific off Acapulco, southern Mexico at a depth of 16,141 feet. The expedition was part of an effort to investigate plate tectonic dynamics, according to Polmar and Mathers. “The effort sought to identify a permanent disposal site for high-grade nuclear waste –– radioactive waste with half-lives in hundreds or thousands of years.”

Acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron, left, and Dr. Don Walsh, a retired U.S. Navy captain, stand at the Trieste research bathyscaphe, which reached the deepest known part of the earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench near Guam, on Jan. 23, 1960. Lt. Don Walsh and scientist Jacques Piccard were original pilots of Trieste, which is now at the National Museum of the United States Navy at the Washington Navy Yard. Cameron piloted his Deepsea Challenger nearly seven miles to Challenger Deep on March 26, 2012. Cameron donated Deepsea Challenger to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. (MC1 Gina K Morrissette)

Polmar and Mathers wrap up their book with a "post script" mentioning the recent history of deep submersibles, where unmanned vessels have taken over but where people still have a role, including filmmaker James Cameron, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, scientist Howard P. Talkington, and explorer Cmdr. Victor Vescovo, USNR (Ret.).

The authors provide an important history for readers interested in undersea research. This book includes a personal perspective in its foreword by “U.S. Submersible Pilot No. 1” Don Walsh, Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.), PHD. It also has an introduction from author Polmar; glossaries of abbreviations and designations; comprehensive notes, a bibliography, and two indexes.

"Opening's" dedication, which is similar to the conclusion of Craven’s indispensable “The Silent War,” reads: “This book is dedicated to the adventurers and scientists, both military and civilian, who in frail craft challenge the Earth’s most inhospitable environment –– the deep ocean.”

Maritime Strategy vs. The Wall

Review by Bill Doughty

Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman writes a version of history in "Oceans Ventured: Winning the Cold War at Sea" (W. W. Norton, 2018) in which the United States Navy was key in bringing down the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall. 

Admirals Stephen B. Luce and Alfred Thayer Mahan

How did the Navy take on the Soviet Union, and what are the lessons of history for us today in facing 21st century threats?

Starting with the earliest naval history and foundational strategies of Admirals Luce and Mahan, Lehman builds the case for the importance of a forward-deployed, well-resourced, and innovative Navy committed to global exercises with partners and allies. 

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy earlier in the 20th century, had a deep devotion to the sea service. Under FDR, the Navy was indispensable in winning WWII, especially in the Pacific.

"The U.S. Navy ended World War II with more than seven thousand ships, including ninety-nine aircraft carriers," Lehman writes. "Many politicians demanded that the navy mothball, scrap, or otherwise dispose of this massive and expensive fleet." In fact, they debated the need for a blue-water fleet.

Missouri steams to Turkey as U.S. support against Soviet territorial claims.

The Cold War began almost immediately after the Second World War as the Russia-led Soviet Union began expanding into other nations' territories, desiring supremacy, hegemony and empire.

Truman, a former soldier, showed his preference for the Army. Nevertheless, when it came to flex power and show support to NATO in the face of Soviet aggression, Truman sent "big stick" USS Missouri (BB-63) to Europe. The Korean War was further evidence to the nation of the need for a forward deployed, trained and ready navy.

Lehman shows how LBJ used the Gulf of Tonkin incident, involving Navy ships, as an excuse – "despite skepticism of Navy leaders" – to ignite the Vietnam War. 

USS Halibut (SSN-587) underway in the Pacific Ocean.

Cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers and submarines played different but critical roles in countering the Soviet navy. Lehman reveals formerly classified reports and information, including Operation Azorian and recovery of part of Soviet nuclear submarine, K-129, and operation at the heart of John Piña Craven's "The Silent War: The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea."

Although the fleet shrunk under President Richard Nixon, the late 60s and early 70s saw the rise of great strategic thinkers and leaders in the Navy, including Admirals Zumwalt and Holloway.

"In September 1970, the new chief of naval operations, Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, launched a detailed, comprehensive, and coherent blueprint for initiatives the navy needed to take to regain momentum and prevent the Russians from gaining naval supremacy. The project was called Project SIXTY. It included many new programs that were essential to prevail against the new cruise missile, submarine, torpedo, Backfire bomber, and missile threats that the Soviets were beginning to deploy in large numbers in their growing blue-water fleet. It included new ship and aircraft systems needed to operate in Arctic waters as well as shallow tropical seas. It provided for planning and training to operate in those unfamiliar and difficult environments. Zumwalt's successor, Adm. James A. Holloway, revised and adjusted some of the priorities, and because of his skills in dealing with Congress, he was able to get funding for the development of most (but not all) of the initiatives, which were then eventually successfully funded and deployed by the navy during the Reagan administration."

Adm. Thomas B. Hayward, who served as Pacific Fleet Commander and CNO, was "a major player in the development of a forward naval strategy."

President Jimmy Carter, a Naval Academy graduate, surprised many Navy veterans by reducing the size of the fleet and "turning the other cheek" instead of confronting the Soviets.

"In the name of détente and cutting the budget, Carter had prepared to give away some of the crown jewels of Mahanian naval superiority," Lehman writes.

On the cusp of President Ronald Reagan coming into power and Lehman becoming Secretary of the Navy, the Soviet navy showed its reach in the Arctic, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, and Soviet-backed Iraq invaded Iran.

President Reagan increased the defense budget, called for a new strategic bomber, reactivated battleships, ordered the building of four new nuclear aircraft carriers, and revised the rules of engagement. "And he sent the U.S. Navy forward."

A rejuvenated U.S. Navy showed its skills in the Norwegian Sea and in the Ocean Venture 81 exercise, involving 15 nations and 250 ships.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

Lehman describes how Hollywood's Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson approached Holloway and Lehman with the proposal to produce "Top Gun," which Lehman thought garnered public support for the U.S. Navy in general and naval aviation in particular.  

In a similar venture, Lehman green-lighted Dr. Robert Ballard, in coordination with National Geographic, to use Navy technology to search for and find the Titanic in the North Atlantic. Lehman subsequently declared Ballard "Bottom Gun."

Navy's modernization efforts and maritime strategy were "gaining global velocity" in the early to mid 80s as USS Ticonderoga, the first Aegis cruiser came on line. In 1984, Lehman led a delegation to Beijing to arrange a deal to modernize the Chinese navy "to deal with the Soviet threat."

Readers of "Oceans Ventured" may wish to see more discussion of Lehman's initiative with China as well as the importance of collaboration and cooperation with other nations' navies, although there are several mentions of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (incorrectly called the "Japanese" Maritime Self-Defense Force).

On March 13, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Soviet Union. 

"Faced with political economic stagnation, [Gorbachev] advocated and began to implement policy reforms based on perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness). Glasnost meant giving publicity to problems, issues, and proposed solutions to generate support for perestroika, which meant restructuring the government bureaucracy and rebuilding the economy and industry."In his first dramatic foreign policy move, he suspended deployment of Soviet SS-20 intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missiles in Warsaw Pact states. He then began to cut back on resources to the Soviet Armed Forces, including the navy."

On the 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Gorbachev announced a moratorium on nuclear testing. Lehman gives details of how the "diplomatic thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations accelerated."

Adm. James A. Lyons, Jr.

"President Reagan was keenly interested in nuclear arms control and the reduction of the superpowers' bloated nuclear arsenals. He and Gorbachev slowly formed a partnership over the next three years or so to reduce the amount of nuclear weaponry on both sides. He was far less keen than Gorbachev, however, to constrain the U.S. Navy, which he regarded as an essential and unique pillar of U.S. military strength."

Adm. James "Ace" Lyons, who commanded the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the mid-80s, "launched into planning a furious succession of exercises, often unprecedented or deviating from their predecessors, especially in their predictability." Lehman notes," Pacific Fleet exercises had already become more aggressive, more forward, more innovative, and less predictable."

On May 6, 1986, three U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, Ray, Hawkbill and Archerfish, surfaced simultaneously at the North Pole, demonstrating the Navy's power and capabilities. Navy surface ships continued successful FONOPS asserting freedom of navigation in Avancha Bay, the Black Sea and near the Kuril Islands.



Was the U.S. Navy solely responsible for turning the tide in the Cold War? Apparently not. Other events put pressure on the Soviet economy.

Chernobyl disaster

In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl melted down, creating "an unprecedented international crisis." Then, oil prices dropped, hitting Russia and its satellites and forcing Gorbachev to look inward. His military doctrine became less offensive and more defensive.

"For over three years, U.S. and Soviet diplomats had been negotiating to reduce or eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe. Finally in Washington in December 1987, at their third meeting, President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signed the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, agreeing to eliminate completely all their nuclear and conventional ground-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. This was a major milestone in the warming relations between the two superpowers."

The fall of the Soviet bloc in 1989-1991 accelerated hopes for peace. President George H.W. Bush ordered the withdrawal of tactical nuclear-armed Tomahawk missiles from U.S. Navy ships.

Gorbachev and Reagan sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) treaty in December 1988, committing to a safer world.

The wall came down, and "the once-powerful Soviet navy faced being split apart." United States maritime strategy, "supported by a bipartisan Congress," proved to be the West's advantage in the geopolitical balance of power, according to Lehman.

In "Oceans Ventured's" epilogue, Lehman warns of a new potential axis of China/Russia/Iran, "eerily similar" to Germany/Italy/Japan more than 75 years ago.

U.S. President Trump and Russia President Putin meet in Helsinki, Finland in July 2018

He says Russian President Vladimir Putin has revanchist goals and "seems to suffer from delusions of grandeur," noting, "Putin has become the master of 'hybrid warfare,' using cyber attacks, disinformation, 'fake news,' election meddling, paramilitary 'little green men,' intimidation, and occasionally assassination against adversaries."

Lehman adds, "China presents a different kind of problem. Its leaders do not hide their intention to establish command of the western Pacific, and they are progression rapidly toward achieving that regional goal." He contends that China continues to use North Korea as a foil to distract and "dominate world attention."

What is the history yet to be written for the U.S. Navy? "The lesson of this book is that we must restore the capability of our naval forces and sailors not because we might have to go to war with North Korea, Russia, Iran, or some other adversary but because we must prevent having to go to war at all," Lehman concludes.

Not Forgotten: Adm. Joseph M. Reeves

Review by Bill Doughty––

“Saratoga’s bow cut through the black water, her stern leaving a luminescent trail in her wake as she moved through the darkness in the early hours of 26 January 1929 … On her flag bridge, standing in the cool night air, stood Rear Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves, the commander of the Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet.”

That’s from the opening paragraph of a book that takes readers back nearly a hundred years to the nascent development of aircraft carrier warfare tactics and strategies: “All the Factors of Victory: Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower” by Thomas Wildenberg (Naval Institute Press, 2003).

This not-to-be-overlooked book covers more than a half-century of Admiral Reeves’s service in a Navy uniform and beyond.

Aboard Saratoga, as described in the book’s prologue, Reeves demonstrated the power of a carrier task force. It was “a stunning success of the aerial operations” under his command, according to Wildenberg, who presents an indispensable biography and history of Reeves and his achievements.

The author takes us into the U.S. Naval Academy with Reeves, who became a star on the Navy’s football team, especially against Army. Wildenberg describes how Reeves developed his own football headgear –– made of moleskin –– the first helmet used in collegiate football.

As a junior officer, Reeves saw action in the Spanish-American War at the Battle of Santiago. His career was “intertwined” with that of his colleague and fellow junior officer aboard USS Oregon (BB-3), William D. Leahy. Leahy would later become Reeves’s chief of staff in the spring of 1946.

Reeves and Leahy (NHHC)

This book shows Reeves’s connections with cryptanalyst Joseph Rochefort, well-before the intelligence officer reported to Station Hypo, Pearl Harbor, and cracked the code to help the Navy win at the Battle of Midway. We see the admiral's influence on Adm. "Bull" Halsey, Adm. Marc Mitscher, and Adm. Ernest J. King, among others.

In an unadorned style, Wildenberg introduces us to the people, places, and events that shaped the early days of naval air power and the man considered “the father of carrier warfare” and a stickler for training and preparedness. “[H]e was a major, if not the leading, proponent of readiness in the entire prewar Navy.”

Reeves's aggressive style was a double-edged sword, winning praise from some but alienating others, especially those who were stuck to the past or worried only about making rank. One of the best Reeves quotes is: “A commander who stops to appraise the impact of a military decision upon his personal fortunes has no right to be entrusted with command.”

Prior to USS Saratoga becoming his flag ship, Reeves commanded the U.S. Fleet aboard USS Pennsylvania (BB-38).

Admirals assemble aboard USS Pennsylvania, which would become flagship of Adm. Reeves (front, second from left). The full caption is at the bottom of this post.

Reeves, Wildenberg notes, was the first U.S. naval officer qualified in aviation promoted to flag rank; the first officer in the Navy to carry the title of Carrier Commander, U.S. Fleet; and the first flying officer to be selected as Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Reeves to lead “lend-lease” efforts to supply Navy ships to Great Britain.

Lend-lease was FDR’s way to legally equip Churchill’s Royal Navy in the early months of World War II, prior to United States’ entry into the war after the attack by Imperial Japan on Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Reeves also played a pivotal role for the Navy and the nation in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor and other targets on Oahu.

SECNAV Frank W. Knox and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson selected Reeves, along with Admiral William H. Standley, as Navy representatives on a commission directed by FDR to investigate readiness failures at Pearl Harbor. The Army appointed two senior general officers. Supreme Court Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts led the commission.

At Fort Shafter, an Army base near Pearl Harbor, the commission members interviewed their first witness, Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of all Army forces in Hawaii.

“It was obvious from his responses to the commission’s questions that Short, veteran infantry officer, did not have a good grasp of the Army’s mission to protect the fleet while it was anchored in Pearl Harbor. When Reeves’s turn came, he ‘raked the general over the coals’ with his probing questions about the status of Hawaii’s air defense system, the Army’s inability to detect the threat of a carrier attack, and its communication procedures with the Navy. Short, who had been obsessed with sabotage and training, freely admitted that he had made a serious mistake by not placing his forces on alert against the threat of an all-out attack.”

Adm. Joseph M. Reeves

The commission also heard from Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, the Navy commander of Pearl Harbor who was faulted for lack of preparedness, even though the Navy had held simulated air attacks on Pearl Harbor, led by Reeves himself. Kimmel was faulted for not protecting the harbor against torpedo attacks and his failure to order 360-degree air patrols.

Reeves insisted on the need for accountability for the military’s lack of readiness at Pearl Harbor. Wildenberg writes, “Reeves regarded the debacle at Pearl Harbor as a disgrace to the United States Navy.”

You’ll find captivating vignettes, photos, leadership examples, and a sweep of history in this excellent and timeless book.

In All the Factors of Victory's: epilogue, Wildenberg discusses the leadership qualities that made Reeves a great admiral:

“...knowing the job thoroughly, setting examples, and taking care of one’s personnel, gaining their confidence, and then making them feel stronger than they actually are.” Reeves, he said, could both take initiative and delegate authority, always thinking about new, innovative ways to achieve goals. Wildenberg lists a number of other key qualities Reeves possessed, “well-versed in all aspects of naval science … a teacher and a tactician who had a lifelong commitment to learning.”

“Perhaps Reeves’s greatest legacy to the Navy, however, lay in the contribution he made to carrier warfare. As historian William F. Trimble was quick to note, ‘Reeves more than any other single figure, pointed the way to making carrier aviation an indispensable part of the fleet.’ He was a farsighted man who did more to shape the future role of carrier aviation than any other officer in the Navy. His ‘Thousand and One Questions’ fostered the development of a host of innovative doctrines and tactics that laid the foundations for all of the major tenets of modern carrier doctrine. He was the first flag officer to employ the aircraft carrier as an offensive weapon that could be used to mount long-range attacks on an enemy’s coast. Under his leadership, carrier commanders began to exercise the freedom of movement that later [would] become the hallmark of U.S. naval operations in the Pacific during World War II. Most important of all, Reeves deftly fashioned an offensive role for carrier aviation that did not threaten the supremacy of the battleship, thereby assuring that the resources needed to further the development of carrier-borne air power would continue to be allocated during the lean years of the Depression.”

In other words, Reeves’s insistence in readiness and training, coupled with his commitment to innovation in carrier aviation, would lead to the U.S. Navy’s success in the Pacific War, especially in the Battle of Midway. That success would be carried forward into the Cold War by USS Midway (CV-41), among other great aircraft carriers.

USS Reeves (CG-24) underway in the Indian Ocean, Aug. 20, 1975. (PH1/AC R. H. Green, NHHC)

I was working for the Navy when USS Reeves (CG-24), namesake of the great admiral, transferred from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to Yokosuka, Japan, arriving Aug. 14, 1980. Reeves swapped with USS Worden (CG-18), to become “the Only Cruiser in Town” of the Forward-Deployed Naval Forces.

Reeves was the anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) picket for Battle Group Alpha for Midway.

USS Pennsylvania photo caption: Aboard USS PENNSYLVANIA, flagship of the U.S. fleet. Quoted from the Long Beach Press-Telegram: The largest gathering of flag officers of the United States Fleet was recorded aboard the USS PENNSYLVANIA. Twenty Rear Admirals, Vice Admirals, and Admirals assembled at the request of Admiral David Foote Sellers, Commander in Chief of the Unites States Fleet, to discuss final details of the Atlantic Cruise which begins Monday morning. L to R (seated): Vice Admiral Harris Laning, COM Cruisers, Scouting Force; Admiral Joseph M. Reeves, COM Battle Force; Admiral Sellers; Vice Admiral Frank H. Brumby, COM Scouting Force; Vice Admiral Walton R. Sexton, COM Battleships, Battle Force. (Standing): Rear Admiral Manley H. Simons, Chief of Staff to Vice Admiral Laning; Rear Admiral Sinclair Gannon, Ordered AS COM Minecraft, Battle Force; Rear Admiral A.E. Watson, COM Destroyers, Scouting Force; Rear Admiral H.E. Lackey, COM CRUDIV 4, Scouting Force; Rear Admiral Edward B. Fenner, COM CRU Battle Force; Rear Admiral John Halligan, COM Aircraft, Battle Force; Rear Admiral Henry V. Butler, COM Battleship DIV 3; Rear Admiral Charles P. Snyder, Chief of Staff to Admiral Sellers; Rear Admiral Thomas T. Craven, COM Battleship DIV 1; Rear Admiral W.T. Tarrant, COM 11th N.D; Rear Admiral E.C. Kalbfus, COM DES, Battle Force; Rear Admiral C.E. Courtney, Ordered as COM CRU, Battle Force; Rear Admiral Frederick J. Horne, COM Base Force; Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews, Chief of Staff to Admiral Reeves; Rear Admiral W.S. Pye, Chief of Staff to Vice Admiral Brumby. Photo taken April 6, 1934. (NHHC)