Naval History - August 1996 - Bombshell at Bikini
Front Cover, Naval History: A Publication of the United States Naval Institute, Volume 10, Number 4, July / August 1996. Articles Include Atomic Bombshell at Bikini: 50 Years Later, The Vietnam Fault Line, and Leatherneck's Ernie Harwell. GGA Image ID # 21888dc2a1
On The Cover
Half a generation missed the horrors of the Vietnam War—depicted by Charles Waterhouse in "Bringing in the Wounded, Near the DMZ"—or made no sacrifices at all. One author tells how his half feels about that, beginning on page 15.
Featured Articles
The Vietnam Fault Line
By Robert Timberg
The author of The Nightingale's Song, which follows five Naval Academy graduates to Vietnam and back, still sees a chasm between veterans and draft evaders.
Fisher’s Naval Revolution
By Jon Sumida
At the turn of the century. Admiral Sir John Fisher led an assault on Britain’s traditional fleet. He favored smaller battle cruisers and submarines.
Operating Under Pressure
By Robert C. Bornmann and Jan K. Herman
Pharmacist’s mates on board submarines in World War II performed appen- dectomies, despite criticism from an unapproving medical community ashore.
Flying Coach
By Max Brand
The war veteran and shoot-'em-up Western author of more than 240 mostly cowboy books lends his action-packed style to a story of valor at Guadalcanal.
Bombshell at Bikini
By James P. Delgado
The two atomic bomb blasts at Bikini Atoll 50 years ago—Operation Crossroads— tested the backbone of combatant ships but also left a radioactive legacy.
Dateline Crossroads
By Lloyd J. Graybar
During its heated competition with the Air Force and Army in the nuclear weapons sweepstakes, the Navy invited the press to cover the bomb tests.
Ernie Harwell for Leatherneck
By John F. Wukovits
The future voice of the Detroit Tigers reported from Wake Island in September 1945 with several of the Marines who had been forced to evacuate it in 1941.
North Carolina's Ironclad
By Commander Tyrone G. Martin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
Crew members were so unaccustomed to ironclads that they called the CSS Neuse a "Neus-ance." She never fought a battle, but she kept Union forces distracted.
A Question of Wood and Time
By Jann Calhoun
Saving the CSS Neuse may come down to a waiting game against the elements.
Departments
- Looking Back
- In Contact
- Museum Report
- Book Reviews
- Books of Interest
- Naval History News
- Salty Talk
- Historic Fleets
- Reunions
About This Issue
In this edition, we take on several historic issues that still resonate today. Robert Timberg writes about the wide gap between Vietnam veterans and draft evaders, many of whom became folk heroes at home. Times have changed, he says, but some attitudes die hard.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll, a maritime historian retells the story of the tests and the legacy they left behind. An Operation Crossroads historian also details why and how the Navy decided to open the tests to press coverage.
An expert on early-20th-century naval strategy profiles Admiral Sir John Fisher, one First Sea Lord who changed the Royal Navy.
Also in this issue—the biographer of Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague asks baseball announcer Ernie Harwell about his reporting for Leatherneck magazine in World War II; Max Brand takes to the air at Guadalcanal; submarines become operating rooms; and a Civil War ship finds a home in North Carolina.
