US Naval History Podcast

The poetic New Year's Day deck log entry is a uniquely American tradition which allows the Officer of the Deck to try their hand at poetry as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve...

Six years after the First Sumatran Expedition, another attack on American pepper traders occurred. The US East India Station squadron responded with what can only be called a "vigorous" enforcement of American interests on the Sumatran coastline (aka we bombarded and burned the offending village of Muckie to the ground).

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The AUKUS pact between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia aims to increase naval cooperation between the three countries in the face of a rising China. A major component involves the US and UK operating nuclear-powered submarines out of Australia by 2027, with plans to eventually transfer nuclear submarine technology to enable Australia to have its own nuclear submarine fleet...

Why are we giving money and weapons to Ukraine? In light of the recent news that 48% of Americans think we are giving too much money to Ukraine, I discuss why, in fact, Ukraine aid is the single most cost-effective American foreign policy win since (at least) the end of the Cold War for a whole bunch of reasons: Aid to Ukraine allows the united States to focus on China. It destroys Russia's military for $0.10 on the dollar with zero American lives lost...

I talk with guest Sal Mercogliano about fuel logistics during World War Two in the Pacific theater. We discuss the Japanese decision not to target fuel tanks at Pearl Harbor, how the US Navy adapted to fuel shortages in the early years of the war, and compare World War Two naval logistics capabilities to those of the US and Chinese navies today.

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WWII naval aviation was miracle on many levels. The industrial output was immense. The technology evolved by leaps and bounds over the course of just a few years. The pilots got the glory, but the enlisted aviation maintenance rates were the men who kept the planes in the air. Before the war there was no real system to train these men, it was a small community of a few thousand men who learned on the job. But in the first three years of WWII the demands for this skilled labor exploded...

It has been an... exciting week in US Navy news and this episode breaks down the two big events:

1 - The USS Carney shot down 15 drones and 9 cruise missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen heading towards Israel.

2- The US currently has two carrier battle groups deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean in addition to other high end military assets to deter Iran from entering the broader conflict...

In this episode I have on James Ellman, the author of “MacArthur Reconsidered,” for an exploration of General Douglas MacArthur's military prowess (or should I say- lack thereof). James challenges the prevailing notion of MacArthur as a military genius as we delve into pivotal moments in MacArthur's career, including WWII and the Korean War...

Ok, so it's not American Naval History, but this episode is too interesting not to post. With Professor Bret Devereaux I discuss the essentially non-Mahanian nature of ancient naval warfare. Because galleys were both cheap to build (but expensive to maintain) and had very limited operational endurance, the missions they could perform and the strategic use of galley navies was extremely different than Age of Sail and modern navies...

Ok, so it's not American Naval History, but this episode is too interesting not to post. With Professor Bret Devereaux I discuss the essentially non-Mahanian nature of ancient naval warfare. Because galleys were both cheap to build (but expensive to maintain) and had very limited operational endurance, the missions they could perform and the strategic use of galley navies was extremely different than Age of Sail and modern navies...