Böcker av Thomas Wildenberg

"This book provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the professional development of two notable and highly accomplished naval officers and their contributions to the development of the Aegis Weapons System. The main argument is that there was no single career path or set of formal qualifications for achieving excellence in the naval profession as characterized by selection for Flag rank. One of the major points is the revelation that a combination of essential personal traits and qualities and important operational and technical experiences fundamental to the nature of naval warfare are critical to developing highly competent and confident officers. Such officers are needed to lead major acquisition programs capable of delivering innovative weapons systems for a twenty-first century Navy facing new age threats"--

Striking the Hornets Nest provides the first extensive analysis of the Northern Bombing Group (NBG), the Navys most innovative aviation initiative of World War I and one of the worlds first dedicated strategic bombing programs. Very little has been written about the Navys aviation activities in World War I and even less on the NBG. Standard studies of strategic bombing tend to focus on developments in the Royal Air Force or the U.S. Army Air Service.This work concentrates on the origins of strategic bombing in World War I, and the influence this phenomenon had on the Navys future use of the airplane. The NBG program faced enormous logistical and personnel challenges. Demands for aircraft, facilities, and personnel were daunting, and shipping shortages added to the seemingly endless delays in implementing the program.Despite the impediments, the Navy (and Marine Corps) triumphed over organizational hurdles and established a series of bases and depots in northern France and southern England in the late summer and early fall of 1918. Ironically, by the time the Navy was ready to commence bombing missions, the German retreat had caused abandonment of the submarine bases the NBG had been created to attack. The men involved in this program were pioneers, overcoming major obstacles only to find they were no longer needed.Though the Navy rapidly abandoned its use of strategic bombing after World War I, their brief experimentation directed the future use of aircraft in other branches of the armed forces. It is no coincidence that Robert Lovett, the young Navy reserve officer who developed much of the NBG program in 1918, spent the entire period of World War II as Assistant Secretary of War for Air where he played a crucial role organizing and equipping the strategic bombing campaign unleashed against Germany and Japan. Rossano and Wildenberg have provided a definitive study of the NBG, a subject that has been overlooked for too long.

A biography of Charles Stark 'Doc' Draper, the moving force behind the development of the floated gyroscope, which also acts as a chronological accounting of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and its contributions to the United States.

During the 1920s and 1930s Adm. Joseph Mason Reeves (1878-1948) emerged as the most important flag officer in American naval aviation. All the Factors of Victory is the first full-length biography of this eminent naval officer, whose story makes an important contribution to our understanding of carrier warfare.