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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN num: 9780684871776
ISBN number: 0684871777
Label: Free Press
Manufacturer: Free Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: October 01, 2002
Publishing house: Free Press
Release Date: October 01, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 495446
Studio: Free Press
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Product Description:
In On Seas of Glory, the U.S. Navy meets a storyteller worthy of its noble history. Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman gives a sweeping narrative of the service's illustrious past, from the Revolutionary War to the present day, filled with the ships that dominated the seas, equally titanic personalities, and the battles that made history.
Lehman profiles naval greats from John Paul Jones to William 'Bull' Halsey, as well as the lesser-known sailors who have made the U.S. Navy the mightiest in the world, using diaries, memoirs, and letters to reveal naval combat as though firsthand. He also highlights the warships that have dominated the seas of their day and the battles in which they fought -- illustrated by detailed maps, woodcuts, paintings, and never-before-published photographs.
With this chronicle of selfless sacrifice and awesome courage on the war-swept seas around the world, Lehman reminds us that the legends chronicled in these pages were real men and women, that the navy they fought for still sails, and that yesterday their heroism is needed more than ever.
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Rated by buyers 
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Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman writes this book with intelligence and knowledge (fisthand as well as from research) regarding the United States Navy up through the turn of the century. It is not an exhaustive history of the Navy and is not meant to be, but it covers many interesting and pivotal characters and their influence on United States History. It has the expected "big names" and "turning points" in our history, but also includes many colorful characters and events which I had no knowledge of. If you enjoy United States history, naval history, or insights from a man who assisted President Reagan in building up our naval assets to assist in winning the Cold War and projecting naval power, you will find this book interesting.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a review I wrote for the American Spectator online, published in April 2002. It is seldom nowadays that a serious work of history actually provides excitement on the level of, say, James Bond or John Wayne films, particularly a subject like naval history. Being a landlubber, I have always thought of naval histories as interesting but un-engaging tomes filled with terms like "foc'sle," "quarterdeck," "bobstay," "starboard" and "boatswain" -- not, in other words, a page-turner. Yet, former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman's "On Seas of Glory: Heroic Men, Great Ships, and Epic Battles of the American Navy" is relatively free of esoteric jargon and most assuredly does quicken the blood.
Take, for example, Lehman's retelling of the 1985 hijacking by Muslim extremists of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair bound Jewish New Yorker on board. Lehman lucidly describes the brilliant job done by the Sixth Fleet -- under Admirals Frank Kelso and Dave Jeremiah, and run from the White House by Bud McFarlane and John Poindexter -- that effectively intercepted those terrorists only to have defeat imposed over victory by one of our NATO allies.
The operation was like something out of Hollywood. The terrorists fled to Egypt, were instantly set free, and boarded a commercial flight out of Alexandria. The U.S. Navy launched six F-14 interceptors, two A-6 tankers and two E-2C radar aircraft from the carrier Saratoga in an effort to intercept the terrorists' escape and bring them to justice. The F-14s had to travel 500 miles in pitch darkness over the Mediterranean and then fly silently right up subsequent to the unsuspecting commercial aircraft and read the side number with a flashlight to identify the right plane from among the more than sixty airliners in the air at that time. Once identified, however, there was a communications problem: the F-14s were only equipped with military UHF radios, while the civilian airliner only had a VHF radio. "They communicated instead," Lehman writes, "through one of the E-2C planes, more than a hundred miles away (the E-2C had both types of radio). One of the controllers aboard the E-2C spoke to the Egyptian pilot, pretending he was one of the F-14 pilots. After making initial contact, the F-14s suddenly turned on all their lights, and the Egyptian crew discovered, to their amazement, that they were surrounded by four F-14s." The plane was forced to land at a NATO airbase in Italy
A U.S. C-141 Special Forces plane filled with commandos landed directly behind the terrorists' plane on the runway and surrounded it. But the government of Italy, having had a kind of protection deal with the terrorists, surrounded our guys and made them turn over their prisoners. The Italians quietly released them later.
The Italians, it transpired, had an agreement with the Thugs of Araby that it was okay to kill Americans, so long as no acts of terrorism took place on Italian soil. In return, the Italians agreed to look the other way. Such arrangements are fairly common among many of our moderate-Arab friends, as well as our allies in Europe. What is maddening, however, is the insidious nature of U.S. complicity in this sort of thing. Lehman's narrative, in this regard, not only quickens the blood, but occasionally raises one's blood pressure.
He details, for example, how the U.S. has contributed over the last 25 years to building the international terrorist network by not having the resolve to retaliate effectively and to cut off the tacit support by our friends. Consider, for example, the tragedy we suffered in Beirut in 1983, when we lost 241 Marines. According to Lehman, we knew who did it, and we knew where they were, the Navy put together a forceful and precise retaliation plan, and the President endorsed it. Yet, Lehman recounts, the U.S. sat by and watched our bureaucracy, in the larger sense, defeat and thwart the nation's response to terrorism.
Nothing ever was done about Beirut. The U.S. did launch an air strike almost three months later, but that was really in response to the firing of an SA-7 missile at one of our F-14s, which was a kind of subterfuge. The retaliation was a botched air strike almost as bad as President Clinton's lobbing a few cruise missiles at meaningless targets. It just strengthened the terrorists' belief that we didn't have the guts to take them on, that we would do things only by remote control and didn't even have the capability to hit valuable targets. The people who planned that Marine massacre are still, today, planning other massacres -- still supported and trained in Syria by Iran and equipped out of the 'Wal-Mart of terrorism' in Iraq.
Fortunately, however, most of Lehman's book substantiates one's pride in our Navy. "On Seas of Glory" is, in large part, an appreciation of naval people and culture. After all, sending people out in ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
"On Seas of Glory" is the most readible and interesting history of the U. S. Navy that I have encountered. The author is a well recongnized supporter and authority on the Navy. He provides brief but detailed accounts of specific battles, ships, and individuals which have characterized the U. S. Navy since its inception during the Revolution. Even privateers and civilian sailors are included. It is a book to be read one section at a time, and then given an opportunity to "sink in," in order to really appreciate the tradition of the service, and how it has contributed to the rich history of our country. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in military or U.S. history in general.
W. B. Pruitt, Captain, U.S. Navy Reserve, Ret.
Rated by buyers -
On Seas of Glory seems to have two distinct sections...the story of the Continental and US Navies from their beginnings through the end of World War II, followed by a section basically covering the Cold War (and other modern wars). And the big difference is...Proofreading!
Yes, folks, the very first section of the book is poorly proofed, both for facts and for readability. It reminds me of someone who gathers the kids around his chair to tell them the story of the early U.S. Navy. It's full of anecdotes, family histories, and some rather sketchy recounting of the "facts." This is obviously a labor of love, as author Lehman recounts some of his favorite sea stories from the past.
Once into the Cold War section, the tone changes completely, and the proofing goes professional. It's as if a different author put it together, and it is very, very together. Instead of battles and warriors, we are treated to the spectacle of the Navy as an instrument of policy and diplomacy, weilded by civilian politicians with varing degrees of success.
For example, President Reagan's decision to vastly increase the size and capability of the U.S. Navy is presented as one of the key factors in the bankruptcy and eventual fall of the Soviet Union.
This second half of the book is full of glorious insight from someone who served in some key positions during several administrations, ultimately as the Secretary of the Navy. It is presented in a matter-of-fact, easy-to-read format that makes it valuable for those who are novice and experienced with this material alike.
So the very first half of the book gets 2 1/2 stars from me. The second part, 5-stars for sure.
Rated by buyers -
On Seas of Glory by John Lehman is an excellent, scholarly work written by, whom better then?, a former Secretary of the Navy. I found this book to be most useful while writing my Masters' Degree thesis on the Economic and Military impact of American Privateers during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. On Seas of Glory quickly became my primary resource among the twenty-three that I had used.
I highly recommend this book to any person that is interested in U.S. History; Naval History or just have the desire to read an excellent non-fiction title. It was clear that John Lehman not only approached this work as a labor of academic endeavor, but it must have also been a labor of love.
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