Leadership Stories
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"It was like having my mother's arms around me"
Elgin Staples went over the side at Savo Island with a rubber belt around his chest. His mother may have inspected it herself.
The Hero They Lost for a Century
John Paul Jones won the most famous fight in American naval history by lashing his ship to a bigger one.
Old Ironsides
August 19, 1812: one American frigate against a British warship. Half an hour later, a discouraged country had its proof.
Carnage, Wreck and Ruin... and What Two Men Did Next (John Paul Jones & Lawrence Brooke, USA)
Carnage, wreck and ruin: what John Paul Jones and a 21-year-old surgeon did after the battle reveals honor as a choice under pressure.
"Loyalty" and "Fidelity": Medal of Honor Recipient Lieutenant (j.g.) John Kelvin Koelsch (USN)
He flew an unarmed helicopter into fog behind enemy lines to rescue a downed Marine, then refused to break as a prisoner. John on Jack Koelsch.
Father of the Nuclear Navy: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
Rickover served 63 years and built the nuclear Navy by changing its culture. John draws three leadership lessons from his grave at Arlington.
Douglas MacArthur: "I Shall Return!" It Didn't Happen Exactly the Way (or Where) You May Have Thought
MacArthur's famous promise wasn't made on a Philippine beach. It came at a small train station in South Australia after a harrowing PT boat escape.
Edouard Izac: Courage and Perseverance Personified
Captured when his ship was sunk in 1918, Lt. Edouard Izac escaped a German prison camp, swam the Rhine, and brought back intelligence on U-boats.
The Decisive Shot of the War of 1812?
A dented British cannon at the Naval Academy tells the story of the shot that killed Captain George Downie at Plattsburgh in 1814.