General David Shoup, USMC

On Our Scope

By Richard G. Latture, Editor-in-Chief
December 2018
Seventy-five years ago, two future Marine Corps giants were in dire straits.
Marine Assault on Tarawa by John Hamilton

Combat Leadership Amid Chaos

Daniel E. Rogers
December 2018
The stakes were high and the challenges tough at Tarawa Atoll in 1943, but newly minted Marine Colonel David Shoup would blaze a trail to victory—and a future as Commandant.
Chairman Mao Zedong

The Chinese Navy's Missing Years

Captain Dale C. Rielage, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2018
The 2018 U.S. Naval Institute Naval History Essay Contest first-place winner underscores the perils inherent in ignoring the lessons of the past—in this case, the naval history of China.
Lieutenant Colonel Victor “Brute” Krulak, USMC

Raid on Choiseul

John Prados
December 2018
The landing on Choiseul would be a diversionary raid to the 1943 Bougainville invasion; enter one “Brute” Krulak, destined for the U.S. Marine Corps pantheon of heroes.
Frederick C. Yohn, "The Last Night of the War"

The War's Final Night

By Colonel Richard D. Camp, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)
December 2018
World War I was about to end, but that was not going to stop the U.S. Marines fighting their way across the Meuse River.
Flames engulf Cavite Navy Yard in Manila Bay on 10 December 1941

Disaster at Cavite

By John J. Domalgalski
December 2018
December ’41: Two days after the Day of Infamy and 5,100 miles west of Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces unleashed a devastating air attack on the U.S. navy yard in Manila ...
World War II gallery at the National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy

The Torpedo Bay Navy Museum

By Andrew C. A. Jampoler
December 2018
The Royal New Zealand Navy’s Torpedo Bay Navy Museum and the country’s Maritime Museum offer a good, one-day overview of the island nation’s rich history at sea.
Captain Thomas Kelley, USN (Ret.)

In Contact

December 2018
Pacific ‘Gem’s’ Rescue Role Commander Thomas “Duke” Wayne, U.S. Naval Reserve (Retired) Please pass along to James M. Scott, author of “Terror & Triumph at Lingayen Gulf” (October, pp. 36–41) ...
Engines of Rebellion Cover

Book Reviews

December 2018
Engines of Rebellion: Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War Saxon T. Bisbee. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2018. 264 pp. Drawings. Illus. $59.95. Reviewed by ...
Captains Arleigh Burke (left) and Bernard Austin in the World War II Pacific

The Fog of War off Bougainville

By Vice Admiral Bernard L. Austin, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2018
Vice Admiral Bernard L. Austin (1902–79) had a distinguished naval career that included service in World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War. He saw a good deal ...