While digging around in a box unpacked since about 2 PCS ago, look what came out from a stack of stuff. Yes, friends, The Maritime Strategy from 1986. A timely find as ADM Roughead will soon publish the new Maritime Strategy that ADM Mullen had his galley-slaves working on. It might be helpful then to look at what we did 20+ years ago. What did we get right? What did we get wrong? What was a pipe dream? What was overly optimistic happy talk? What did we just plain miss. Here is what we will do. Starting next week, we are going to have a new series; Maritime Strategy Monday. We will do this over a four-week period:
- Week One: The Maritime Strategy, by Admiral James D. Watkins, USN. Pages 2-17.
- Week Two: The Amphibious Warfare Strategy, by General P. X. Kelley, USMC. Pages 18-29.
- Week Three: The 600 Ship Navy, by John F. Lehman, Jr. Pages 30-40.
- Week Four: Contemporary U.S. Naval Strategy: A Bibliography, by Captain Peter M. Swartz, USN.
Your homework assignment this week is to read The Maritime Strategy and be prepared to discuss in the comments section for Week One of Maritime Strategy Monday. No cheating or getting ahead (yes Sid, I am talking to you) by making comments on other posts during the week. No "Prep'n the Battlfield." We will use the same process for Week Two and Week Three. For Week Four though, all I want to do it pull out a couple of things out that came to my attention and then turn it into a "Open Post."
So, as you may know, it is hard to find a good online copy of the 1986 work. If you want to join in next week with your own copy, all you need to do is to log on to YahooMessenger and ask for a chat with "cdr.salamander" and I will file transfer a PDF copy - complete with two circles and one "36" in Midshipman Phibian Salamander's own handwriting. It is almost 400MB as a whole, so it would take awhile depending on our connection if we went that route. What I have done to help out though is to break up Week 1 into 4 parts, each about 25MB each. We'll have to see how it goes.
To make this happen, you will need to be online from between 0600 to 0700 Norfolk time. Depending on who is waiting and how long a transfer takes through my Rube Goldberg connection, you may not get it the first time around - but I will be up everyday in that AM window +/- an hour except Thursday the 11th. Also check around lunchtime in case I make it home for a bite. Night-time belongs to the family. If you are online or waiting when I get online, I'll send it your way on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you don't want it, that is OK, just jump in on what you see posted. If there is an interest, I may make a time slot open on Sunday afternoon as well.
If anyone knows a place to get a copy online, please email me the link and I will update the post.
Just a side-bar for those with an interest in the historical perspective of The Maritime Strategy. Published in 2004, I recommend a good read from The Naval War College of The Evolution of the U.S. Navy's Maritime Strategy, 1977-1986.
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Steve, we have an easy to access 10MB version here. It is low res - but like HF, it will work just fine.
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