SHIP'S LIBRARY

By SHERRY L. GARDNER
Editorial Assistant

ONCE UPON A TOWN: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, by Bob Greene, New York, N.Y.: Perennial (HarperCollins), May 2003. 288 pp. $13.95. ISBN: 0-0600-8197-X. Award-winning journalist Bob Greene sets out to tell the story of North Platte, Neb., a small town of 12,000 that, through its volunteer canteen, served more than 6 million service members as they went across the country during World War II. Through interviews with North Platte residents and service members who had enjoyed their hospitality, the author conveys not only how the canteen effort became the focus of the town and outlying area but also the effect it had on the men and women it served. The underlying story in Once Upon a Town is of the town itself and how it has survived and adapted to the transition from passenger trains as the primary mode of transportation to the use of the interstate highway system. Although the train depot and canteen are gone from North Platte, Greene shows how the spirit of the town and others like it still exists and evolves. With 15 black-and-white photographs.

THE SECRETS OF INCHON: The Untold Story of the Most Daring Covert Mission of the Korean War, by Eugene Franklin Clark, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Publishing, May 2003. 326 pp. $14.95. ISBN: 0-425-19000-5. Gene Clark wrote this narrative of his two weeks in Korea as a memorial to his Korean comrades who shared the risks of his mission with him. The manuscript sat in a safe-deposit box for decades, until his family retrieved it after his death in 1998. Clark landed in Korea with two South Korean officers to gather intelligence for the U.N. amphibious landings at Inchon. The North Koreans quickly discovered them, and the mission became one filled with firefights, night raids, and even a miniature naval battle involving junks. The culminating event came on the night of the invasion, when Clark and his men took over a lighthouse and helped guide the U.N. fleet to the invasion point. This book is a firsthand account of a little-known covert mission of the Korean War. With 15 black-and-white photographs and two maps.

STRAY VOLTAGE: War in the Information Age, by Wayne Michael Hall, Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, April 2003. 248 pp. $36.95. ISBN: 1-59114-350-0. Retired Army Brig. Gen. Hall writes this book primarily for the military community and civilians interested in, or responsible for, homeland security. He presents the concept of knowledge warfare as our adversaries' principal asymmetric strategy, and information operations as their tactic of the day. The book also discusses deception, information superiority, and knowledge management. Hall presents a realistic and frightening picture of a hypothetical scenario that could occur when low-tech terrorist activities--car bombs--and high-tech attacks are combined, and he explores the second- and third-order effects that could follow. Stray Voltage was published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army; it is the fourth such joint endeavor. With notes and index.

THE SEA SHALL EMBRACE THEM: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic, by David W. Shaw, New York, N.Y.: Free Press, May 2003. 256 pp. $14.00 (paperback). ISBN: 0-7432-3503-7. Shaw brings decades of experience as a seaman to his work as an author to this book about the fate of the Arctic, one of the largest and most luxurious passenger vessels of her time. A generation before the sinking of the Titanic, the September 1854 collision at sea of the Arctic with the Vesta, a smaller French steamship, set in motion one of the most harrowing events in maritime history. Shaw puts the reader on deck as the crew mutinied and took control of the life rafts, leaving all the women and children to perish. Nearly 400 people died that day; only a handful of crew members and male passengers survived. Shaw tells the story of crew and passenger alike using the firsthand testimony of survivors and eyewitnesses. The result is a compelling look at a relatively obscure episode in American history. With 12 black-and-white illustrations, two maps, appendix, glossary, bibliography, and index.

THE HELLFIGHTERS OF HARLEM: African-American Soldiers Who Fought for the Right to Fight for Their Country, by Bill Harris, New York, N.Y.: Carroll & Graf, Nov. 2002. 256 pp. $25.00. ISBN: 0-7876-1050-0. Bill Harris has written extensively on the history of New York City during his 30-year tenure on the staff of The New York Times. The distinguished 369th Combat Regiment, which started out as the 15th Regiment of Colored Infantry, was forbidden to serve under U.S. command--by Gen. John J. Pershing--and the unit was handed over to the French Army. The 369th went on to receive, as a unit, the French Croix de Guerre and saw the longest frontline duty in World War I of any American unit. Before, during, and after their feats on the battlefield, the men of the 369th were shadowed by racism and debates among their own civilian leadership over whether they should withhold support for the war. Harris presents a story of pride and accomplishment as well as chronicling the 369th's contribution in the Pacific during World War II and in Iraq during the Gulf War. With eight black-and-white photographs, bibliography, and index.

THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM'S DIRECTORY OF AIRPLANES: Their Designers and Manufacturers, Edited by Dana Bell, Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Greenhill, 2002. 352 pp. $49.95. ISBN: 1-85367-490-7. Editor Dana Bell is a leading expert on the history of aviation and a curator in the National Air and Space Museum's Archives Division. Directory of Airplanes is a wealth of data on aviation history, attempting to identify every aircraft, along with its manufacturer and designer. An essential reference book for the aviation enthusiast, it is a comprehensive guide to the large number of aircraft produced in the last 100 years. Types of aircraft covered include airplanes (powered fixed-wing); unpowered fixed-wing (gliders and hang gliders); powered-rotor rotorcraft such as helicopters; and unpowered-rotor rotorcraft such as autogiros. With 38 black-and-white photographs.

USS CONSTELLATION: From Frigate to Sloop of War, by Geoffrey M. Footner, Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, Dec. 2002. 392 pp. $39.95. ISBN: 1-55750-284-6. Geoffrey Footner served as a U.S. naval officer in the Pacific and European theaters during World War II and after a career in international shipping began his maritime writings. He has authored articles and books on many different sailing craft and is an authority on wooden shipbuilding and its architecture. Built by order of President George Washington in 1797, the USS Constellation remains one of the nation's oldest surviving warships. She rests in Baltimore Harbor today, a reminder of endurance. In this well-documented study, Footner attempts to lay to rest a decades-old controversy among naval historians, the U.S. Navy, local governments, and various historic ship foundations, offering what many will believe to be the final word on the provenance of the Constellation. Footner concludes that the ship now berthed in Baltimore's Inner Harbor is indeed the original built by David Stodder. Footner traces the ship's complicated history, examining her exciting operations and four rebuilds, including an extensive redesign in 1853. With nine black-and-white photographs, 25 line drawings, one map, notes, bibliography, and index.

LOCK & LOAD: Weapons of the U.S. Military, by Angus Konstam, Hans Halberstadt, Peter March, Jerry Scutts and Leo Marriott, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing, March 2003. 256 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 1-85648-634-6. Throughout history the freedom and security of many countries depended on their armed forces being properly equipped for defense or having allies who were. Lock & Load begins with a general introduction--a brief history of U.S. forces, their postwar role, and current posture. Also covered are weapons research, procurement, and the troops' strategic role. Separate chapters look at the destructive weapons of forces on land, at sea, and in the air. An array of fighting vehicles such as the M2 Bradley, Humvee, and many little-known variants, as well as the Portable Armor System, night systems, and communications gear add to this book's comprehensiveness. With color photographs, glossary of abbreviations, and index.

ALSO RECEIVED:

THE THREE GERMAN NAVIES: Dissolution, Transition, and New Beginnings 1945-1960, by Douglas C. Peifer, Gainesville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, Nov. 2002. 320 pp. $55.00. ISBN: 0-8130-2553-2. A study of naval forces in Germany after World War II. With 11 charts, eight tables, notes, bibliography, and index.

UNDER PRESSURE: The Final Voyage of Submarine S-Five, by A. J. Hill, New York, N.Y.: Free Press, Aug. 2002. 239 pp. $25.00. ISBN: 0-7432-3677-7. The true story of the submarine's death-defying last voyage in 1920. With 14 black-and-white photographs, appendixes, and index.

STEEL SHIPS AND IRON PIPE: Western Pipe and Steel Company of California, the Company, the Yard, the Ships by Dean L. Mawdsley, Benicia, Calif.: Glencannon Press, Oct. 2002. 224 pp. $29.95. ISBN: 1-889901-28-8. The history of one of the West Coast's pre-eminent shipyards. With 150-plus black-and-white photographs and illustrations, appendixes, bibliography, and index.

CODE BREAKER IN THE FAR EAST, by Alan Stripp, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Sept. 2002. 204 pp. $15.95. ISBN: 0-19-280368-9. A firsthand account of how Bletchley Park and Far Eastern outposts broke Japanese codes during World War II. With 13 black-and-white illustrations, notes, and index. *