This book provides a historical background to the problems met during the early days of defense unification of the three U.S. military services: the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force. The author analyzes the problem of unification during both peacetime and wartime, showing how the Korean War served to point up the capabilities and limitations of the three services.

Product Description: To Train the Fleet for War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923–1940, by Professor Albert A. Nofi, examines in detail, making extensive use of the Naval War College archives, each of the U.S. Navy’s twenty-one “fleet problems” conducted between World Wars I and II, elucidating the patterns that emerged, finding a range of enduring lessons, and suggesting their applicability of for future naval warfare.

"In this book, which is based especially on the Naval War College archives, Dr. Nofi, an American military historian, examines in detail each of the U.S. Navy's twenty-one 'fleet problems', at-sea exercises conducted between World Wars I and II, elucidating the patterns that emerged, finding a range of enduring lessons, and suggesting their applicability for future naval warfare."--Publisher's description.

Admiral John S. McCain and the Triumph of Naval Air Power covers the life and professional career of Adm. John S. McCain Sr. (1884–1945). Spanning most of the first half of the twentieth century, McCain’s life and career highlight the integration of aviation into the Navy, emphasizing the evolution of the aircraft carrier from a tactical element of the fleet stressing sea control to a strategic force capable of long-range power projection. Although much of the book focuses on carrier aviation, McCain was instrumental in the emergence of flying boats, considered essential for long-range reconnaissance in the Pacific. One of the senior officers branded as “Johnny-Come-Latelys” by pioneer aviators, McCain nevertheless brought fresh approaches and innovation to naval aviation. His prewar and initial wartime commands encompassed tender-based and shore-based aviation, which were critical to early operations in the Pacific, yet McCain also understood the power and potential of carrier-based aviation, initially as commanding officer of the USS Ranger before the war, then as a carrier task force commander under Adm. William F. Halsey in the Pacific in 1944 and 1945. Moreover, he served tours as Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics and the first Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air) in 1942–1944. In these posts he witnessed and played a role in the culmination of naval air power as a means of delivering crippling blows to the enemy’s homeland. McCain was among only a handful of officers who achieved prominence during the war and who had experience in all of these varied and challenging levels of command.

In 1960 there were some 3,500 strategic nuclear weapons in the United States and by the mid-1970s there were more than 10,000. This book, written by a member of the U.S. nuclear weapons force, gives an account of that buildup and the efforts taken to keep the stockpile under control. Jerry Miller highlights the strategies, targeting and attack plans, and arms control measures associated with the bomb. He addresses the role of the military in establishing requirements and the role of the scientists in meeting those requirements and identifies the weapons' strengths and weaknesses and their significance for the future. A final chapter reviews threat scenarios and suggests actions to bring the nuclear force into line.