This publication is the eighth in the series The U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War. The publication focuses on the sealift and logistic operations during the war and includes a number of photographs as well as sidebars detailing specific people and ships involved in the logistic operations. This historical pictorial reference would be of interest to students, historians, members of the military, specifically the Navy, and military leaders, veterans, Vietnam War veterans, and the U.S. merchant marines.

"A detailed account of how the US Navy modernized itself between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, through strategic approaches to its personnel, operations, technologies, and policies, among them an emerging officer corps, which sought to professionalize its own ranks, modernize the platforms on which it sailed, and define its own role within national affairs and in the broader global maritime commons"--

Since the 1980s, strategic sealift has been formally designated as a U.S. Navy mission. With over ninety percent of all military equipment and supplies required to support U.S. military forces in combat being delivered by sea, and as globalized interests and risks continue to spread, this mission is vital to the country’s economic and national security. Despite its necessity, sealift is rarely discussed as anything other than an operations adjunct and must be carried out in an environment of unprecedented fiscal constraints. Global Reach provides a unique examination into the development and implementation of more than a century of U.S. national defense sealift policy. Presenting a comprehensive history on the evolution of sealift from the Spanish American War (1898) to Operation Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom (2002–12), Herberger, Gaulden, and Marshall reflect on what has and has not worked in that time from both a legal and operational perspective. As international demands grow and change, so too must the sealift policies that are directly tied to how the nation will address them. With its thorough history and cogent analysis, Global Reach provides the context necessary to understand this complex, important topic, but also lays out a roadmap for how the U.S. can continue to meet and respond to the increasing challenges of the years to come.

To offer security in the maritime domain, governments around the world need the capabilities to directly confront common threats like piracy, drug-trafficking, and illegal immigration. No single navy or nation can do this alone. Recognizing this new international security landscape, the former Chief of Naval Operations called for a collaborative international approach to maritime security, initially branded the "1,000-ship Navy." This concept envisions U.S. naval forces partnering with multinational, federal, state, local and private sector entities to ensure freedom of navigation, the flow of commerce, and the protection of ocean resources. This new book from the National Research Council examines the technical and operational implications of the "1,000-ship Navy," as they apply to four levels of cooperative efforts: U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and merchant shipping only; U.S. naval and maritime assets with others in treaty alliances or analogous arrangements; U.S. naval and maritime assets with ad hoc coalitions; and U.S. naval and maritime assets with others than above who may now be friendly but could potentially be hostile, for special purposes such as deterrence of piracy or other criminal activity.