Naval Heritage/Core Values
Reading Guide

The following books comprise the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy's Naval Heritage/Core Values Reading Guide as prepared in March 1997 and revised April 2005. This list is updated periodically as part of the Chief Petty Officer Initiation Season. The books are available through the Navy Exchange or the Uniform Center toll-free ordering system.

"A" list: required reading list

• A Most Fortunate Ship — Narrative History of Old Ironsides by Tyrone Martin
• A Sailor's Log: Recollections of Forty Years of Naval Life by Rear Adm. Robley Dungliston Evans with introduction by Benjamin Franklin Cooling
• A Voice From the Main Deck by Samuel Leech
• Battleship Sailor by Theodore C. Mason
• Brave Ship, Brave Men by Arnold S. Lott
• Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's WWII Odyssey by Alvin Kernan
• Descent Into Darkness by Cmdr. Edward C. Raymer
• Devotion to Duty — A Biography of Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague by John F. Wukovits
• Divided Waters — The Naval History of the Civil War by Ivan Musicant
• Every Other Day: Letters from the Pacific by George B. Lucas
• Good Night Officially by William M. McBride
• In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton — new for 2002
• In Love and War: Revised and Updated by Jim and Sybil Stockdale
• Iwo by Richard Wheeler
• Life in Mr. Lincoln' s Navy by Dennis J. Ringle
• Naked Warriors by Cmdr. Frances Douglas Fane and Don Moore
• Nimitz by E. B. Potter
• Quiet Heroes by Cmdr. Frances Omori
• Raiders from the Sea by John Lodwick
• Raiders of the Deep by Lowell Thomas, introduction by Gary E. Weir
• Shield and Sword — The U.S. Navy and the Persian Gulf by Marolda and Schneller
• Ship's Doctor by Captain Terrence Riley
• Submarine Diary — The Silent Stalking of Japan by Rear Adm. Corwin Mendenhall
• The Battle of Cape Esperance — Encounter at Guadalcanal by Capt. Charles Cook, USN(Ret.)
• The Fast Carriers — The Forging of an Air Navy by Clark G. Reynolds
• The Fighting Liberty Ships — A Memoir by A. A. Hoehling
• The Golden Thirteen — Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers by Paul Stillwell with Colin L. Powell
• The Last Patrol by Harry Holmes
• Thunder Below by Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey, USN(Ret.)
• Tin Can Sailor - Life Aboard the USS Sterett, '39-'45 by C. Raymond Calhoun
• We Will Stand By You — Serving in the Pawnee, 1942-1945 by Theodore C. Mason
• What a Way to Spend a War: Navy Nurse POWs in the Philippines by Dorothy Still Danner

"B" List: Reference

• American Naval History — An Illustrated Chronology of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present by Jack Sweetman
• The Book of Navy Songs by The Trident Society
• Sea Power: A Naval History by E. B. Potter
• Air Raid: Pearl Harbor! – Recollections of a Day of Infamy by Paul Stillwell
• E-Boat Alert — Defending the Normandy Invasion Fleet by James Foster Tent
• Heroes in Dungarees — The Story of the American Merchant Marines in WWII by John Bunker
• Unsung Sailors — The Naval Armed Guard in WWII by Justin F. Gleichauf
• The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway by John B. Lundstrom
• The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942 by John B. Lundstrom
• Admiral John H. Towers — The Struggle for Naval Air Supremacy by William F. Trinmble
• The Magnificent Mitscher by Theodore Taylor
• At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange
• Prisoners of the Japanese by Gavon Daws
• The Two Ocean War by Samuel Eliot Morrison
• History of the U. S. Navy, Vol. One, 1775-1941 by Robert W. Love, Jr.
• Clash of the Titans by Walter J. Boyne
• Okinawa — The Last Battle of World War II by Robert Lackie
• War at Sea by Nathan Miller
• War Beneath the Sea by Peter Padfield
• Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange
• Authors at Sea: Modern American Writers Remember Their Naval Service by Robert Shenk
• Rocks & Shoals: Naval Discipline in the Age of Fighting Sail by James E. Valle
• The Unsinkable Fleet: The Politics of U.S. Navy Expansion in World War II by Joel R. Davidson
• Run Silent/Run Deep by Captain Edward L. Beach
• PT 105 by Dick Keresey
• Submarine Commander by Paul Schratz
• We Pulled Together and Won! Personal Memories of the World War II Era by Reminisce Books
• Submarine Admiral by Adm. J. J. Galntin
• All at Sea by Louis R. Harlany
• This People's Navy by Kenneth J. Hagan
• Longitude by Dava Sobel
• U-Boat Commander by Peter Cremer
• Kinkaid of the Seventh Fleet: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN by Gerald E. Wheeler
• Assault from the Se — The Amphibious Landing at Inchon by Curtis Utz
• Cordon of Steel: The U.S. Navy and the Cuban Missile Crisis by Curtis Utz
• Revolt of the Admirals by Jeffrey Barlow
• A Quest for Glory: A Biography of Rear Admiral John A Dahlgren by Robert J. Schneller
• One Hundred Years of Sea Power: The U.S. Navy, 1890-1990 by George Baer
• Great US Naval Battles by Jack Sweetman
• History of the U.S. Navy Part II by Robert Love
• Quiet Warrior: A Biography of ADM Raymond A. Spruance by Thomas Buell
• Honor Bound: The History of American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 by S. I. Rochester and F. Wiley
• Crossed Currents: Navy Women from WWI to Tailhook by Jean Ebbert/Marie-Beth Hall
• History of U. S. Naval Operations in World War II by Samuel Eliot Morrison:
• Vol. I: The Battle of the Atlantic
• Vol. II: Operations in North African Waters
• Vol. III: The Rising Sun in the Pacific
• Vol. IV: Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions
• Vol. V: The Struggle for Guadalcanal
• Vol. VI: Breaching the Bismarks Barrier
• Vol. IX: Sicily — Salerno — Anzio
• Vol. XI: The Invasion of France and Germany
• Vol. XII: Leyte
• Vol. XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines, Luzon, Mindinao, the Visayas

Last updated: September 10, 2002

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