Military History Commons^™

Below-Deck: The Specialist Sailor In World War Ii, Gregory Falcon

War and Society (MA) Theses

U.S. Navy ships were made up of many unexpected jobs during World War II. Traditional war histories say little about sailors who rarely saw direct combat below active war decks but instead worked skilled jobs. Specialized sailors were often unseen as they worked below the waterline as, for example, electrician’s mates and boiler room firemen. These jobs were pivotal to keeping the ship running and allowed men to make use of their valuable time in the navy. This thesis argues that, although evolving naval culture led men to enter for various reasons, many entered to enhance their future ...

Combat Decorations: Navy & Marine Corps Recipients From The College Of The Holy Cross And Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Brendan J. O’Donnell, Usn (Ret)

Naval Science Department

"America has a time-honored tradition of recognizing the acts of valor performed by Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines."¹ This compilation lists recipients of the nation's most prestigious valor awards who attended the College of the Holy Cross and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Each entry includes the recipient's name, photo, rank, citation and other information. World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and Operation Just Cause (Panama) are represented.

¹ Military Awards for Valor - Top 3. U.S. Department of Defense. https://valor.defense.gov/. Accessed 19 July 2021.

Ralph Rogers Wheeler Papers: Finding Aid, Bethany Latham

Finding Aids

This collection contains photographic prints, newspaper clippings, conference programs, photocopies from various sources, military records, booklets, original essays, and more most likely compiled by Ralph Rogers Wheeler (1918-2004), an Alabama native. Items relate to Wheeler’s life and especially his military service and time as a Japanese prisoner of war. Beginning in 1942, he was first housed in a prison camp in the Philippines, and then sent via ship to a prison camp near Osaka, Japan. He was rescued in 1945 after Japan’s surrender. Supplementary materials appear to be related to research he did into Bataan and Corregidor, as ...

Vestiges Of Propaganda: Postage Stamps Issued By The Third Reich In Poland And The Netherlands During The Second World War, Olivia Phillips

University Honors Theses

This thesis hopes to bridge the gap between philately and history and examines how postage stamps issued by the Third Reich during the Second World War portrayed their colonial and racial policy in the Netherlands and Poland. Through my research where I examine Nazi primary source documents and rely on an expansive discourse community whose focus is communications theory, postal history, and colonial history, I focus on how these stamps were an extension of the Reich’s Ministry for Propaganda. Dutch stamps closely align with German-issued stamps from the same period, through the depiction of hypermasculine men in a rural ...

The Committee On Public Information And The Four Minute Men: How The United States Sold A European War To American People, Madison Mcternan

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Shortly after America’s entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information to garner public support for the War. This committee was created not only to drum up support for the war, but to ease a public frustrated by an isolationist president’s entry into such a conflict. Notable reporter and writer George Creel served as its chairman, and together with countless others created a massive propaganda campaign. The Committee was incredibly successful in its mission of “selling the war.” This was largely due to the fact that Creel and his men revolutionized the ...

Cinderella’S Star: The Cp 140 Aurora And The Evolution Of The Royal Canadian Air Force’S Modern Long Range Patrol Capability, 1939-2015, Richard Mayne

Canadian Military History

This article traces the story of the Royal Canadian Air Force’s maritime air capability and the incredible ups and downs it has experienced throughout its service to the nation. Whether it was the stunning highs that it enjoyed during the Second World War and Cold War eras as well as the recovery it has made during recent overseas operations on the one hand, or the extreme lows it faced after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Soviet Union on the other, the maritime air community has led a life of boom and bust. Its story ...

“He Would Be Expected To Crack:” Battle Exhaustion, Desertion And The Court Martial Of Lieutenant R. J. Woods, Matthew Barrett

Canadian Military History

This article examines psychological breakdown, combat stress and military justice through the 1945 general court martial of Lieutenant Reginald James Woods. During his first day in combat with the Lake Superior Regiment (Motor) on 17 August 1944, the twenty-five-year-old platoon leader disappeared. Woods remerged nearly two months later in London where he claimed to suffer from amnesia. The subsequent medical investigation and legal proceedings forced Canadian authorities to grapple with assumptions about combat leadership, mental responsibility and criminal culpability. This article adopts a graphic history approach to illustrate the subjective and contingent nature of memory and truth through the fog ...

Desertion And Discipline: How British Soldiers Influenced The Military Justice System During The Seven Years’ War, Ronnie Haidar

Major Papers

The academic examination of military justice is relatively new. Military history has focused on such topics as commanding officers, tactics, logistics, combat, and outcomes. However, exploring the theme of military discipline, by concentrating on relations between commissioned and enlisted ranks, engages the army as a social institution with its own internal power dynamic. Two historiographical interpretations on the subject have developed over the last few decades. One builds upon the orthodox view of discipline in the Early Modern Era as severe and punitive, portraying militaries as whipping men to war. Recently, revisionist historians have argued that over the 18^{th ...}

Graduates Of The College Of The Holy Cross Naval Rotc Unit 1944-2021, Brendan J. O'Donnell

Naval Science Department

A report of the Navy and Marine Corps officers commissioned through the Naval ROTC Unit at the College of the Holy Cross from 1944 to 2021. This report is a revised and expanded version of the Unit's history, published in 2016 by the O'Callahan Society on the occasion of the Unit's 75th anniversary and revised in 2017 and 2019. It includes updates, additional information and corrections to the 2016 report.

Associated with this report is a spreadsheet that breaks down the commissioning numbers by year and, within each year, by Service and college. It is included as ...

Challenges Of Repatriation: Asante Artifacts At The American Museum Of Natural History, Abdul-Alim Farook

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inspired by calls for the repatriation of famous artifacts like the Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles, for this capstone project, I have analyzed and catalogued 250 sampled Asante artifacts at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Through this analysis, I discuss the many ways museums in North America acquired their collections. By doing so, I explore the difficulties that arise in debates surrounding repatriation due to the manner in which these artifacts were acquired. I argue that due to the many different types of donors of the Asante artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History, the Asante ...

Octofoil Newsletter Index For Issues January 1947-December 2020, Richard B. Kann Jr.

The Octofoil

This index records the Ninth Division stories, and the names and pictures of the 39th Infantry Regiment found in The Octofoil, the official newsletter of the Ninth Division Association.

Note: this index covers only the 39th Infantry Regiment. Indexing of the 47th and 60th Infantry Regiments are forthcoming.

The Coercive Logic Of Militant Drone Use, Austin C. Doctor, James I. Walsh

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

While unmanned aerial systems can serve as a force multiplier for militants, these systems do not embody a transformation in modern insurgent warfare or enable militants to engage regularly in strategic coercion. Instead, drone use is consistent with a militant group’s relative capabilities and broader strategic objectives. Consequently, these groups are likely to employ drones primarily for theater and tactical military purposes.

Europe: A Strategy For A Regional And Middle Power, Jean-Yves Haine, Cynthia Salloum

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

As the European Union deals with yet another crisis— the COVID-19 pandemic—it must adopt a grand strategy based on unity, policy, and proportionality: cohesion over inaction, policy over process, and regional imperatives over global ambitions. An analysis of past strategy documents and a study of current international trends stress the need for a Union capable of shaping its own environment rather than reacting to it. The pandemic should accelerate Europe’s journey toward power maturity and responsibility.

Jdn 2-19: Hitting The Target But Missing The Mark, Ann Mezzell, J. Wesley Hutto

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Predoctrinal deliberations about the employment of the US armed forces, captured in Joint Doctrine Notes, remain critically understudied. Using comparative text analysis, this article identifies changes in recent Joint Doctrine Note depictions of military strategy. These changes risk distorting the logic of military strategy, sacrificing means-ends integration to organizational impulse, and raising the prospect of future shortfalls in US strategic effectiveness.

From The Editor In Chief, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Coin Doctrine Is Wrong, M. Chris Mason

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Counterinsurgency does not increase the legitimacy of, or support for, central governments engaged in internal conflicts. Recent research shows quantifiable degrees of government legitimacy, national identity, and population security are necessary precursors and accurate predictors of a government’s ability to outlast a civil uprising. Because the first two predictors—government legitimacy and national identity—can be measured and do not increase during a conflict, the probability of government failure in most cases can be accurately predicted when the conflict starts.

Greater Security Cooperation: Us Allies In Europe And East Asia, Tongfi Kim, Luis Simón

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Growing Sino-Russian coordination necessitates greater security cooperation between US Allies in Europe and East Asia. US Allies in both regions face remarkably similar threats requiring similar operational concepts, capabilities, and technologies. Further, these Allies must hedge against the specter of US abandonment. An exploration of the links between the two geographically distant US Alliance networks illustrates the Allies’ perspectives on US extended deterrence and highlights opportunities to devise better policies for cooperation.

Matthew Ridgway And The Value Of Persistent Dissent, Conrad C. Crane

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Army General Matthew Ridgway’s actions throughout his career provide a valuable example of the appropriate time and place for serious dissent by military leaders. Ridgway demonstrated the importance of selectively and pragmatically expressing open

Parameters Summer 2021, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The US Army War College Quarterly, Parameters, is a refereed forum for contemporary strategy and Landpower issues. It furthers the education and professional development of senior military officers and members of government and academia concerned with national security affairs.

Toward Successful Coin: Shining Path’S Decline, Darren Colby

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The rapid decline of the Peruvian left-wing insurgent organization Sendero Luminoso was not only the result of the arrest of its leader. An analysis of the precipitous weakening of the organization using two social movement theories finds other factors were involved in the demise of the organization as well. These factors—participatory politics, support for the military among the rural population, and alienation of the population by Sendero Luminoso—provide insights to effective counterinsurgency tactics.