World War II at Sea - A USNI Panel Discussion

The Pacific Theater in World War II was the largest in the war—indeed, in any war. Managing it was an unprecedented task that fell to a generation of naval leaders including Chester Nimitz, Raymond Spruance, William Halsey, and Willis Lee, among others. This panel will discuss and assess their separate and collective roles in the war including their strengths and weaknesses. Panelists: Thomas J. Cutler has been serving the U.S. Navy in various capacities for more than fifty years, including an in-country combat tour in Viet Nam and sea duty in cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers, and patrol craft. A former faculty member in both the Seamanship & Navigation and History Departments at the U.S. Naval Academy, he currently holds the U.S. Naval Institute’s Gordon England Chair of Professional Naval Literature and is a Fleet Professor of Strategy and Policy with the Naval War College (since 1992). He is the author of many articles and books, including A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy; The Battle of Leyte Gulf; Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam; and The Battle of Leyte Gulf at 75: A Retrospective Trent Hone is an authority on the U.S. Navy of the early twentieth century and a leader in the application of complexity science to organizational design. He studied religion and archaeology at Carleton College in Northfield, MN and works as a consultant helping organizations learn and innovate more rapidly. Mr. Hone regularly writes and speaks about leadership, organizational learning, and naval history.  His most recent book is Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific and Victory in the Pacific (Naval Institute 2022).  Paul Stillwell is an independent historian and retired naval officer. He worked for thirty years at the U.S. Naval Institute as an oral historian and editor of Naval History magazine. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including four on battleships and an award-winning volume on the Navy's first African American officers, The Golden Thirteen. His most recent book is Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr., and has received the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award and the John Lyman Book Award.