The History of the Chaplain Corps: United States Navy Volume 2 1939-1949

The History of the Chaplain Corps: United States Navy Volume 2 1939-1949
Author: Clifford Merrill Drury
Publisher: St. John's Press
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2018-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781946411730

From the Preface to Volume 2 - This is the second volume of the narrative History of the Chaplain Corps, United States Navy. Volume I, published in 1949, presents an account of the development of the Corps and of the progress of religion in the Navy from the days of the Revolutionary War to the declaration of a state of national emergency on 8 September 1939. Consideration is therein given to the development and influence of naval regulations, customs, and traditions as they affect the work of Navy chaplains. Light is thrown on such subjects as the social and moral conditions under which chaplains worked and their relations with officers and enlisted men. The volume outlines the problems and difficulties chaplains faced and some of their achievements, and also deals with such subjects as the chaplain's pay, rank, and uniform. Kindred topics of interest to chaplains, as their collateral duties, the church pennant, and the rise of the Reserve organizations, are also covered. A knowledge of this history will be helpful in understanding and appreciating the status of the Corps on the eve of World War II and of its contribution during that great conflict. Included in volume I is an appendix containing the names of 471 chaplains who saw duty in the Navy at some time prior to 8 September 1939. An appendix to the present volume includes the additional names of 2,882 accessions to the Corps from 8 September 1939 to 31 December 1945. This makes a grand total of 3,353 chaplains, whose biographical and service-record sketches appeared as a Government publication in 1948 under the title United States Navy Chaplains, 1778-1945. The present volume continues the narrative history of the Chaplain Corps from 8 September 1939 to the spring of 1949. It includes, therefore, the period of preparation leading up to Pearl Harbor and the story of demobilization following the cessation of hostilities in August 1945. A questionnaire requesting information from the chaplains regarding their work and experiences was included in the Navy Department Semi-Monthly Bulletin of 14 November 1944. About 1,300 replies, out of approximately 2,300 chaplains then on duty, were received. These answers furnished valuable source material in the preparation of this volume.

Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity

Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity
Author: James L. Noles
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2004-02-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0817313699

A long-overdue history of America's "forgotten flattop." On November 24, 1943, a Japanese torpedo plunged into the starboard side of the American escort carrier USS Liscome Bay. The torpedo struck the thin-skinned carrier in the worst possible place the bomb storage area. The resulting explosion could be seen 16 miles away, literally ripping the Liscome Bay in half and killing 644 of her crew. In terms of lives lost, it was the costliest carrier sinking in United States naval history. Liscome Bay's loss came on her first combat operation: the American invasion of the Gilbert Islands. Despite her short career, she touched a number of remarkable and famous lives. Doris Miller, the first black American sailor to win the Navy Cross, lost his life, as did Rear Admiral Henry Mullinax, one of the Navy's first "air admirals." John Crommelin was the senior officer to survive the sinking. Later in his career, Crommelin, a decorated naval aviator himself, sparked the famous Revolt of the Admirals, which helped save the role of naval aviation in America's Cold War military. James Noles's account of the Liscome Bay and those who served aboard her is based on interviews with the ship's survivors and an unpublished memoir that the ship's pay officer made available to the author. This readable, compelling book pays homage to the crew by telling their story of experience and sacrifice. To follow Jim Noles on Twitter, access his stream here: http://www.twitter.com/mightyby

A Cautious Patriotism

A Cautious Patriotism
Author: Gerald L. Sittser
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2000-11-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807864544

World War II was a turning point in twentieth-century American history, and its effects on American society have been studied from virtually every conceivable historical angle. Until now, though, the role of religion--an important aspect of life on the home front--has essentially been overlooked. In A Cautious Patriotism, Gerald Sittser addresses this omission. He examines the issues raised by World War II in light of the reactions they provoked among Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Unitarians, and members of other Christian denominations. In the process, he enriches our understanding of the relationships between church and society, religion and democracy. In deliberate contrast to the zealous, even jingoistic support they displayed during World War I, American churches met the events of the Second World War with ambivalence. Though devoted to the nation, Sittser argues, they were cautious in their patriotic commitments and careful to maintain loyalty to ideals of peace, justice, and humanitarianism. Religious concerns played a role in the debate over American entry into the war and continued to resurface over issues of mobilization, military chaplaincy, civil rights, the internment of Japanese Americans, Jewish suffering, the dropping of the atomic bomb, and postwar planning. Originally published in 1997. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Secularization and Religious Innovation in the North Atlantic World

Secularization and Religious Innovation in the North Atlantic World
Author: David Hempton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2017
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0198798075

In the early twenty-first century it had become a clich that there was a "God Gap" between a more religious United States and a more secular Europe. The apparent religious differences between the United States and western Europe continue to be a focus of intense and sometimes bitter debate between three of the main schools in the sociology of religion. According to the influential "Secularization Thesis," secularization has been an integral part of the processes of modernization in the Western world since around 1800. For proponents of this thesis, the United States appears as an anomaly and they accordingly give considerable attention to explaining why it is different. For other sociologists, however, the apparently high level of religiosity in the USA provides a major argument in their attempts to refute the Thesis. Secularization and Religious Innovation in the North Atlantic World provides a systematic comparison between the religious histories of the United States and western European countries from the eighteenth to the late twentieth century, noting parallels as well as divergences, examining their causes and especially highlighting change over time. This is achieved by a series of themes which seem especially relevant to this agenda, and in each case the theme is considered by two scholars. The volume examines whether American Christians have been more innovative, and if so how far this explains the apparent "God Gap." It goes beyond the simple American/European binary to ask what is "American" or "European" in the Christianity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and in what ways national or regional differences outweigh these commonalities.

World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the War's Aftermath, with General Themes

World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the War's Aftermath, with General Themes
Author: Loyd Lee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 528
Release: 1998-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313033153

A companion to World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, this volume reevaluates the most enduring literature on basic aspects of the war in Asia and the Pacific. It also covers themes pertaining to societies at war, culture, the arts, and science and technology as well as international relations and the postwar world. Included are not only grand strategy, military and naval campaigns, and matters of diplomacy, but also resistance, collaboration, prisoners of war, and broad topics of the home front, including chapters on gender issues, film, literature, popular culture, and propaganda. This volume and its companion provide the first comprehensive historiographic reference work on the war. Each chapter describes the state of knowledge on the topic, relating each bibliographic reference to the chapter's themes and issues, and concludes with a bibliography. Recent original scholarship is included when it aids new understanding, and older works of enduring value also find a place. The essays in this volume will interest scholars and college teachers as well as advanced students and serious amateurs seeking insight into the history of the war and its literature.

Saving Big Ben

Saving Big Ben
Author: John Satterfield
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2011-04-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1612514022

Father Joe O’Callahan, S.J. was the unlikeliest war hero. A bespectacled math professor from Holy Cross, he became the U.S. Navy’s first Jesuit chaplain in World War II and served in combat operations in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. Father O’Callahan was on the aircraft carrier Franklin, known as “Big Ben”, in the Okinawa campaign in early 1945 when massive explosions and fire from a kamikaze bomb attack nearly destroyed his ship. Hundreds of sailors died within moments of the attack, and the Franklin, lay dead in the water, drifting toward Japan just 60 miles distant. As flames consumed the carrier, the chaplain organized and led fire-fighting crews and prevented a potentially fatal explosion while ministering to injured, dying and terrified sailors. Father O’Callahan’s deeds were instrumental in saving the Franklin, and he stayed with the ship on its voyage under power to New York Harbor. The carrier’s captain called him “the bravest man I ever saw,” and Father Joe became the first American military chaplain to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor. But the price of glory was high for Father O’Callahan. He suffered a stroke after returning to Holy Cross and spent the rest of his life enduring incapacitating pain. Through it all, the priest displayed the same leadership and strength derived from unwavering faith that enabled him to help save his ship and comrades. The book incorporates primary sources, interviews with Franklin survivors and O’Callahan family members and other materials never before published, including documentation of the Navy’s review of Father O’Callahan’s recommendation of the Medal of Honor and the process leading to the priest’s receipt of the decoration.

World War II in Europe

World War II in Europe
Author: David T. Zabecki
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1140
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135812497

World War II defined the 20th century and shaped many events, from the decolonization of Africa to the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. This encyclopedia offers a focused overview of this complex and volatile era, the circumstances that led up to war, the underlying causes, its unfolding and consequences. Organized for quick and precise access More than 1300 entries by 150 experts are arranged in six sections for easy reference and consultation. All the key ideas, events, actions, weapons, individuals, and organizations that played vital roles in the war are covered, from the Axis Pact to the Arab League, from the OSS to the Africa Korps, from the Chetniks to the Jedburghs, from the battle of Kursk to Operation Mincemeat, from Bill Donovan to Otto Skorzeny, from Gestapo to SMERSH, from Georgi Zhukov to Jean Leclerc, from the 88 gun to the Norden Bombsight. Covers important neglected subjects The Encyclopedia puts special emphasis on the often-neglected operations in Eastern Europe and Russia. A key section inspects and rates all the major weapons, with handy tables for easy comparison. And in recognition of the first large-scale participation of women in the war, the volume thoroughly documents their individual and unit contributions to the Allied effort. Finally, the encyclopedia discusses battlefield realties that explain, for example, why the airborne drops at Normandy succeeded and the ones at Arnheim failed. A bibliography, glossary, maps, photographs, and weapons and data tables enhance the coverage. Also includes 16 maps.