Nuclear Navy; 1946-1962

Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1974. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good. xv, [1], 477, [3] pages. Includes Illustrations, Foreword, and Preface, as well as chapters on Control of the Sea; The Idea and the Challenge; The Question of Leadership; The Structure of Responsibility; Emerging Patterns of Technical Management; Prototypes and Submarines; Toward a Nuclear Fleet; Nuclear Power Beyond the Navy; Propulsion of the Fleet; Building the Nuclear Fleet; Fleet Operation and Maintenance; and The Measure of Accomplishment. Appendix 1: Table of Organization. Appendix 2: Construction of the Nuclear Navy. Appendix 3: Financial Data. Also includes Abbreviations, Notes, Sources, and Index. Richard Greening Hewlett (February 12, 1923 - September 1, 2015) was an American public historian best known for his work as the Chief Historian of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. After the attack on Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps doing work related to meteorology. The military sent him to Harvard University to study in the electronics school. In 1952 he became a program analyst in the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), compiling classified progress reports from all of the many branches of the AEC for the Commissioners. Hewlett later said that this job gave him a good general overview of the AEC and how it worked. In 1957, Hewlett was contacted in order to find a historian to write an official history of the AEC. Unable to find any academic historians interested, because of his history backgrounds, Hewlett himself was offered the job, which he happily accepted. The rest is history! Admiral Hyman G. Rickover has been the driving force behind the development of the Nuclear Navy. In 1946 Rickover, with a few junior officers and civilian engineers, began studying nuclear technology. Then Rickover, working almost alone, convinced the Navy and the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948 to support the project. Using the resources of the government and American industry, Rickover created an unusual and highly effective organization to design and build reactor plants and submarines. In 1953 a land-based prototype was completed; two years later the Nautilus, the world's first operational nuclear submarine, went to sea. Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan state that this achievement came a decade earlier than it would have without Admiral Rickover's persistence and drive.