From Dam Neck to Okinawa
A Memoir of Antiaircraft Training in World War II
By Robert Wallace
Edited by Jeffrey G. Barlow
No. 5
The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series
"This study is the fifth in the Naval Historical Center's series, "The US Navy in the Modern World," which seeks to acquaint naval officers, sailors, and other readers with the US Navy's unique contribution to national life and history in the contemporary period. During World War II, the US Navy engaged in a massive expansion of its fleet and shore establishment in support of the Allied effort to challenge the Axis powers in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. A significant but unheralded aspect of this naval buildup was the creation of a successful training organization of immense size and complexity. This memoir offers a unique perspective on the effectiveness of the training program developed to enhance the fleet's antiaircraft defense. The author, wartime reserve officer Robert F. Wallace, served from the fall of 1942 through the fall of 1944 as an instructor at two Atlantic Fleet antiaircraft training centers (AATCs) before joining the battleship Idaho (BB 42) as the automatic weapons officer. He served on board Idaho through the pivotal battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In writing his reminiscences, Dr. Wallace supplemented his detailed memories of these events with the written recollections of his former AATC colleagues and shipmates as well as Idaho's war diary and action reports. The result is a remarkably interesting look at a specific type of wartime training and the invaluable results it produced in combat. In addition to Dr. Wallace's efforts, I am pleased to acknowledge those individuals at the Naval Historical Center who contributed to this publication. Dr. Jeffrey G. Barlow, a historian with the Contemporary History Branch, provided continual encouragement to the author during the writing process. He verified the accuracy of the historical information in the memoir by using documentary materials at the Center and at the National Archives, did the initial editing of the manuscript, and obtained many of the photographs used. Others who participated in the effort included Dr. Edward J. Marolda, the Senior Historian and founder of the series, who first expressed an interest in its publication; Sandra J. Doyle, the Center's Senior Editor; members of the Curator Branch's Photographic Section; Naval Aviation News An Director Morgan I. Wilbur and Associate Editor Wendy Leland; and intern Katharine Beale. With this fifth contribution, the general editor of the series and head of our Contemporary History Branch, Dr. Gary E. Weir, has embarked on an effort to demonstrate historically the diversity of the Navy's role in the national defense. While earlier contributions focused primarily on operational matters, this memoir by Robert Wallace examines the critical significance of naval training and education. In the future, the "Modern World" series will examine such subjects as crisis response, operations other than war, and regional power projection, as well as the operational themes we have visited in the past. In this way we hope to offer history well crafted and diverse as a truly effective component of twenty-first-century naval training and information. The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Department of the Navy or any other agency of the US government.
William S. Dudley
Director of Naval History"
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