Gilded Age Marines

“U.S. MARINES SINK 2 SHIPS” [1] The Defense of Wake Island with Naval Rifles John S. Naylor – December 13, 2025 This headline seems fantastic, but in December of 1941 Marines did just this in the defense of Wake Island. It may be regarded as curious event, just a small part of a tragic and heroic stand Americans took in the weeks following the Pearl Harbor attack, but should be recognized as the realization of a mission the Marines had been training for since 1900.  On December 11, 1941, Marines of the 1 st  Defense Battalion sank the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer HAYATE off the beaches of Wake Island, making it the first Japanese warship sunk following the attack on Pearl Harbor. HAYATE was part of a larger invasion force sent to take Wake Atoll, with its rudimentary airfield, seaplane station, and harbor; Wake had been a U.S. territory since the 1898 war with Spain and was largely ignored until the 1930s, when Juan Trippe of Pan American Airlines, and the U.S. Navy both r...

Major Dion Williams’ Advanced Base Force Lecture at the Naval War College John S. Naylor – December 10, 2025   Major Dion William, USMC, then serving with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), delivered a lecture at the Naval War College (NWC) in 1912, titled  THE NAVAL ADVANCED BASE . The lecture is important in that it documents the status of the Advanced Base Force in that year, reviewed its history, and laid out concerns regarding its implementation. In his address, Williams directed his focus towards what he saw as a strategically neglected area located between the physical development of the fleet, and the infrastructure of permanent naval bases; Williams draws the audience’s attention towards the need for temporary advanced bases supporting the battle fleet during a naval war. [1] Williams’ exposition borrows greatly on the popular concepts of sea power and naval history of the era; not surprising as Mahan’s teachings remained omnipresent in American military and poli...

That Time When the Navy Changed the Names of the Ships   John S. Naylor – December 9, 2025   Over the past several months, the rare practice of re-naming ships in the fleet has popped up in the zeitgeist, widely viewed as part of the prosecution of modern culture warfare. It’s spurred the Congressional Record Service to issue a history to the guidelines used in naming ships. There probably are better ways the Navy could be spending time and treasure than in changing ships' names to suit political sensibilities. Sadly, there is a precedent for the renaming of vessels engaged in honorable service, at the hands of less than enlightened characters placed in positions of power, dating back to the days following the Civil War.  ADOLPH E. BORIE  When Ulysses Grant was sworn in as the 18 th  President of the United States, he offered the position of Secretary of the Navy to Adolph Borie, a Philadelphia mercantile trader. Borie dealt in silk and tea and wasn’t widely kno...

A Howling Wilderness - The Court Martial of Tony Waller A Play in Four Acts – An unprofessional “treatment”.   John S. Naylor – December 2, 2025   ACT I – Establishing the situation Opens at Waller’s HQ in Olongopo, Philippine Territory. October 1902. Marines sitting in office discuss with new join the exploits of Major Waller, a hero to many, and a proper ‘field Marine’ breveted for bravery in China. A Navy Admiral, Frederick Rodgers visits Waller, finds him too drunk to get out of bed. Later, the Admiral Rodgers tells Waller, a hero of the Boxer Rebellion, that he and a battalion of his Marines will be “loaned” to the Army to fight Filipino rebels on the island of Samar. Waller meets with the Brigadier General Jacob Smith, who orders him to  “Kill and burn! The more you kill and burn, the better you will please me. I want no prisoners, do you understand?”  and turn Samar into a “ howling wilderness ”. Smith orders him to kill “ anyone over the age of 10 ”. Mar...