The Navy has a “culture problem” with its past, the service’s top historian says
The Navy has a “culture problem” with its past, the service’s top historian says.
Neither sailors nor leaders have enough appreciation for how useful history could be in their day-to-day decision-making, said retired Rear Adm. Jay DeLoach. But he hopes to change that.
DeLoach said he has big plans for the newly renamed Naval History and Heritage Command, formerly known as the Naval Historical Center, at the Washington Navy Yard. It owns more than 1 million historical artifacts and hundreds of thousands of documents and pieces of art; runs a dozen museums; has control of every sunken Navy ship and aircraft in the world; and even owns two patches of forest from which engineers get the wood to repair the frigate Constitution — which the command also oversees. He wants to put all of those resources to work.
“Instead of being introverted, we need to be extroverted,” DeLoach said. “We need to deliver history to the fleet and the Marine Corps.”
Naval History and Heritage Command has gone by that name only since Dec. 1, but DeLoach already has a concise phrase for what he wants out of the new operation: “Forward-looking historians.”
Read entire article at Navy Times
Neither sailors nor leaders have enough appreciation for how useful history could be in their day-to-day decision-making, said retired Rear Adm. Jay DeLoach. But he hopes to change that.
DeLoach said he has big plans for the newly renamed Naval History and Heritage Command, formerly known as the Naval Historical Center, at the Washington Navy Yard. It owns more than 1 million historical artifacts and hundreds of thousands of documents and pieces of art; runs a dozen museums; has control of every sunken Navy ship and aircraft in the world; and even owns two patches of forest from which engineers get the wood to repair the frigate Constitution — which the command also oversees. He wants to put all of those resources to work.
“Instead of being introverted, we need to be extroverted,” DeLoach said. “We need to deliver history to the fleet and the Marine Corps.”
Naval History and Heritage Command has gone by that name only since Dec. 1, but DeLoach already has a concise phrase for what he wants out of the new operation: “Forward-looking historians.”