MILITARY BOOKS - Dennis L. Noble

MILITARY BOOKS

Dennis L. Noble

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Dennis L. Noble served in the United States Coast Guard at a number of shore stations and in a variety of cutters, including the Westwind, Northwind, Edisto and Evergreen. He has made two tips to the Antarctic and six to arctic. He retired from the United States Coast Guard in 1987 as a Senior Chief Marine Science Technician. Since retirement, Dennis Noble has worked as a park ranger, United States Army historian, and a public Librarian. He has a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Purdue University.

Dennis L. Noble is the author of: Forgotten Warriors: Combat Art from Vietnam; Gunboat on the Yangtze: The Diary of Captain Glenn F. Howell of the USS Palos, 1920-1921; That Others Might Live: The U.S. Life-Saving Service, 1878-1915; Rescued By The U.S. Coast Guard: Great Acts Of Heroism Since 1878; Lifeboat Sailors: The U.S. Coast Guard's Small Boat Stations; Lighthouses & Keepers: The U.S. Lighthouse Service and Its Legacy; The Rescue of the Gale Runner: Death, Heroism, and the U.S. Coast Guard; The Eagle and the Dragon: The United States Military in China, 1901-1937; GREAT LAKES A Brief History of U.S. Coast Guard Operations; Sentinels of the rocks: From "Graveyard coast" to National Lakeshore; The US Coast Guard; Alaska and Hawaii: A brief history of U.S. Coast Guard operations; The beach patrol and Corsair Fleet: The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II; Gulf Coast and western rivers: A brief history of U.S. Coast Guard operations; The Coast Guard along the North Atlantic Coast; The Coast Guard in the Pacific Northwest; The Coast Guard in the Southeast; Historical register, U.S. Revenue Cutter Service officers, 1790-1914; The saga of the U.S. Coast Guard; and, Recollections of Vice Admiral J. E. Stika, U.S. Coast Guard, retired, on the Revenue Cutter Service and Bering Sea Patrol. Dennis L. Noble is also the co-author of Alaska and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1867-1915.

According to the book description of Forgotten Warriors: Combat Art from Vietnam, “A multitude of literary and cinematic works were spawned by the Vietnam war, but this is a unique book, combining moving prose with powerful illustrations created by combat artists in the U.S. military. Dr. Noble has assembled a remarkable collection of 153 reproductions printed in black and white, arranged with oral histories, letters and other commentaries to give the reader a more intimate understanding of the combat soldier who served in Vietnam and what he had to endure.

Forgotten Warriors is not intended to argue the merits of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Rather, through the visual impact of the illustrations, the soldiers themselves express what the Vietnam experience was like in a way that is different and more profound than perhaps any other work on the subject. The main focus of the book is on the way artists saw the world of the "grunt": patrols, life in the rear, fighting the terrain and weather, tests of endurance, the machines of war and the effects of combat and its aftermath.

The reader is also given a sense of how some writers and artists felt about the country and the people of South Vietnam. To date, our perceptions of the Vietnam war have been influenced largely by movies, television and novels. Recognizing this, Dr. Noble enlisted Professor William J. Palmer, a noted authority on the media and their reportage fo the war, to provide an essay that allows the reader to compare his or her past impressions with the art works contained in this book. A moving collection, Forgotten Warriors offers the truest picture of the Vietnam war in human terms.”

According to the book description of Gunboat on the Yangtze: The Diary of Captain Glenn F. Howell of the USS Palos, 1920-1921, “Captain Glenn F. Howell kept a detailed account of his activities in China for 62 years. His journals now make up 202 leather-bound volumes—one of the largest sources in existence, perhaps the largest, of servicemen’s observations of service in China during that country’s struggle to oust one power and come to grips with a new one between World War I and II.

This work presents Howell’s diary from June 6, 1920, to September 23, 1921, during which time he commanded the naval gunboat USS Palos on the Yangtze River. First comes a biography of Howell, an overview of Chinese history from 1800 to 1920, and a history of the United States military involvement in China during those years. Howell’s time as commander of the USS Palos is divided into three sections. Preceding each, the editor comments on the nature of the upcoming diary entries. Howell covers a range of topics, including the Chinese people, various important locales (e.g., the Three Gorges), making official visits, (his first as a captain), officer–enlisted man relations, opium, the steam navy, people who influenced him (S. Cornell Plant and Captain Joseph Miclo, skipper of the Meitan), missionaries and other foreigners in China (including U.S. military retirees), and "trackers" (China’s human beasts of burden.)”

According to a reader of That Others Might Live: The U.S. Life-Saving Service, 1878-1915, “Dennis L. Noble fills in a longstanding gap in the history of the US Coast Guard by detailing the trials and accomplishments of the US Life-Saving Service. The book is a brief but comprehensive chronicle of how a relatively few people made a difference in protecting shipwrecked mariners. Noble provides details of the daily lives of those who served as well as their equipment. The narrative is crisp and quick-paced, but doesn't skimp on the details.

D.D. Chomeau, President, Association for Rescue at Sea, Inc. said of Lifeboat Sailors: The U.S. Coast Guard's Small Boat Stations, “I have read many thrilling accounts of lifeboat rescues by services the world over, and Lifeboat Sailors has several that are truly spine-tingling. But perhaps more importantly, it gives the reader the most intimate view of the lives of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard who man the small boat stations that I have ever seen. Despite all the frustrations of performing great acts of individual heroism within the strictures of a necessarily large government bureaucracy, the men and women of the Coast Guard today share with their forebears one overwhelming characteristic: they are driven to do what they do that others might live. Lifeboat Sailors is for the lifesaving community what The Perfect Storm is for the fishing community: a well-written, intimate look inside a fascinating world.”

According to Midwest Book Review, Rescued By The U.S. Coast Guard: Great Acts Of Heroism Since 1878, “is an anthology of the most daring, successful, and heroic efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard to save lives over the course of the past century. Man-against-sea stories, some told in the words of the rescuers themselves, abound in this exciting collection. Yet not every rescue attempt is successful; Rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard also pays homage to those who lost their lives. Historians will appreciate the attention to detail, particularly in the evolution of life-saving equipment across the years. Enthralling reading and a welcome revelation of the difficult work and life-changing achievements of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

According to a reader of Lighthouses & Keepers: The U.S. Lighthouse Service and Its Legacy, “This is a publication of the Naval Institute Press and it deserves recognition. I found the book to be accurate and informative - not a lot of romancing, just facts - but written in a very captivating way. There are nine chapters, maps, and a glossary of nautical terms. I was somewhat disappointed in that only one chapter is devoted to the keepers, but over all I am very happy to have this book in my collection. It has become one of my favorites.”

According to the book description of The Rescue of the Gale Runner: Death, Heroism, and the U.S. Coast Guard, “Recounts the tragic story of the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Quillayute River Station, who attempted to rescue the sailors of the sailboat Gale Runner in February 1997. . . . Will give you a greater understanding and respect for what the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard are asked to do and accomplish every day somewhere on the nation's waters.”

According to the book description of The Eagle and the Dragon: The United States Military in China, 1901-1937, “Relatively few books have focused on the US armed services during peacetime. Noble makes a significant contribution to knowledge of the peacetime military in this study of the American marines, sailors, and soldiers who served in China from the end of the Boxer Rebellion to the Marco Polo Bridge incident of 1937. His examination of their activities ranges from an analysis of the type of enlisted men and officers who applied for China duty, to their daily military regimen and extracurricular activities.

Along the way, Noble debunks several myths about peacetime duty in the Middle Kingdom. His research has been hampered by the government's policy of keeping military personnel records closed for a century. Still, diaries and newspapers, published by the units in China, have provided Noble with a wealth of information. It is difficult to fault his research or his conclusion that a great deal can be learned about how the military will act in wartime by studying it in peacetime.”

According to the book description of Alaska and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1867-1915, “Not long after Alaska was purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS) made its first appearance in the Bering Sea. Over the next forty-eight years the ships and men of the USRCS firmly established U.S. sovereignty in the area and performed amazing acts of rescue and humanitarian aid-contributions that have received little attention until the publication of this book.

Bringing together widely scattered documentation and records, maritime historians Dennis Noble and Truman Strobridge chronicle events in the service's colorful history. Filled with high drama as well as historical significance, the story includes a number of notable figures, among them Capt. Michael A. "Hell Roaring Mike" Healy, the black revenue cutter captain who became a legend of the Alaskan frontier and was memorialized in James Michener's novel Alaska. The cuttermen explored vast unknown areas in their multimission role, providing humanitarian relief after earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, bringing medical care to isolated areas, feeding starving North American natives, and rescuing shipwrecked sailors, whalers beset in the ice, lost explorers, and others in trouble in the hostile environment. Among the many projects described in the book is a noble social experiment carried out by these early U.S. Coast Guardsmen. They imported reindeer from Siberia and taught the Alaskan natives how to herd to assure a steady food supply and to avoid future famines. They also transported federal judges and their staffs to isolated settlements to bring a veneer of civilization to the rough frontier.

The authors describe and analyze these events in colorful narrative detail. Readers will quickly come to understand why the USRCS became so admired throughout the new territory and appreciate the effect the service had on the political, economic, and social life of the North Pacific region.”