New command to fix Navy ‘culture problem’

[unhappycamper]

Karen France, curator with the Naval Historical Center, examines the World War II battle flag of the destroyer Zellars after its recent conservation. The flag, damaged during a 1945 kamikaze attack, was preserved through the efforts of the NHC, USS Zellars Association, and the Stillwater Textile Conservation Studio. The Zellars saw combat service in World War II and Korea, was attacked by three kamikazes during the Battle of Okinawa and suffered 64 killed when two hit the ship. The conservation of the flag was especially meaningful of the USS Zellars Association's thirty surviving World War II members.


New command to fix Navy ‘culture problem’
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 5, 2009 6:13:19 EST

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.”


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/navy_history_010509/%2e