Uss Santa Fe Log

“One of the 12 best business books of all time…. Timeless principles of empowering leadership.” – USA Today "The best how-to manual anywhere for managers on delegating, training, and driving flawless execution.” —FORTUNE Since Turn the Ship Around! was published in 2013, hundreds of thousands of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain David Marquet’s true story. Many have applied his insights to their own organizations, creating workplaces where everyone takes responsibility for his or her actions, where followers grow to become leaders, and where happier teams drive dramatically better results. Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate and an experienced officer when selected for submarine command. Trained to give orders in the traditional model of “know all–tell all” leadership, he faced a new wrinkle when he was shifted to the Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine. Facing the high-stress environment of a sub where there’s little margin for error, he was determined to reverse the trends he found on the Santa Fe: poor morale, poor performance, and the worst retention rate in the fleet. Almost immediately, Marquet ran into trouble when he unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway. When he asked why, the answer was: “Because you told me to.” Marquet realized that while he had been trained for a different submarine, his crew had been trained to do what they were told—a deadly combination. That’s when Marquet flipped the leadership model on its head and pushed for leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around! reveals how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower approach. Struggling against his own instincts to take control, he instead achieved the vastly more powerful model of giving control to his subordinates, and creating leaders. Before long, each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became completely engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for performance, morale, and retention. And over the next decade, a highly disproportionate number of the officers of the Santa Fe were selected to become submarine commanders. Whether you need a major change of course or just a tweak of the rudder, you can apply Marquet’s methods to turn your own ship around.

In November 1944, the U.S. Navy fleet lay at anchor deep in the Pacific Ocean, when the oiler USS Mississinewa exploded. Japan’s secret weapon, the Kaiten—a manned suicide submarine—had succeeded in its first mission. The Kaiten was so secret that even Japanese naval commanders didn’t know of its existence. And the Americans kept it secret as well. Embarrassed by the attack, the U.S. Navy refused to salvage the sunken Mighty Miss. Not until 2001, when a diving team located the wreck, would survivors learn what really happened. In Kaiten, Michael Mair and Joy Waldron tell the full story, from newly revealed secrets of the Kaiten development and training schools to gripping firsthand accounts of U.S. Navy survivors in the wake of the attack, as well as the harrowing recovery efforts that came later. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

One of the costliest battles of World War II happens to be one of the least known. After failing to stop the attack of Admiral Takeo Kurita at Leyte Gulf, Admiral “Bull” Halsey made a desperate attempt to engage the Japanese Imperial Navy in a full-scale battle. Acting against better judgment and in a desperate attempt at redemption, Halsey led his crew into the raging path of a typhoon, which resulted in the loss of nearly one thousand sailors—the most costly mission of the Pacific war.

AN INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II The LOG begins with U.S. Sloop Vincennes, which, with the Columbus, was the first American ship to enter Tokyo Harbor (1846). A contemporaneous account of the shakedown cruise of the U.S. Cruiser Vincennes in 1937 and experiences of the ship before escorting the Hornet on the Doolittle-Tokyo expedition are given. The contents also include likenesses and biographical sketches of many men lost with the Vincennes; the Chaplain’s Log; experiences at Midway; and a statement concerning the third U.S. Vincennes, launched in 1944. Richly illustrated throughout with photographs and maps.

Diary dated 09 January 1943 to 20 September 1945.