The Admirals Advantage: U.S. Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War [Hardcover]

Christopher A. Ford (Author), David A. Rosenberg (Author), Randy C. Balano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2005

Operational intelligence or OPINTEL - knowing where the enemy is and what he is doing - is crucial to effective military operations. This analytic and historical study provides a revealing look at the development and practice of the U.S. Navy's operational intelligence. The book is primarily the result of an Operational Lessons Learned Symposium held at the National Maritime Intelligence Training Center in Virginia in 1998. Participants included senior intelligence professionals whose mandate was to explore the ramifications of the evolution of naval operational intelligence since World War II. Current practices were also explored with inputs from current practitioners as represented by various fleet and shore commands. Additional sources for the study were oral interviews and correspondence with senior members of the intelligence community. The authors have scrupulously taken the work as close to the edge of classification as possible to enhance its value without being damaging to national security. This path-breaking work suggests lessons for the use of intelligence against the shifting and emerging threats in the future. It also includes photos from a historical exhibit at the Office of Naval Intelligence that chronicles the evolution of U.S. Navy OPINTEL.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

LT.CMDR. CHRISTOPHER A. FORD and CAPT. DAVID A. ROSENBERG are part of a team of U.S. Naval Reserve intelligence officers that has compiled OPINTEL lessons-learned since 1994. In their civilian careers, Ford is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance, and Rosenberg is a Senior Professor at the Naval War College who led Task Force History for the Vice CNO in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 219 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press (July 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591142822
• ISBN-13: 978-1591142829
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars OPINTEL, June 12, 2007

By 

B. Nicholson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Admirals Advantage: U.S. Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War (Hardcover)

An excellent addition to the literature on US Navy Intelligence through the years. As you read through this account, taken from many flag officer and senior civilian interviews, you can understand why the USN has put so many of its Intelligence Flag officers in prominent positions in the intelligence community: world view; big picture; strategic thinking.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligence in the Cold War as Leading to the Future, August 8, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Admirals Advantage: U.S. Navy Operational Intelligence in World War II and the Cold War (Hardcover)

The stories of intelligence gathered from Signal Intelligence in World War II are well known. The development of ULTRA and MAGIC gave the Allied Admirals a significant advantage in the battles of the Atlantic and of course at Midway. This was really the start of intelligence moving from a dead end career to a position of some prominence in the Navy world.

This book gives a bit about the history of operational intelligence during World War II but is mostly about the development of Naval operational intelligence after the end of the war.

Our intelligence agencies took a hit in the aftermath of 9/11. Perhaps there was still too much orientation to the Cold War. Perhaps there was no orientation at all, just continuing business as usual. This book concludes with a chapter called Transition, Refocus, and the Future. This covers the time vrom the Goldwater-Nichols Bill which restructured the U.S. military command structure into a series of worldwide joint-service regional and functional commands. In the jargon of the services, many functions like OPINTEL went "Purple," that is no more concentration on the White uniforms of the Navy, the Blue of the Air Force, or the Green of the Army. The change isn't complete, but experience has shown that an understanding of the past and the capabilities that were built up are the base upon which the organization of the future is built.

The book is dedicated to the eighe Naval Intelligence shipmates who died in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.