Customer Reviews

The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 17th Edition

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This book covers the period from when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started to look at being drawn down following the collapse of communism through out Europe and most of the rest of the world. Also this covers the status of the fleet for that little period between 1989 and the end of Gulf War 1 (or Desert Shield/Storm/Saber). This books was written before the first base closing commission was just being conviened. So there are obvisouly errors in what bases are open, what have been closed, and what have been converted over to other types. The same is true with various ships. However, this is still a very good reference book and a great point to see where the 600-ship navy was going to have keep going if the cold war was to continue. As it is with the end of the cold war, this is also a very good book to see what sort of units there were to particpate in the various peace-keeping operations of the mid-90's when the 18th edition was published.

Every time the Naval Institute press publishes a new edition of this book, I am astonished at the many errors that creep in. I am not sure whether the fault lies with the author or an editorial department that seemingly knows nothing about the Navy. Errors abound within this edition. A few examples:
On P.107, A photo of an aircraft carrier is described as being USS KITTY HAWK, when in reality it is USS INDEPENDENCE. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of carriers should have been able to identify the ship by class features alone--anyone who was not careless that is.
In the section on Navy organization, carrier air wings from both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets are described as being based at NAS Miramar (now a Marine Air Station) and NAS Cecil Field (closed 3 years ago). Obviously, the author could not be bothered to check the accuracy of his data and it makes the reader wonder how many other mistakes are contained within this VERY expensive work ...One would think that as the USN shrinks in size, so would a reference book on that subject, but Mr. Polmar succeeds in burying the reader in overblown and excruciating minutiae to pad his book so that it is even larger then his previous editions published at the height of the 1980s when the fleet comprised nearly 600 ships!
Everything contained within this book is available on the internet for free--with the exception of Mr. Polmar's usual egomaniacal State of the Fleet essay, which always predicts the sky is falling for the US Navy.
In sum, little here is new or useful, most of it is padded to expand the book and jack up the cost and errors abound. An amazingly average to below average work. Great pictures however--just with incorrect captions!

The 17th edition was just released (5/2001), so beware of the prior reader reviews dated 1999 & 1998. The 15th & 16th editions were excellent books, and this (the 17th) should be just as good (although sadly, it will chronicle the delisting of many major combatant vessels that projected power during the Cold War), but until reviewers actually read or scan the book, these reviews are not authentic.

this book is filled with litteraly everything you need to know about navy ships and other key elements.must by for naval buffs