Portrait of Thoams Wildenberg

Thomas Wildenberg is an award-winning scholar with special interests in aviators, naval aviation, and technological innovation in the military. He is the author of a number of books on a variety on naval topics as well as biographies of Joseph Mason Reeves, Billy Michael, and Charles Stark Draper.

Articles by Thomas Wildenberg

Bubble-Gum Art Goes to War

By Thomas Wildenberg
August 2003
The bubble-gum cards on these pages emerged from their wrappers in 1941 smelling of powdered sugar, in comic-book colors that depicted the men of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps ...

You’ve Got V-Mail

By Thomas Wildenberg
June 2005
To World War II servicemen, an innovative process of transferring letters to microfilm for transport and reprinting them later was “the next best thing to leave.”
Wikipedia

A Sub-Hunting Bloodhound

By Thomas Wildenberg
October 2017
The Mark 24 torpedo, nicknamed “Fido” for its ability to sniff out enemy submarines, was one of the first “smart” weapons developed during World War II. An official definition for ...
Courtesy of the author

The Instrumental Oerlikon

By Thomas Wildenberg
April 2016
One of the most widely used naval weapons of World War II, the 20-mm Oerlikon antiaircraft cannon was installed aboard virtually every U.S. Navy warship—from lowly PT boats to massive ...
Steve Schutt via USSAstoria.org.

Neptune's Band of Brothers

By Thomas Wildenberg
December 2014
During the mid-1930s, the bulk of the U.S. Fleet, which was divided into the Battle Force, the Scouting Force, and Train, was stationed at various ports on the West Coast ...

Books by Thomas Wildenberg