Silver State Dreadnought, Stephen M. Younger
Silver State Dreadnought, Stephen M. Younger
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Silver State Dreadnought
The Remarkable Story of Battleship Nevada

Author: Stephen M. Younger

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Unabridged: 9 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/12/2019


Synopsis

USS Nevada (BB-36) was America's first modern battleship. When her keel was laid in 1912, kings and emperors still ruled much of the world. When she finally slipped beneath the waves in 1948, America was the undisputed global superpower.

Nevada was revolutionary for her time: the first "superdreadnought"; the first U.S. warship to be oil fired; the first to have a triple–gun main turret; and, the first to have all–or–nothing armor. In World War I, she was based in Queenstown, Ireland, to provide protection for American convoys bringing troops to Europe. The only battleship to get underway at Pearl Harbor, she suffered damage from Japanese bombs and torpedoes and sank in shallow water. Raised and repaired, she did convoy duty in the North Atlantic before joining the invasion fleet for D–Day and the landings in Southern France. Shifting to the Pacific, Nevada provided bombardment support at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The end of the war saw her outgunned and outmoded, but her contributions were not over. In 1946, she survived not one but two atomic tests, the second of which left the battleship too radioactive for scrapping. On a sunny day in 1948, Nevada was towed off the coast of Oahu and used for target practice. She died a warrior's death.


About Stephen M. Younger

Stephen M. Younger is the president of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He previously served as president of National Security Technologies, LLC, and director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. He has written extensively on national security, anthropology, and physics.


Reviews

While the author leans just a little too hard into the theme of the "happy ship," there is no denying that USS "Nevada" was something special and that this is a very good history of this vessel. One thing I particularly appreciated is that close attention was given to literal nuts & bolts details, a......more

Goodreads review by Robin

While it is a pretty straightforward chronological history of the USS Nevada, it nonetheless delivers plenty of feels - patriotism and sometimes downright disbelief. When she was built, she was the most powerful war ship of her day. She was the only battleship to get under steam at Pearl Harbor and e......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

Younger does a good job of sequentially exploring Nevada’s history. The pace of the history was good and did not dwell in too much detail of her actions during each world war. A difficult achievement to say the least.......more

The author abstained from glorifying his subject, the battleship Nevada and instead delivers a very objective, chronologically detailed account of the famous silver state battleship. Very recommendable.......more