title: Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy
author:  Gregory L. Vistica 
description: A common political belief is that increased defense spending means increased defense, and this book puts the lie to it. Through extensive reporting and documentary research (which included fighting for and winning access to the 22 boxes of Reagan Secretary of the Navy John Lehman's private papers that are in Navy custody), Vistica tells the story of the scheming, often dishonest Navy leadership that led to tactically irrelevant spending in the 80s and 90s, and to the utter breakdown in decency and chain of command known as Tailhook.
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  SHADOW OF THE ABYSS
  
  
  
  
  
  Edward J. McFadden III
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  [www.severedpress.com](http://www.severedpress.com)
  
  
  Copyright 2019 by Edward J. McFadden III
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Too long on foaming billows cast,
  
  
  The battles fury bray’d;
  
  
  And still unsullied on thy mast
  
  
  The starry banner wav’d;
  
  
  Unconquer’d will Columbia be
  
  
  While she can boast of sons like thee.
  
  
  
  
  
  -Captain of The USS Wasp, Johnston Blakeley
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  Mid-Atlantic rift valley, October 11th, 1814
  
  
  
  
  
  The sloop’s bow sliced through the turbulent sea, sending spray across the
  surface of the blown-out Atlantic Ocean. Captain Johnston Blakeley stood on
  the main deck of the USS Wasp, staring at a line of dark clouds that marched
  across the horizon to the west. The wooden boat creaked and moaned, and canvas
  flapped as it drove through the waves.
  
  
  “Tighten that jib, Mr. Cercut