Navy Historian Launches Navy History Hawaii Blog

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Mark Logico, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

June 17, 2010 - PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Commander, Navy Region Hawaii launched its first blog, Navy History Hawaii, June 4.

Navy Region Hawaii historian Jim Neuman introduced the blog as a means to deliver and disseminate historical information to the public.

"There's a lot on information out there," said Neuman. "There's a lot of documentary information. There's a lot of photographic documentation around Hawaii that deals with the Navy, but there's never been anybody to kind of consolidate all of that, and that's what I hope to be able to do."

As Navy Region Hawaii's first historian, Neuman is bringing together historical information regarding the U.S. Navy in Hawaii. In one of his first entries, Neuman discussed the history and role of USS Nevada (BB 36) during World War II. Nevada was one of several ships that were trapped during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941.

"The other day I was just watching a documentary on Normandy which is way out in Europe, but then I remembered the Nevada was in the Battle of Normandy," said Neuman. "So here you have the ship that was attacked at Pearl Harbor and in 1944, three years later, was all the way in Normandy bombarding the Germany gun placements. I thought that was kind of an interesting story, the fact that you could raise these ships, and then they would actually contribute not just in the Pacific but in World War II in general. I quickly did a little blog on that. I found some pictures and posted it."

Neuman is currently a U.S. Navy reservist who has been with the U.S. Navy for more than eight years in both the active and reserve components. As a service member, Neuman said he realized the need for history to be readily available to the public.

"If you can start consolidating this kind of information, it helps leadership make decisions," said Neuman. "Another reason why it's important for me is because I'm an educator at heart and I want to educate people."

For more information, visit http://www.navyhistoryhawaii.blogspot.com/