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2020 Morison Award Announced
M. ERNEST MARSHALL, MD
REAR ADMIRAL HERBERT V. WILEY
A Career in Airships and Battleships
Suspecting a war with Japan somewhere over the horizon, the American Navy needed a means of conducting surveillance of the vast Pacific Ocean to guard against invasion. Surface vessels were too slow, and the Navy had too few of them, and airplanes lacked the range to cover the Pacific Ocean. The Navy turned to airships (dirigibles) as a solution - vehicles that could range for thousands of miles in the air on a single tank of fuel. Rear Admiral Herbert V. Wiley and Vice Admiral Charles E. Rosendahl - close friends - were with the Navy's airship program from beginning to end. After the loss of the Navy's last airship, Rosendahl went on to develop the blimp program that guarded America's entire coastline during WW II.
M Ernest Marshall is the 2020 recipient of the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature for his book Rear Admiral Herbert V. Wiley, U. S. N. - A Career in Airships and Battleships, presented by the Naval Order of the United States. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia College of Arts & Sciences and School of Medicine. In his academic career, he rose to the rank of Full Professor of Medicine in Hematology/ Oncology. In retirement, he is an historian and author focused on U. S. Navy history. He resides in Charlottesville, Virginia with his wife, Lisa. His most recent book, Rear Admiral Herbert V. Wiley, U. S. N. - A Career in Airships and Battleships, is simultaneously a biography of Admiral Wiley and a seamless beginning to end history of the American Navy's rigid airship program. Marshall's next book is a biography of Vice Admiral Charles E. Rosendahl.