Posted on October 13, 2025
All birthdays are worth celebrating. Some, however, are bigger than others. That’s the case for the United States Navy today: it turns 250 years old. Yes, the navy, like the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps, is older than the United States itself.
On October 13, 1775, the Second Continental Congress commissioned two ships, each with eighty sailors, “for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies.” The enemy at the time was Great Britain, whose Royal Navy ruled the seas. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy had grown to about fifty ships.
Unlike the army, the Continental Navy was disbanded after the end of the Revolutionary War. With the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789, Congress was granted the power “to provide and maintain a navy.” It would be another five years, however, before Congress acted. Faced with attacks by Barbary pirates on American merchant vessels, Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794, which authorized the construction of six frigates. The third of the six frigates built, the USS Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” remains a commissioned warship to this day. Once the federal government reopens, you can visit it at Pier 1 of the old Navy Yard in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.
George Washington once said it is “as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive—and with it, everything honorable and glorious.” Those words are even more appropriate in the twenty-first century, where U.S. interests span the globe. To serve and protect the United States, the U.S. Navy today has 330,011 active duty personnel, 57,700 reserve personnel, 220,000 civilian employees, 289 deployable ships, 71 submarines, and around 2,500 operational aircraft.
The U.S. Navy commissioned four warships over the past year:
- USS John Basilone (DDG-112), a destroyer commissioned on November 9, 2024;
- USS Nantucket (LCS-27), a littoral combat ship commissioned on November 16, 2024;
- USS Beloit (LCS-29), a littoral combat ship commissioned on November 23, 2024; and
- USS Iowa (SSN-797), an attack submarine commissioned on April 5, 2025.
The navy anticipates commissioning one more vessel in 2025, the USS Bougainville, an amphibious assault ship.
The Navy took a while to produce a president from its ranks. John F. Kennedy was the first. But five of the next six presidents also served in the navy: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush. Other well-known navy veterans include baseball Hall-of-Famers Yogi Berra and Stan Musial; basketball Hall-of-Famers David Robinson and John Wooden; football Hall-of-Famer Roger Staubach; pro wrestling great and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura; actors Humphrey Bogart, Henry Fonda, and Jack Lemmon; former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson; former talk-show host Montel Williams; musicians John Coltrane and M.C. Hammer; the first American in space, Alan Shepard; and the first person to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong.
Two presidents served in senior civilian positions in the navy before being elected to the White House. Theodore Roosevelt was the assistant secretary of the navy from 1897 to 1898. As president a decade later, he sent sixteen battleships and numerous support ships, known collectively as the “Great White Fleet,” to sail around the world to demonstrate the prowess of the U.S. Navy and to promote freedom of navigation worldwide. Theodore’s fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was assistant secretary of the navy from 1913 to 1920.
Since 1968, more than three dozen navy officers have spent a fellowship year at the Council. I always ask the ones I have worked with what they think people should read to learn more about the navy’s illustrious history and its role in protecting America’s national security. Here are five books they have suggested:
Walter R. Borneman, The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King—The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea (2013). Borneman recounts the careers of the four admirals who revolutionized naval warfare forever with submarines and aircraft carriers, worked together to lead the allied triumph in World War II, and made the United States the world’s dominant sea power. Along the way Borneman recounts the influences of the men’s career choices and details the significance of major naval engagements like the Battle of Midway, the Battle of Coral Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
James D. Hornfischer, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour (2004). Hornfischer tells the story of the 1944 Battle of Samar, where out-gunned U.S. Navy destroyers defeated a far larger Japanese force using torpedoes and small caliber weapons. It’s a story of how ingenuity and personal bravery can turn what looks to be certain defeat into victory.
Bruce Jones, To Rule the Waves (2022). Nine-tenths of global commerce and the bulk of energy trade today flow through the sea. Jones explains how global commerce works, how the United States is in a global naval arms race, and why the oceans are so crucial to America’s position in the world. In doing so, he details how the three great geopolitical struggles of our time—for military power, for economic dominance, and over our changing climate—are occurring through the world’s oceans.
Rear Admiral Richard H. O’Kane, Wahoo: The Patrols of America’s Most Famous World War II Submarine (1987). This is the story of the submarine USS Wahoo and its legendary captain, Dudley “Mush” Morton, as told by his second in command, Medal of Honor recipient Dick O’Kane. Morton’s aggression and tactical innovations quickly improved the effectiveness of the U.S. submarine force against the Japanese. For a different perspective, read Forest J. Sterling’s Wake of the Wahoo: The Heroic Story of America’s Most Daring WWII Submarine, USS Wahoo. It tells the same story, but from the perspective of an enlisted sailor, Chief Forest Sterling, who served under both O’Kane and Morton.
Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (2006). Toll tells the history of the beginning of the U.S. Navy through the stories of six frigates: the USS Constitution, USS President, USS United States, USS Congress, USS Constellation, and USS Chesapeake. It’s a fascinating look at the first build-up of U.S. military power following the post-Revolutionary War drawdown.
