Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.)
Philip A. Dur
A Cold Warrior's Log
Thirty Years · Two Oceans · One Cold War
By Rear Admiral Philip A. Dur, USN (Ret.)
Foreword by John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy
About the book
The Navy teaches you to command a ship. It does not teach you how command of a ship becomes an argument in a room in Washington. Phil Dur learned both.
With pointed insights on the complex challenges that lie ahead, Between Land and Sea is a must-read for the next generation of operators and strategists.
Career advancement for naval officers is generally considered to lie in progressively more demanding assignments in ships and staffs while at sea, and those supporting the fleet when ashore. In fact, beyond these "core" career assignments, there are abundant opportunities in strategic and national security policymaking, and even diplomacy and foreign affairs.
Between Land and Sea recounts Admiral Dur's vast experience over thirty years in the US Navy: commanding ships and a carrier battle group, leading the Navy's strategy division, and serving as Director of Political-Military Affairs on the NSC staff, advising and briefing President Ronald Reagan on critical events in the Middle East.
Discover opportunities overseas, such as the admiral's assignment as a US defense attaché in Paris, working with the highest levels of the French national security establishment as the Cold War ended and as war erupted in the Persian Gulf.
First Command · 1980
A Spruance-class destroyer in the Mediterranean, on station through the 1982 Libyan crisis. The first deck that was entirely his.
27 customer reviews
The book is much more than just another navy flag officer's log or memoir; it's also an inspirational and practical manual on what a modern US Navy career as an operator-strategist should look like. It should be required reading in the strategy curricula at the Naval Academy, the Naval War College, and the Naval Postgraduate School; for every Federal Executive Fellow cohort; and for anyone whom the navy sends to civilian grad schools in national security affairs, government, international relations, political science, or history. They, the navy, and the nation will all benefit.John LehmanFormer Secretary of the Navy · author of the foreword
If you have loved Tom Clancy's novels of Cold War intrigue, military operations, grand strategy, and political policy making, then you will enjoy Admiral Philip Dur's new book. The only difference is Admiral Dur's book is true and just as riveting. It's a veritable history lesson on the Cold War written by someone who had a series of "catbird" seats along the way.Vice Admiral Doug Crowder, USN (Ret.)Former Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet
Phil Dur is a Renaissance sailor. More importantly, he is a closet iconoclast, comfortably challenging cherished military cultural norms with logic and fervor. I commend his book to your reading. We need more leaders like him today, more than anytime since WWII.Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Wilkerson, USMC (Ret.)Naval strategist · past CEO, US Naval Institute
I had the pleasure to serve with then-Commander Phil Dur in the Strategy and Concepts Branch of the navy staff in the 1970s. This book provides important background for officers of today and in the future who want to contribute in the most powerful ways.Admiral Henry H. Mauz, Jr., USNFormer Commander in Chief, US Atlantic Fleet
Superb book by a great leader that provides first-hand insights into a historic era. For those who served in our naval services during this time, you will easily relate to a story of a remarkable career that is exceptionally well written.General Tony C. Zinni, USMC (Ret.)
About the Author
Admiral Philip Dur was born to a diplomat and spent most of his early years abroad. He was educated in the US, earning a BA and MA in international studies from Notre Dame and a PhD in political economy and government from Harvard.
Dur spent thirty years as a career Naval Officer including multiple commands at sea and senior strategic planning positions ashore, including assignments in the departments of the Navy and Defense as well as the National Security Council in the first Reagan administration.
His time in the Navy was followed by a ten year Corporate career culminating in his assignment as a Corporate Vice President of Northrop Grumman Corporation and President of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. In addition, he served as a Director of two publicly traded Corporations and as a Consultant to the Defense industry.
1965Notre Dame
Born in Bethesda to a Foreign Service family, raised across France, Germany, Panama and Japan. He came to Notre Dame for government and international studies, and left with a commission and a second degree in Soviet and East European affairs.
1967Sixth Fleet
A lieutenant junior grade on the admiral's staff in the Mediterranean. Fifty-five years later, a shipmate from that wardroom would write the first endorsement of his book.
1976Harvard
A Littauer Fellowship, a master's in public administration from the Kennedy School, then a PhD in political economy and government, with two Western Pacific combat deployments aboard USS Knox on one side of it, and a destroyer's executive officer billet on the other.
1978The Pentagon
One of the officers who built the Navy's in-house strategy shop from nothing: the institution that would later produce the Maritime Strategy.
1980Mediterranean
His first command. A Spruance-class destroyer on station through exercise Ocean Venture and the Libyan crisis of 1982.
1982The White House
Director of Political-Military Affairs on the NSC staff and military assistant to the President's Special Envoys to the Middle East, carrying Beirut into the Situation Room and back out again.
1988Black Sea
February 1988. Asserting the right of innocent passage in Soviet territorial waters, his cruiser was deliberately struck. One of the sharpest hull-to-hull moments of the late Cold War, conducted without a shot fired.
1990Paris
Attaché to France as the Wall came down and the Gulf War began, working at the top of the French national security establishment. He would be made a Commandeur of the Ordre National du Mérite, and later the American member of the Académie de Marine.
1993Adriatic Sea
Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group Eight: 35 cruisers and destroyers, a battleship and 11,000 sailors. The first carrier battle group deployed into the Adriatic as Yugoslavia came apart.
1995Washington
Then Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Plans, Policy and Operations, and thirty years after Notre Dame, the end of active service.
2001Pascagoula
Five years at Tenneco, then a corporate vice presidency at Northrop Grumman and the largest builder of non-nuclear ships for the US Navy. He had gone from commanding ships to building them.
Archival photographs: US Navy, Department of Defense, Department of State and the Reagan Presidential Library, all public domain. Littauer Center photograph by Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0. Northrop Grumman is a trademark of its owner, shown here to identify the company.
Contact
Contact Philip Dur here for questions, comments or media/publicity requests.
The Author Hour interview: 22 minutes, in the admiral's own voice.
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