JOHN SHERWOOD is a historian at the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC). He holds a Ph.D. in history from The George Washington University and is the author of seven books, including A Global Force for Good: Sea Services Humanitarian Operations in the Twenty-First Century (2024), War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-1968 (2015), and Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the Vietnam War Era (2007). His work explores various aspects of naval history, from combat operations to racial dynamics and humanitarian missions.
His most recent book, A Global Force for Good, published in 2024, examines three major Navy and Marine Corps humanitarian and disaster relief operations: Operation Unified Assistance (the response to the 2004 Indonesian earthquake and tsunami), Hurricane Katrina (2005), and Operation Tomodachi (the response to Japan’s 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster).
Sherwood’s 2015 book, War in the Shallows, which details U.S. Navy riverine and coastal warfare in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968, received the John Lyman Award from the North American Society of Oceanic History for the best naval history book of the year.
In 2019-2020, he was selected as a Fulbright-Schuman European Union Affairs Fellow. As part of this fellowship, he served as a resident scholar at the Institute for Security Policy Studies at
Kiel University (September–October 2019) and the Hellenic National Defense College in Athens (November–December 2019), researching the European Union’s use of naval and coast guard forces during the 2015 migration crisis.
Currently, Sherwood is working on a new book, If I Had Only Known This as a Midshipman: Leadership, Life Lessons, and History from Admiral Michael G. Mullen, a leadership guide based on oral histories he conducted with Admiral Mullen, his shipmates, and colleagues. In addition to his research and writing, he co-hosts Preble Hall, the U.S. Naval Academy Museum’s podcast, where he interviews historians, military personnel, and experts on a wide range of naval history topics, from antiquity to modern conflicts.
HOMEPORT: Arlington, Virginia
AREAS OF EXPERTISE: Vietnam War, Naval Airpower, African-Americans in the U.S. Navy, EU and NATO navies, modern Naval History.
NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS:
If I Had Only Known This as a Midshipman: Leadership, Life Lessons, and History from Admiral Michael G. Mullen (Forthcoming, Naval History and Heritage Command, 2025)
A Global Force for Good: Sea Services Humanitarian Operations in the Twenty-First Century (Naval History and Heritage Command, 2024)
War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-1968 (Naval History and Heritage Command, 2015)
Nixon’s Trident: Naval Power in Southeast Asia, 1968–1972. Washington, DC: Naval History & Heritage Command, 2009.
Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the Vietnam War Era (New York University Press, 2007)
Afterburner: Naval Aviators and the Vietnam War (New York: New York University Press, 2004).
Fast Movers: Jet Aviators and the Vietnam War Experience. (Free Press, 2000).
Officers in Flight Suits: The Story of American Air Force Fighter Pilots in the Korean War (New York University Press, 1996)