Trent Hone
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honer.bsky.social
Trent Hone
@honer.bsky.social
2.3K followers 460 following 430 posts
MCUF Chair of Strategic Studies at MCU and Management Consultant. Author of Learning War, Battle Line, & Mastering the Art of Command. Opinions my own.
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honer.bsky.social
Indeed… and sometimes they did their job quite well, as RADM Lee demonstrated 83 years ago.
Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee, a gunnery expert who commanded U.S. Navy task force that won the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, preventing a bombardment of Henderson Field. Lee won the battle with the guns of his flagship, battleship Washington.
November 14, 2025 at 11:22 PM
honer.bsky.social
The “is this a pigeon” meme with Thiel looking at the butterfly, labeled “unfettered technocapitalism”, and asking, “Is this Jesus?”
September 26, 2025 at 12:48 PM
honer.bsky.social
I’d accept a stylish mustache.
Secretary of War (1940-1945) Henry L. Stimson. With a thick, bushy mustache. No beard. No squirrels.
September 6, 2025 at 8:06 PM
honer.bsky.social
The legends speak of a time before THAC0, a long-forgotten age…
A picture of the 1979 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. The cover shows a red demon with a sword. In his other hand, he holds one of the members of the party. The other two prepare to attack. They are dwarfed by the demon.
August 6, 2025 at 11:53 PM
honer.bsky.social
All challenge coins are equal, but some challenge coins are more equal than others.
A challenge coin from the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr. It shows an eagle and a medieval helmet on a shield. Along the bottom is the motto, “si vis pacem para bellum”
July 19, 2025 at 5:50 PM
honer.bsky.social
A great museum ship. Well preserved. I was excited to visit earlier this year.
A view of Battleship Alabama from the bow showing the two forward 16-inch gun turrets and the superstructure. The sky is blue with wispy clouds. The battleship is gray.
July 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
honer.bsky.social
Touched by all the wonderful thank you cards I received after speaking to a class of Norfolk Academy students about the World War II Pacific Theater. We touched on strategy, tactics, and technology. They asked some great questions. #NavalHistory
A collage of thank you cards, some open and expressing gratitude for learning about US color plans and the 5:3 Washington Treaty ratio.
June 12, 2025 at 12:37 PM
honer.bsky.social
Excellent past two days with two #navalhistory lectures. One to a group of military officers and the other a class of middle school students. Great questions from both. Enjoyed discussing learning in the U.S. Navy and the Pacific War.
Destroyer squadron 20. USS MONAGHAN (DD-354) foreground, USS DALE (DD-353), and USS WORDEN (DD-352) emerging from a smoke screen laid down by planes of VP-7, VP-9, and VP-11 during an exhibition for Movietone News, off San Diego on 14 September 1936.
June 4, 2025 at 11:20 AM
honer.bsky.social
The CUT Symbol, for the Carleton Ultimate Team, an ultimate frisbee team of Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota.
May 26, 2025 at 8:20 PM
honer.bsky.social
The defense of Wake Island might also be a suitable subject.
Picture of the painting “The Magnificent Fight: The Battle for Wake Island” by John Shaw. An F4F Wildcat is in the foreground, with the propeller spinning. A small bomb is slung under each wing. Two Marines around the cockpit converse with the pilot while a third is on the sandy runway, helmeted, shirtless, and signaling that the plane should hold while it prepares for takeoff. In the background wreckage of other planes are strewn. An American flag flies atop a water tower in the distance.
March 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
honer.bsky.social
If only there were a British example they could cite…
Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the White House in early 1942. He wears an “air raid suit” to symbolize the wartime stance of his Government. He is walking swiftly toward the camera. In the background there are a series of film cameras trained on Churchill. It is a photo opportunity and a public display of the wartime alliance between the U.S. and Great Britain.
March 2, 2025 at 2:06 PM
honer.bsky.social
If only there was some authority they could use…
A picture of the first page of the document these people seem to have forgotten they swore allegiance to, the U.S. constitution, with “We the People” in very large script and “Article 1”—the one applicable to Congress, and the one these people should use—underneath in slightly smaller script.
February 21, 2025 at 12:35 AM
honer.bsky.social
Them: “Bureaucracies are inefficient.”

Me: “What?!?”

Them: “I said bureaucracies are…”

Me: <interrupting>
Will Smith wearing a dark suit in his meme-able “reveal pose” with both arms extended to the right. His hands are open to showcase the result. A black and white photo of an airship hangar on the U.S. West Coast late in World War II. On the left of the hangar there are three rows of F4U Corsairs, packed in with their wings folded. The rows extend from the bottom of the picture nearly to the top. They fade out in the sunlight streaming in from the hangar door. There are too many to count. On the right side of the hangar, there are three rows of Grumman F6F Hellcats. The also extend from the bottom of the picture into the distance, but not quite to the hangar door. If you’re patient, you might be able to count them.
February 11, 2025 at 12:20 AM
honer.bsky.social
Nimitz was effective because of the organization he created to govern the work of the fleet and the theater. As I argue in my book, Nimitz used his staff and subordinates to collectively make sense of the unfolding nature of the war. He relentlessly created and pursued options, allowing...
Vice Admiral Charles "Soc" McMorris, Rear Admiral Forrest Sherman, and Fleet Admiral Nimitz pictured on Guam. They're standing in front of a large pair of binoculars used for sighting objects at sea. These three men drove the planning in the Central Pacific Area during 1944 and 1945.
February 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
honer.bsky.social
It was a great pleasure yesterday to deliver a lecture (virtually) on Admiral Chester Nimitz's leadership to the Naval War College at Goa, India.

My lecture built off my book, "Mastering the Art of Command" which examines Nimitz's World War II service.
A black and white photograph with a close up of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. He looks sternly at the camera, with his cap on his head and the five stars of his rank on his collar. His collar is unbuttoned, giving him a relaxed, informal look.
February 5, 2025 at 12:42 PM
honer.bsky.social
Glatton, eh? Show us a proper RN monitor like Marshal Ney. 🙂
HMS Marshal Ney, lead ship of a class of two monitors. The image shows the vessel at sea steaming toward the camera, with its enormous (relatively) twin 15-in gun turret trained to starboard. A small tripod mast is behind the turret.
January 22, 2025 at 5:08 PM
honer.bsky.social
In Learning War, I defined doctrine this way (image).

I think the “rule follower”/“rat catcher” dichotomy is misleading. Effective constraints (flexible rules and heuristics) can provide a framework for improvisation that allows coherent action in the absence of communication.
Image of a page from the book Leaning War. The text reads: “Doctrine is the set of implicit and explicit assumptions that govern the behavior of a military force. It is what officers and sailors fall back on to guide their decisions when precise instructions are not available. It has a parallel to "culture" or "ethos" but greater specificity than either one. From the perspective of CAS, doctrine is the set of constraints that influence decision making in combat. Clues to an organization's doctrine are found in manuals and other published materials, but these are only part of the picture. An officer brings a specific mind-set to these manuals, and that contextual understanding is far more important than the printed text. The full meaning and influence of published materials cannot be understood without re-creating the contexts in which they were used. This makes it difficult to assess doctrine effectively.”
January 8, 2025 at 5:23 PM
honer.bsky.social
<laughs in mulberry harbor>
View of the Mulberry B harbour "Port Winston" at Arromanches in September 1944. Centre and left are "spud" pierheads with floating piers of "whales" and "beetles". At right is 2,000 ft (610 m) of "Swiss roll".
December 27, 2024 at 10:58 PM
honer.bsky.social
Going old school today because the online images are, unfortunately, illegible.
A picture of a manual “portable” microfilm reader about fifty years old. The microfilm displayed is a report on the US Navy’s Fleet Problem XX from 1939.
December 27, 2024 at 10:48 PM
honer.bsky.social
We all have an emotional support dead famous guy and who he is says a lot about you.
U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly photographed circa 1919. He is wearing a Distinguished Service Cross on his right breast and two Medals of Honor around his neck. He is arguably most famous for yelling to his company, "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" at the Battle of Belleau Wood in June 1918.
December 25, 2024 at 1:27 AM
honer.bsky.social
Had to move my favorite Lean Agile Scotland sticker to my new laptop.
A sticker from a Lean Agile Scotland conference that quotes Metcalfe’s Law: “The usefulness of a network improves by the square of the number of nodes on the network.” It is stuck to the surface of a laptop. In the background is a coffee cup.
December 6, 2024 at 4:07 PM
honer.bsky.social
I’m confident in York. I’m less confident about Fiji given the distance and limited resolution. Definitely looks like a 6-in cruiser with a large superstructure (so not Leander) and funnels are vertical, so Fiji seems most likely.
An Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) identification plate of the FIJI Class, showing the ship’s profile, appearance from above, and a table with dimensions.
November 24, 2024 at 11:02 PM
honer.bsky.social
Drafted and revised 2000 words on this important report today. 124 years on, it still has the juice.

“Our fleets cannot have sufficient cohesion in war operations unless the body of commanding officers as a whole has a common conception of war and is uniformly indoctrinated.”
Image of the front page of a US Navy report: "Report and Recommendations of a Board Appointed by the Bureau of Navigation Regarding the Instruction and Training of Line Officers. Reference: BUNAV Let. #8039-1998, 16 October, 1919. Captain D. W. Knox, U.S. Navy, Senior Member. Captain E. J. King, U.S. Navy, Member. Commander W. S. Pye, U.S. Navy, Member and Recorder."
November 23, 2024 at 4:46 PM
honer.bsky.social
Really enjoyed this podcast about Learning War with @prbeckman.bsky.social. It’s a few years old, but a good one.
A picture of the cover of the book “Learning War: the Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898-1945” by Trent Hone
November 21, 2024 at 12:38 PM
honer.bsky.social
Really enjoyed this opportunity with @prbeckman.bsky.social and @thestrategybridge.bsky.social

I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback about my Nimitz book, Mastering the Art of Command.
A picture of the book “Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific” by Trent Hone
November 19, 2024 at 4:06 PM