Talk:Nathan Sonenshein

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Nathan Sonenshein (2 August 1915-April 13, 2001) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. A native of Lodi, New Jersey, Sonenshein began his four-decade naval career by attending and receiving a commission from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1938. In 1970, he was head of the Navy's Bureau of Ships, just before it became the Naval Ship Systems Command.

His thirty-six year career in the Navy spanned an era that began on the eve of World War II and lasted into the seventies.

He was decorated for distinguished performance as Chief Engineer of a carrier during the Korean War. Later assignments in the Bureau of Ships included that of Director of Ship Design. After selection to Flag rank, he was chosen as one of the Navy's first Project Managers. This project led the design of the Fast Deployment Logistics ship, which portended today's Rapid Deployment Force. In its design, Admiral Sonenshein successfully pioneered a new approach which quantified for the first time, top level mission requirements and translated them into ship design parameters to achieve the optimum functional performance.

At the peak of hostilities in Southeast Asia, a period marked by tremendous strain on material, personnel and time resources, Admiral Sonenshein was selected to be Commander, Naval Ship Systems Command.

After his retirement in 1974, Sonenshein lived in Fairfax, Virginia. He moved to Moraga, California less than a decade later and became assistant to the president of Global Marine Development, Inc., in Newport Beach, California. In 1982, he received the American Society of Naval Engineers' Harold E. Saunders Award, which honors "an individual whose reputation in naval engineering spans a long career of notable achievement and influence." In 1983, he was a member of the Marine Board of the Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems of the National Research Council. During his tenure, the board produced a report, "Criteria for the Depths of Dredged Navigational Channels."

On July 1, 1984, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to a two-year term as one of eight members of the National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere. The Reagan Administration's choices for the panel membership drew criticism from environmentalists, who noted that it included no atmospheric scientists.

One of the committee's more controversial reports during his tenure suggested that U.S. shipyards be allowed to go out of business rather than be propped up by government subsidy. The report, released July 16, 1985, concluded that the country's shipyard capacity is "considerably greater" than would be required in a major conventional war. Using classified Pentagon studies, the report concluded that shipyards could expand production by 3 1/2 to six times, providing all the new ships that would be needed. "Look at England in the Falklands", Sonenshein told the Washington Post. "In less than two months, they were able to modify and convert some 50 of their merchant ships that were then used for naval operations...Sure, it's always better to have more shipyards and more merchant ships to give you a margin of safety. But the hard question is, are you going to pay for it? I wouldn't pay for any more than we now have." [1]

Sonenshein died at Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael, California, aged 85. He was buried at Oakmont Cemetery in Lafayette, California.

He is survived by a daughter, Carol Sonenshein Manashil, a son, William Sonenshein and three grandchildren: Sarah Irving, Thomas Allen King and Elizabeth Manashil.

Regards, Daniel (talk) 03:49, 30 June 2010 (UTC)