United States navy fleet problems and the development of carrier aviation, 1929-1933

The U.S. Navy first took official notice of aviation in 1910, but its development of carrier aviation lagged behind Great Britain??s until the 1920s. The first American aircraft carrier, the Langley, commissioned in 1919, provided the Navy with a valuable platform to explore the potential uses of carrier aviation, but was usually limited to scouting and fleet air defense in the U.S. Navy??s annual interwar exercises called fleet problems. This began to change in 1929 with the introduction of the carriers Lexington and Saratoga in Fleet Problem IX. After this exercise, which included a raid by aircraft from the Saratoga that ??destroyed?? the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, the carriers were assigned a wider variety of roles over the next five years of exercises. During this time, the carriers gained their independence from the battle line, which the smaller and slower Langley had been unable to do. Reflecting the advanced capabilities of the new carriers, the fleet problems conducted during Admiral William Veazie Pratt??s tenure as Chief of Naval Operations, 1930-1933, began to test the employment of the new carriers as the centerpiece of one of the opposing fleets within the exercises. The Lexington and Saratoga were used offensively during these exercises, employing their aircraft to sink surface ships, though not battleships, and successfully strike targets ashore. The carriers became successful in spite of the unreliability of early 1930s carrier aircraft, particularly the torpedo bombers, that could carry heavy payloads. Lessons learned from the Lexington and Saratoga Fleet Problems IX through XIV influenced the design of the next generation of American aircraft carriers, the Yorktownclass, which were authorized in 1933. These new carriers were faster and much larger than the carrier Ranger, commissioned in 1934 and designed before the Lexington and Saratoga began participating in the exercises. Features incorporated into the Yorktownclass based on operational experience included the reduced need for large surface batteries because of the use of escort vessels, the emphasis of armoring against shellfire over aerial bombs and torpedoes, and the capability to launch large numbers of aircraft quickly

"The Fourth Dimension of Naval Tactics": The U.S. Navy and Public Relations, 1919-1939

Prior to 1917, the United States Navy only utilized public relations techniques during times of war or to attract recruits into naval service. Following World I, the Navy confronted several daunting problems, including the postwar demobilization of naval assets, the proposed creation of an independent air service, and a public desire for naval arms limitation which many officers believed would endanger the Navy's ability to fulfill its missions. These issues threatened the generous support that the Navy had received from Congress for a quarter of a century, and also hampered the service's attempts to incorporate new weapons systems into its arsenal and recruit high-quality manpower. In response to these challenges, the Navy developed a peacetime public relations capability during the interwar period, despite the fact that many senior naval officials placed a low priority on public relations. Their attitude led subordinates in different parts of the Navy Department to perform public relations tasks despite lacking official orders to carry out such work. Such efforts were haphazard, redundant, handicapped by tradition, and dependent largely upon individual initiative. To augment its meager capabilities, the Navy relied upon external groups, such as the Navy League, to lobby the public for naval expansion. The service also developed formal and informal ties to the mass media, particularly the rapidly expanding motion picture industry. These disparate elements attempted to convince the public that the Navy was a haven for morally upright masculine behavior, a service able to integrate aircraft and submarines into its force structure and keep their operators safe, and a vital national asset with value beyond basic national defense. During the interwar period, the Navy expanded and reorganized the ways in which it courted public opinion. By forging ties with motion picture studios, radio broadcasters, and the print media, it was able to improve the image of the service, attract high quality recruits, and gained the public support for its drive to gain the resources needed to modernize and expand the fleet. During the same era, naval officials became more adept at minimizing the negative impact of the accidents linked to the development of aviation and submarines. Developments of the era laid the foundation for the institutional development of public relations and enhanced media relations during World War II and in the decades that followed

Long-term evaluation of clinical success and safety of omadacycline in nontuberculous mycobacteria infections: a retrospective, multicenter cohort of real-world health outcomes.

Infections due to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) continue to increase in prevalence, leading to problematic clinical outcomes. Omadacycline (OMC) is an aminomethylcycline antibiotic with FDA orphan drug and fast-track designations for pulmonary NTM infections, including Mycobacteroides abscessus (MAB). This multicenter retrospective study across 16 U.S. medical institutions from January 2020 to March 2023 examined the long-term clinical success, safety, and tolerability of OMC for NTM infections. The cohort included patients aged ≥18 yr, who were clinically evaluable, and` had been treated with OMC for ≥3 mo without a previous diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. The primary outcome was 3 mo clinical success, with secondary outcomes including clinical improvement and mortality at 6- and 12 mo, persistence or reemergence of infection, adverse effects, and reasons for OMC utilization. Seventy-five patients were included in this analysis. Most patients were female (48/75, 64.0%) or Caucasian (58/75, 77.3%), with a median (IQR) age of 59 yr (49–67). Most had NTM pulmonary disease (33/75, 44.0%), skin and soft tissue disease (19/75, 25.3%), or osteomyelitis (10/75, 13.3%), and Mycobacterium abscessus (60/75, 80%) was the most commonly isolated NTM pathogen. The median (IQR) treatment duration was 6 mo (4–14), and the most commonly co-administered antibiotic was azithromycin (33/70, 47.1%). Three-month clinical success was observed in 80.0% (60/75) of patients, and AEs attributable to OMC occurred in 32.0% (24/75) of patients, leading to drug discontinuation in 9.3% (7/75)