Edward J. Marolda served as the acting director of Naval History and Senior Historian of the Navy. In 2017 the Naval Historical Foundation honored him with its Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award. He has authored, coauthored, or edited twelve books on the U.S. Navy's experience in Vietnam. In support of the U.S. Naval Institute's Oral History Program, he has interviewed Vietnam veterans and retired admirals Stanley R. Arthur and Joseph W. Prueher. As adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Dr. Marolda taught courses on the Cold War in the Far East and the Vietnam War.

Thomas J. Cutler is a former petty officer second class and retired lieutenant commander who has been serving the U.S. Navy in various capacities for more than fifty years, including a combat tour in Vietnam and service in aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and patrol craft. The author of many articles and books, he is the Gordon England Chair of Professional Naval Literature at the U.S. Naval Institute and Distinguished Fleet Professor of Strategy and Policy with the Naval War College. He has received the William P. Clements Award for Excellence in Education as military teacher of the year at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Naval Literature, the U.S. Maritime Literature Award, the Naval Institute Press Author of the Year Award, and the Commodore Dudley Knox Lifetime Achievement Award in Naval History.

"A retrospective collection of essays by veterans and scholars reviewing the events and the effects of the U.S. Navy's participation in coastal and riverine operations during the Vietnam War"--