Captain William Manthorpe USN (Ret.) will briefly recount and illustrate the history of the principal naval installations on Cape Henlopen from 1898 to 1996. Among those installations were:
From 1898 to 1938: A Naval Signal/Wireless/Radio/Direction Finding/Radio Station.
In World War I: A Naval “Section” Base for patrol craft, minesweepers, subchasers and support facilities.
In World War II: A Harbor Entrance Control Post controlling magnetic loops, sonobuoys and submarine nets.
From 1962 to 1968: A radio transmission station with tropospheric scatter antenna system supporting the National Emergency Command Post Afloat (NECPA).
From 1962 to 1981: A Naval Facility (NavFac Lewes) of the underwater Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS).
From 1981 to 1996: A Naval Reserve Center, base and training area for Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare (MIUW) Detachment 205.
Following the presentation, Captain Manthorpe will be available to answer questions and provide additional detail on each as desired.
Captain Manthorpe is a former Naval Officer and Government Senior Civilian Executive with over 40 years of national security, intelligence and leadership background. For the past 15 years, he has been teaching a Masters Degree level elective course on Leadership for Intelligence Professionals at the National Defense Intelligence College. Currently he is engaged in providing leadership training to intelligence agencies and maintaining leadership education course materials on-line at www.learntolead.net
Locally, Captain Manthorpe has been researching and writing on the history of the Navy on Cape Henlopen and working with the State of Delaware to mark and commemorate the various Navy installations that have been on the Cape over the past 100 years.