I am T. Garth Connelly …I am a “fifty-something” author and historian. I was first published in 1994, by Squadron/Signal Publications, for which I wrote for until 2009. Since 2015, I’ve been what’s known as an “Indie Author”, someone who self-publishes their own books. It is the easiest way to get published. When I’m not writing books, I can be found on iRacing.com, racing. I collect scale plane and ship models, and I am an avid reader. My two most favorite authors are Maggie Lynn Heron-Heidel and Clive Cussler.
These are my most recent books. I would like to invite you all to buy and read them. And, if you wouldn’t mind, please post a review of them on Amazon.com. Thank you.To buy the books here ~ just click on the images of the book covers and you’ll be taken to Amazon.
The Woman Who Understands: Remembrances of A Walk with An Angel Who Saw Beyond Boundaries …This is an autobiographical look at the author’s two love affairs and his years in college from 1978 to 1983. He offers his thoughts about being a severally disabled man during that time, his view on friendships and hell describes how one special girl literally rebuilt his life after his ex-fiancée broke his heart and almost destroyed his dream of getting a college degree.
The Bambi… A man is going through his late father’s estate and finds a unpublished memoir on his father’s computer. The man prints some of the document and reads it. He discovers a lot about his father which he never knew and realizes that his father led a honorable life and had an undying love for his mother. THE BAMBI is the story of an young and dashing naval officer named Tom Clarke. It follows his life from his experiences at a northeastern prep school in the mid-1930s to his experiences at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland from the mid-1930s to the late-1930s and his experiences in the southwest Pacific during World War II as the skipper of a PT boat.
Pathos: A Collection… A collection of poems, written about a love and about feelings.
Every Spring more than 500 cadets and staff board the Empire State VII, a state-of-the-art ship used for the SUNY College Summer Sea Term, to complete an international training mission.
This year, the vessel carried very special cargo.
Author T Garth Connelly
As of June 1st, 2026, our beloved Timothy Garth Connelly completed his final journey and was laid to rest at sea via the USS Empire State. Cadets had the rare opportunity to participate in the burial at sea ceremony via the disposition his ashes. The service was led by the Rev. Dr. Bill Allport, a chaplain from Seaman’s Church Institute.
Rev. Dr. Allport and Captain Zola present the remains to the Regiment.
Cadet Bobo releases the remains on the stern of the training ship.
As noted from Captain Zola of the Empire State, “The entire cadet compliment was present. We slowed to bare steerageway and had the ceremony. One long somber blast on the whistle before we got underway again.”
A fitting tribute and memorial to say the least. We cannot thank SUNY Maritime College’s Dean of students Adam M. Grohman, Captain Zola and Brian Heidel enough for their efforts in coordinating Tim’s last wishes.
To read more about the ceremony and to view images from his send off, as well as comment your appreciation to the school for their efforts, please click this link.
To view the launch of the vessel, please click on this link or the image below. Our thanks to Westchester News 12 for their coverage of the launch.
Planning for a memorial late in the summer via Tim’s friends is underway. If you are available to come in the CT/NY area in late July thru August and wish to attend, please comment below. We are taking a head count to see who may be coming.
Timothy Garth Connelly passed away peacefully on May 22, 2025 after a brief illness. Born on January 26, 1960, Tim was a dedicated naval historian, author, and champion of human rights for the disabled.
Tim worked at Travelers Insurance Corporation for twenty-three years where he was known for his dedication and expertise. He was also consulted by the Bush Administration in the 1990’s during the formation of the ADA American Disabilities Act; helping to form the legal rights known to disabled American citizens to this day.
In 2017 he attained his master’s degree in Naval History from Southern New Hampshire University. His passion for preserving maritime history, especially the salvation of military vessels, will stretch long into the future via his tireless work in historical publishing. He was recognized with the 2000 Clean Sweep Award by the Veterans Association PT Boats Incorporated for his effort to promote the history of PT boats in World War II.
Tim will be remembered for his kindness, humor, and unwavering loyalty to his family and friends. His legacy of love and hope will live on in the hearts of those who knew him, never to be forgotten.
Tim will also be fondly remembered by his many friends from Central Connecticut State University, where he embraced college life with immense joy. Despite his physical challenges, he navigated campus in his wheelchair with remarkable spirit, always ready with a big, wide smile for everyone he met. His strong will and fight to achieve his archaeology degree, left a lasting impression on countless students. He was a well-known, beloved figure within the CCSU community during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Tim is survived by his beloved brother Tom Connelly, his sister Kathleen Connelly-Mitchell and his nephew Robbie. He was predeceased by his parents Thomas and Rita Connelly.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Battleship Cove, a nonprofit organization.
By Maggie Lynn Heron-Heidel and William Scully
All of his written works, fictional and historical alike, will remain publicly available for the future under the care of Heron Publishing. His work and legacy will not be in vain. They can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001KMMFXM/
In 2009, when this revised edition was originally re-released, I looked forward to this new pictorial monograph ever since I heard that it was being done by Mr. Krakow, my former co-author. Unfortunately, that feeling did not last long after I received my purchased copy in the mail.
Granted, the new cover by the incredibly talented Don Greer was something equated to ‘eye candy’ which, if seen in a hobby shop, would be enough, for me any way, incentive to buy it. But, then, I looked at the back cover and noted that the illustration was the front cover of the original 2003 version.
That should have alerted me to something being amiss with what was to be found between the two covers. Thinking the monograph would, being a new and improved edition would have new text and new photos. Sadly, that was not the case. Most of the body of the text and of the captions was cut-and-pasted from the original edition. In fact, two sections, titled Terminology and the section regarding a 1946 USN report on the rudders were taken verbatim from the original monograph. In fact, it was my older brother who noticed it and brought it to my attention. He was right, sadly. Most of the text, whereas rearranged a tad, was the same as in the 2003 edition.
The photos, for the most part, appeared in the original edition. That is somewhat puzzling, inasmuch since 2003, on the Internet, I have discovered hundreds of new (or, new to me at any rate) photos of Schnellboote that I did not know existed, and knowing of Mr. Krakow’s contact network in Germany as well as his working with the group which is restoring the former S-130, one would think that he would have had access to new and previously unpublished photos.
There were a few new photos, namely of the type of Schnellboote known as Leichte Schnellboote (Light Schnellboote), which were small and designed with the intention of using them from the Commerce Raiders employed by the Kriegsmarine. I did learn that the Leichte Schnellboot named Esau, operating from the Raider Michel, sank eleven Allied ships. That was something I did not know. A puzzling aspect of this edition was the inclusion of a section relating to the evolution of the badges worn by the crews in the war. I cannot understand why that would have been included in a monograph about the boats. It, whereas seemingly interesting to some, should not have been put in a monograph which is meant to be an aide to modelers who want to detail models of these craft. To me, it was just unneeded and out of place.
Perhaps the space marked for the badges could have been put to better use to delve deeper into the camouflage schemes worn by the boats.
To sum up, because of the re-use of many of the photos from the original edition and the paraphrasing the text, one would be better off finding the original on Amazon or Ebay because, basically, it is the same monograph.
I have to say … I was pleasantly surprised to find these three reviews of my USCG 83-foot Patrol Cutter book. I was/am happy to see that it has been received so well….
My first dive into the world of Naval History was with this monograph on the US Navy’s PT boats.
I decided to do this monograph because I had loved PT boats ever since I was a small child and my family saw PT-109 at a drive-in theater in Williamantic, CT and then from re-runs of MCHALE’S NAVY when I was in Jr. High and High School. Over the decades, I learned a lot about the boats and I just wanted to share my knowledge about them with people. An interesting side-note to this monograph was that, within a month after its initial release in April of 1994, it sold over 25,000 copies world-wide.
My next monograph came out in 2000, and was titled VOSPER MTBs IN ACTION.
This monograph was a logical follow-on to the one on PT boats. Originally, it was my intention to do one on the small combatants of all of the nations involved in the Second World War, ie: the US, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, the former Soviet Union and Japan.
My research for this monograph allowed me to meet and become friends with a extremely nice gentleman named H. John Lambert. Mr. Lambert was a naval historian/author and draughtsman of considerable renown. I also took the opportunity to travel to England for a couple of weeks to do research for it. During these trips, I would meet up with John. He was extremely helpful to me in the production of the monograph. It was he who supplied many of the photos which were used as well as all of the line drawings. He also checked the text and made sure it was accurate. I often said that if it wasn’t for John, that monograph would have never been published.
It took about five years and a few printing runs for it to sell 10,000 copies world wide. Unfortunately, the publisher has never republished it with a different author, but it is my second best selling monograph. Surplus copies of it can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
My third IN ACTION monograph came out in 2003, and focused on the German Kriegsmarine’s Schnellboote of World War II:
This work was, like the one on the British Vospers, a logical evolutionary progression of the theme that I was attempting to create. However, it was to become my weakest seller. For the first and only time in my writing “career”, I took on a co-author to complete it. I decided to that because the person claimed to have been able to supply me with drawings from Germany which no other historian/author/history buff had seen. I sent the person’s “contacts” in Germany a lot of money for those drawings, but never received them. I even spent a whole day during a “holiday” in London, going from bank to bank getting the money to send to the person’s German contacts.
Still, with all of that hoopla going on, I did learn a lot of information on these craft and I was “happy” to have done it. Interestingly, my co-author contracted with the publisher to do a second edition of it in 2008 ~ which ~ supposedly ~ was going to have much more information in it. The only “new” information in it pertained to the uniform badges worn by the crews. Whereas that information could be of interest to a history buff, it would not be helpful to model builders, which are the audience which the IN ACTION monographs are targeted to. And, the information relating to the boats themselves was “cut and pasted” from the 2003 version.
Surplus copies of the 2003 version, which I feel is the better of the two, can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
My last monograph for Squadron/Signal-MMD came out in 2009. It was on the US Navy’s 110′ Sub Chasers:
This monograph was done at the request of my mother to have me write it and get it published before my father, her husband, died of cancer. It was a real race against time, but it was done. A copy of it was buried with him. But, it was an uphill battle to get it done. The publisher was not being cooperative to say the least, and the original batch of photos from one source were totally un-usable at great cost to me. But, thanks to my good friend, B.G. “Chip” Marshall, I received better and clearer photos to use. A man who was of great help to me was Mr. Dan Treadwell, who during World War II, commanded SC-648 in New Guinea. He had written a book on his experiences and he became, prior to his death, the “go to guy” for those historians and history buffs interested in these interesting craft. He was a nice man as well. He told me that I did an excellent job.
It might interest you who are thinking of acquiring this monograph ~ in World War One, my paternal grandfather served on two of the first incarnation of the type ~ known as the SC-1 Class, those being the SC-21 and the SC-253. My father, his son, served on the version which saw action in World War Two known as the SC-497 Class, the SC-699. An interesting story about the 699 once appeared in STAR AND STRIPES. Before my father was assigned to her in the Philippines, she operated in New Guinea. She was hit by a Japanese G4M “Betty” bomber, all of her superstructure right down to the deck was destroyed and many of her crew were killed. Those who survived saved her and she was rebuilt and went to be given to the Philippine Navy after the war. I think she was on active duty until the early 1980s.
The monograph only had one printing run of 5,000 copies and has not been reprinted. Surplus copies of it can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
Because of how Squadron had treated me regarding the second Schnellboote monograph and the one on the Sub Chasers, and because I wanted to start writing real books, I decided to find a new publisher, and I did.
In 2010, I wrote:
This was my first real book and I put a lot hard work into it, but in retrospect and from what I learned about sourcing and footnoting during my Masters’ program, I now see why this book and its follow-on from the same publisher had received negative criticism. But, still … it is a good book in my opinion, despite what my detractors say. Copies of it can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
The follow-on to this book was one which was done at the behest of the then Naval Attaché to the Italian Embassy in Washington DC. It was on the Regia Marina’s torpedo boats known as MAS Boats.
The Naval Attaché was quite helpful, he supplied with much information and many photos for the book. He even sent me a two-volume set of books on the history of the craft. The only problem was, the books were in Italian! But, I soldiered on and got it done. Copies of the book can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
Because of editorial differences with the publisher as well as the fact that they never marketed either book they were supposed to, I never saw ads for them in any naval history periodicals or scale modeling magazines, I decided to find a new publisher.
The first book I wrote for the new publisher was a change of pace for me, inasmuch I wanted to start getting away from writing historical books and being known as a naval historian:
So, what I did was to gather a group of my scale modeling friends and asked to write up descriptions of how they built, detailed and converted a certain kit from an Italian model kit manufacturer (now out of production ~ or so I’m told). I figured this could assist other modelers “out there” if they were/are building the kit. I included detailed photos of real PT boats as well to let modelers see what they could include on their models if they chose to. Apparently, the concept was well received.
So, on the coat-tails of that book, I went ahead (with the same group of modelers) and wrote this:
Whereas this book began life as sort of a “history” or overview of the various kits of PT Boats which the famous model manufacturer Revell has put out since the 1950s. It ended up being a collection of kit build reviews which described how to build and detail these kits. Information on what, if anything is out there in the way of after-market details which could help modelers improve these kits was included. And, like the first book, I included detailed photos of real PT boats as a aide to modelers. Again, this book was very well received.
Sadly, the day before it was due to be released, Alex Johnson, an excellent model builder, a fountain of knowledge of PT boats and a dear and trusted friend and confidant passed away from injuries received in an accident. I asked the publisher if I could send him a short note to insert into the text about Alex. He let me do it. Alex has been missed both in the modeling and PT boat communities. Since its publication, Revell has released two “new tooled” kits of PT boats. At some point, I will re-edit the book to include reviews of those kits. Stay tuned.
Unfortunately, after that book, the publisher went out of business, but before he did, he reverted the rights to those two books back to me, allowing me to self-publish them. Copies of this book can be found on ww.amazon.com at:
In 2016, during a lull in my Masters’ program at SHNU, I decided to, using what I’ve learned about sourcing resources for books and how to foot-note and how to make a proper bibliography to do a historical book:
I must admit that what I learned in that program really work and helped me to do a good book and one I’m proud of and one that has gotten good reviews. Copies of this book can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
The final “historical” work I’ve done and published was/is the Thesis that I wrote to acquire my Masters’ degree in 2017:
I am extremely proud of this book. My hard work and my ability to do research and then, present that data in a well-written, professional matter with proper citations and a proper bibliography was rewarded with an A on my Thesis. Copies of it can be found on http://www.amazon.com at:
And, there you have them, and in chronological order, my earlier monographs and books. Even though I don’t get royalties on the IN ACTION monographs, I hope you buy them as well as the other books listed here.
And, all of my earlier books and monographs are in the collection at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. My book on the USCG 83-foot patrol boats is in the collection of the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
T. Garth Connelly 