Behind the present rapid expansion in the methods of training enlisted personnel lies a rapid technological change from the days of sail to complex machinery. The necessity for trained men has grown apace.
The Bureau of Navigation is the personnel department of the Navy and is actively engaged in studying training problems thus paralleling in the naval field the establishment of similar training organizations in civilian industry.
The initial problem is the recruiting of men capable of reaching the new standards needed by naval personnel and progress is being made along this line. Over 40% of new recruits have attended high school. Many are graduates. Within the last five years, the General Classification Test, indicating ability to learn, has been given to all new recruits and has indicated a rise of 10% in the average mark attained.
The major portion of the great task of training new men must be done at sea and this is to say that the fleet must train 28% of its strength each year. To assist the fleet, the Bureau operates training stations and service schools. Since not many men can be kept ashore for school purposes the Bureau also provides training courses for forces afloat and ashore.
The necessity for thorough, systematic training is most urgent since men are enlisted for only four years. Their training must be sufficiently early and concrete to make them earn their pay within that period.
J. R. P. Pringle established the first list of requirements for advancement in rating in 1912 and Ridley McLean somewhat earlier published his Bluejackets’ Manual to aid in the instruction of enlisted men.
Rear Admiral Robertson in 1911 held that training advantageous to the Navy and hence should be free, that it should couple theoretical with “on the job” aspects, and that the Navy should establish all necessary courses but should make them applicable to the needs of the service, that is, to cover a trade exactly as it is practiced in the Navy.
Courses are self-contained. They have the technical instruction necessary to qualify men for advancement, and also military instruction. They contain the mathematics and English necessary to the rating. They contain questions designed to assist the student and the instructor to measure the student’s success.
To help the marking of examinations, a separate pamphlet containing the “gouge” is available so that the answers can be checked readily.
Examinations are thorough but take little time for either the student to take or his officer to mark. Each question has only one correct answer, which can be indicated by a word or a check mark. Questions of this type reduce the labor of marking, enable different examiners to arrive at the same mark, compel exact answers, and permit in a given time a much more complete sampling of a man’s mind than does the traditional system. At the same time the mark a man gets does not depend on his ability to express himself or upon his examiner’s variable judgment.
Orders of the Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Fleet, and of the Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet, now require completion of appropriate courses prior to advancement in rating.
In administering courses on board ship, the distribution of material and the keeping of records are usually handled by the navigator. Division officers do the instruction and marking and, with rare exceptions, the training organization follows the military organization. Hence, control is in the hands of men who select and recommend men for advancement.
Incentive is provided by making completion of courses a prerequisite for advancement, by public-delivery of certificates of attainment, by entry in the service record, and by awarding special privileges.
In addition to the courses which are provided by the Bureau, visual educational materials are also provided in the forms of technical movies and slides. The Navy is preparing such films and slides on a variety of subjects such as watertight integrity, stability and damage control, correct uniform, overhaul of aircraft motors, resuscitation of the apparently drowned, and many others.
The Bureau also carries on institutions ashore for training. The first of these is the training station where basic recruit subjects are taught. Additionally, training stations are beginning to classify men as to their adaptability for future training. Various tests are given the men and the results are entered in their records so that officers may use these test scores in the assignment of men to various kinds of work. The first use of these tests is to determine which men are suitable for given schools. The result of a careful study of this subject has reduced the number of failures at Class “A” schools greatly in the past year. We are getting to schools the men who can profit from them and sending those who cannot so profit to the fleet where they may be put to work for which they are more fit.
From training stations about three-fourths of the men go to ships. The others go to Class “A” schools which introduce them to a trade such as machinist’s mates’ school or radio operators’ school.
In addition to Class “A” schools for recruits, there are three classes of schools for advanced men. The candidates for these come from the fleet. The Class “B” schools give training in rating subjects not readily carried on at sea; Class “C” schools train men in special activities such as deep sea diving; Class “D” schools provide occasional training such as in motion picture projection.
In time of war, this training system would allow us to establish schools with a sound curriculum, and we could select suitable candidates for special training with some degree of efficiency.
To conclude: The Training Division of the Bureau is to help the fleet and its measure of performance is entirely a measure of the service it renders.
Comment
It would have been impossible for the Navy, with a total strength, including officers and enlisted, of 160,997 on 30 June 1940, to have enlarged to 3,380,817 on the same date in 1945 had not this system, or one similar to it, been developed and then refined in peacetime.
The final victory of 1945 is, of course, all the proof necessary to support the statement that the program was effective. Without the sound personnel administration shown by this article, the fleet could not have been effectively manned.
Finally, in reading this article, it is interesting to note that the Navy was in the forefront of the movement towards scientific measurement and use of manpower in the country. Thus, again, is refuted the oft-heard charge that military organizations are backward, reactionary, and resistant of every progressive step.