The Training Service: A Few Notes

By Lieut. George R. Clark, U. S. Navy*

The recent wise step made by Congress in giving to the Navy two thousand more enlisted men should call attention to the importance of having an adequate training service for our "man behind the gun." In 1879 England employed one-eleventh of her commissioned officers on training duty, while to-day we devote one officer in thirty-seven to that service. Again, England finds work for one-eighth of her warrant officers in that important field, while we give to it one in nineteen.

It has not required all of a two years' experience in the training service to show me that everything possible has been done with the limited means at hand; but when it is remembered that the only cruising vessels now available for this work are the Essex and the Alliance, it will be seen that the means at hand for keeping up our supply of 1500 boys are clearly inadequate.