IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF OFFICERS SATISFACTORY AND SUFFICIENT?
The title of this article is a question and to give answer to it, "Is the present system of training and education for officers satisfactory and efficient?" I say, "No!" I am not saying that it is not a good system. It is splendid, but it is not perfect, and I believe there are faults in it that should be and which can be remedied. In the first place, the course at the Naval Academy is too narrow, though with all that it is necessary to cover, it could hardly be otherwise in a four-year course. Let me call to your minds some of the words which are on every fitness report, quoting from a letter of John Paul Jones to the Naval Committee of Congress in 1775. "It is by no means enough that an officer of the Navy should be a capable mariner." (May I add "sea fighter and leader of men"?) He must be that, of course, but also a great deal more. He should, as well, be a gentleman of liberal education. . . . "both with tongue and pen he should be versed in French and Spanish. . . ."
Is the Naval Academy graduate liberally educated? No, he is not. Is he well versed with both tongue and pen in either French or Spanish? No, he is not. Some there may be who, because of special boarding school training, or a year or two at college previous to their entrance to the Academy, have what might be termed a liberal education, and some who have had French or Spanish before entering the Academy are more or less versed in one or the other; but the man who has had an ordinary high or boarding school education and who has never had French or Spanish previous to entering upon his midshipman career is not well versed in French or Spanish and has not a liberal education or anything approaching it.
It might be well, perhaps, if at this point I set forth my idea as to what constitutes a "liberal education." To have a liberal education, one should have a large acquaintance with the classics, the works of great writers that have stood the test of time; should be able to speak fluently and write in at least one foreign language; should have a thorough and wide knowledge of history, ancient and modern, political and religious; should be well read in the best of current literature and should be well informed about the important every-day happenings; should know and understand the political situations in and the general foreign policies of the large nations of the earth; in short, should be a man whose reading and study have been wide and varied and whose knowledge and information are, therefore, broad and extensive.
I fully realize that the amount of professional knowledge necessary in the naval profession has vastly increased since the days of John Paul Jones, but it has increased in other navies as well as in ours. Are not British, French, Italian and even Japanese naval officers much more liberally educated than American naval officers? Should American naval officers, who represent the elite of their country around the world, be weighed in the balance against foreign naval officers in the matter of culture and be found wanting? No, of course not, and all will agree with me there, but how many would agree with me when I say that they are found wanting? Not so many, no doubt. But from what I have read of the training given to future naval officers in the countries mentioned, from what I have been told by others who have known the naval officers of those countries, and from my own observations as regards British officers, it seems to me that the American officer falls behind the others in information outside of the naval profession—a general knowledge of the arts and sciences and history; in the matter of being well read in classical, nearly-modern, and modern literature; in respect to ability in foreign languages and in the knowledge of the political systems and foreign policies of other countries. (An American officer after a short talk with an English officer was heard to remark, "That 'bird' knows more about my country than I do!") Then, even if you think that the American naval officer can "stack up" against the officers of the rest of the world in the particular point under discusion, are you satisfied with your own self in respect to your liberal education, your cultural abilities? If you are, and if there are many like you, then may God pity the American Navy, for when satisfaction comes In at the door, ambition flies out through the window, taking progress and achievement with it; and if you are not satisfied, and most of you will fall into this class, you are probably trying to better yourself all the time, but find the necessary amount of time lacking. But would you not be much farther on your way toward satisfaction, had your pre-officer and pre-midshipman training been broader and more extensive than it was?
Another thing—has it ever occurred to any of you that there are too many resignations going in, especially from the younger officers? And for every one who actually resigns there are many who are considering such a step, and many more who would consider it if they could "see their way clear on the outside." Unrest impairs efficiency and as long as an officer carries the idea that "if ever I have a good opportunity, I'll get out," it will be impossible for that officer to give his best to the Navy. To my mind, such a condition indicates but one thing—that somewhere along the way in the training of officers there has been failure in the matter of instilling in their hearts a true love of the service.
Now, having damned, let me bring forth my panacea (every crank thinks he possesses one, you know). I suggest the establishment of at least three junior or preparatory naval academies, the schools to be conducted in general along the following lines: entrance age from thirteen to fifteen years; title of students to be naval cadets; five (yes, five!) academic years of eight months each; a one-month summer cruise on sailing ships, three months leave after the cruise, and two weeks leave at Christmas time; board, lodging, uniforms, and tuition to be given by the government to each cadet, but no pay; admission by appointment similar to the system in use for entrance to the Naval Academy; upon graduation from the junior naval academy, the naval cadet to be appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis with the rank of midshipman. That, more or less in outline, is my idea. The academic course should contain the following: English, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, history, arithmetic (advanced), algebra, plane and solid geometry, chemistry and physics. Also it should contain numerous lectures and talks on all kinds of subjects, but especially those which pertain to the naval service; there should be drills during the year in infantry, artillery, seamanship, etc.; the month on board sailing ships should be spent principally in practical seamanship, signal drills, and some book work—the Bluejackets' Manual and Knight's Seamanship for example. The idea of a cruise on sailing vessels was got from a seamanship instructor at the Naval Academy during my first-class year. He had made one midshipman cruise on a sailing ship, and two on steam vessels, and he said he thought that the men of every class should make their first cruise on "canvas spreaders" because in no other way could they be trained as well in the matter of prompt and unhesitating obedience to orders, and to me his arguments were quite convincing.
This is an extremely radical suggestion that I have made. It will cost money and it would be several years from the time it was put into effect before it would be functioning properly—the first ex-naval cadet plebes entering the Academy would probably be very unpopular with the three upper classes and would have hard sledding for a time—but the system, if rightly put into effect would achieve the following:
Give a little more time to plebe-year mathematics by giving solid geometry at the junior school; give a whole extra year to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics by taking care of chemistry and physics at the junior school; also, and I do not believe that there is any other department that needs the time as much, give added time to the Department of Seamanship by giving on sailing cruises much that is now studied in that department in The Boat Book and Knight's Seamanship (this added time might well be used in strengthening the course in leadership) ; an extra period a week would be gained, for, with the previous training in French and Spanish, one period a week at the Naval Academy would be sufficient for both of them, provided it was spent in speaking entirely in French and Spanish and that some outside reading in those languages was required.
Those advantages would help a little bit, anyway, to give more time to the Academy course, but the main advantages of the proposed system would be in the pre-Naval Academy training. Such a system would send into the Naval Academy young men from eighteen to twenty years of age, well read, well informed, and with a large knowledge of history, to a much greater extent than at present; also, they would be already acquainted with naval discipline, already well versed in infantry and artillery drills, and rowing, sailing and other seaman-like arts—young men in whom the naval spirit has been thoroughly and enthusiastically instilled during the formative, plastic period of their lives. It would mean very few resignations from midshipmen and fewer still from the officer personnel because the Navy and all that it means would be a part of them. (Do you suppose that in the "Old Navy" the thought of resigning ever came to those officers who had entered the service as midshipmen at twelve, ten, and even eight years of age?) It would mean practically no "bilging" from the Academy, for the foundation would be quite sufficient for the senior institution to build upon—with such a foundation, what a splendid structure could be reared by that architect of men, our granite-gray Mother by the Severn side! It would mean that there would be sent out into the fleet officers with the technical knowledge of their profession that graduates now have, but in addition these nine-year trained officers would have real ability in French and Spanish, a greater knowledge of history, a greater classical knowledge, a larger vocabulary, a wider acquaintance with literature—English, French, Spanish, Latin and Greek—and, in short, would possess that broad culture that would enable them to represent America to the maximum advantage all over the world. Don't misunderstand me. If it came to a choice between a "grizzled old sea-dog," to use that trite expression, who was a capable mariner, an able sea-fighter, and a leader of men, and yet who butchered the King's English, whose knowledge of foreign languages consisted of "Polly voo fronsey" and "Hey, hombre! Come here, pronto!" and who thought Shakespeare was some sort of a medieval weapon, if it came to a choice, I say, between such an officer and one who was a widely read and cultured gentleman and yet who did not possess the three prime requisites of a naval officer, I would take every time the officer that could navigate and handle a ship, fight, and lead men. But can we not have officers that embody the fine points of both? We have now, yes, but not to the extent that we should have or can have.
Originally, my idea was the suggestion of a plan to better and broaden mentally the future officer personnel, but now that it is in print, unfolded to public view, it seems to me to possess other possibilities as well: namely, the moral and physical improvement of the midshipmen entering the Naval Academy.
A few paragraphs back, I pointed out that the young boys entering the junior school would be filled with thoughts of the Navy and its ideals until those thoughts became a part of them. To enlarge somewhat on that thought, a love of country, a love of the Navy and a true meaning of "the service" would fill eager, receptive minds that might otherwise be listening to the scoffing, anti-everything, young Bolshevik who prides himself on being the leader of the gang which loafs around the corner drug store. Let me "get personal" again. Did not the Naval Academy develop you into something better than you were when you entered there? Is not your character a little bit finer, your ideals a little bit higher, than they would have been had you gone to college and lived the life of the average college student? I believe that they are, anyway; and they would be even finer and higher if the system had been in effect whereby midshipmen are given the benefit of five years' previous training with the special end in view of making naval officers, the very finest kind of naval officers, out of them.
Physically, midshipmen trained under the proposed system would be more strongly and more systematically developed. Athletics are secondary to academic work, of course, but they play an important part in the life at the Naval Academy, and throughout the entire service, for that matter. Can you visualize with me the sort of teams the Navy would turn out with men entering the Naval Academy with five years' preparatory training, navy training, to their credit?
The idea of creating new government schools may seem too radical, too impracticable for carrying out, even if the "powers-that-be" should come to believe in its worth. If so, I can but recommend the adoption of the plan, a six-year course at the Naval Academy, suggested by Lieutenant Commander W. 0. Henry in an article in the Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS a year or two ago. That would certainly be a great improvement on the present crowded, crammed, jammed four-year course.
I believe strongly in the value of the pre-Naval Academy naval training, however. Under such a system, more than ever will the young man entering the Halls of Bancroft be "morally clean, mentally alert, and physically fit."
In conclusion, to those who laugh at what they term my "absurd ideas," to those who are angry because I have denied that the American naval officer is perfect, to those who think me a "ratey" ensign, to those especially, and to all who read this, I ask that it be borne in mind that whatever the faults of this article and its writer may be, these ideas herein set forth are humbly suggested "for the good of the service."