The purpose of this paper is to record some interesting and useful facts learned by the writer during the last three summers while engaged in training naval reservists on board the U.S.S. Bainbridge. The aim is not to deal with the general question of the Naval Reserve, which is great enough to deserve the best thought and effort of the Bureau of Navigation, but rather with practical matters connected with the execution of the Navy Department s present policy of devoting the services of the Scouting Fleet destroyers for two months a year to exercising the officers and the men of the reserve.
For the last four or five years these destroyers have been used during July and August for training cruises. The summer of 1928, which is typical, was divided into four cruise periods of two weeks each. The first cruise from June 30 until July 14 employed nineteen destroyers; the second cruise, July 14 to 28, seventeen destroyers; the third cruise, July 28 to August 11, seventeen destroyers; and the fourth cruise, August 11 to 25, twenty destroyers. Each of these destroyers carried a division of reservists so that during the summer seventy-three reserve units each made a two weeks’ cruise. In addition to these Scouting Fleet activities, the Fox from the Third Naval District and the Abel P. Upshur from Washington, each embarked three or four reserve units. Each of these units consists of from two to five officers and from thirty-five to forty-five men. This means that each summer some 3,000 men and 200 officers receive valuable training in that branch of the service in which they would probably serve in the event of mobilization.
The reserve units are located on the Atlantic Coast from Portland to Miami and around to New Orleans. Several Middle Western cities are represented; they come from as far as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Kansas City. The great bulk of the units are embarked and disembarked between Boston and Philadelphia, but for the outlying coast units the destroyers go as far as Portland and Miami to receive and return their assigned units. The New Orleans and Atlanta men use the port of Charleston. The Middle Westerners pass through Philadelphia.
A typical unit consists of a lieutenant as division officer, a lieutenant as engineer, a lieutenant (jg) as gunnery officer, and about forty-five men of miscellaneous ratings and talents. At the present time most of the officers are from among those who had service of some sort during the war. There are also a few recent Naval Academy graduates among them. These as a rule are graduates who left the service because they preferred civil life and they do not seem to make the best reserve officers although it is the writer’s belief that it is to the advantage of a division to have one such among its personnel. The enlisted men are largely people of no previous seagoing experience. There is a sprinkling of ex-Navy men among them. The chief petty officers are mostly from the regular Navy with here and there one who was appointed chief in the reserve.
It is the general plan that the officers and men of these units which cruise from year to year in destroyers will go to fill out the complement of destroyers to be commissioned in case of mobilization. This statement alone is enough to convince the most skeptical observer of the importance of training them. The officer in charge of a division has to make up his unit from people who volunteer and who have a right to withdraw at any time. It is difficult to make the drills attractive and the writer has frequently been told by reserve division officers that the entire success and progress of the reserve unit is based on the summer cruises that they make in the destroyers. A man who enlists in the regular Navy has a contract to fill whether he likes the life or not. The fact that the Navy is today getting a great majority of reenlistments shows that the life is popular. It is popular not because any naval authorities set out with the idea of putting popularity first but because of good sound principles of leadership which become apparent to the average enlisted man after he has been in the Navy and aboard ship for a period long enough to allow him to settle down 'and get used to things. How long is such a period? It varies with the individual but it is certainly longer than two weeks. During his first two weeks aboard ship, an enlisted man ordinarily believes that he has gotten into a terrible mess of strange customs and unheard-of restrictions. It takes months before he settles down and finds a happy life.
The writer believes that since the summer cruise is the naval event in the peacetime life of the enlisted reservist and that since his is a voluntary service or what might be called a short contract easily terminated, it is essential that his brief period aboard ship should be made as pleasant and interesting as good training and instruction and the ordinary principles of leadership and discipline allow. To this end a talk should be given to the regular members of the crew before the reservists come on board. When they see the point, which they readily will, the petty “hazing” which a recruit gets will be eliminated. No hammock ladders nor keys to the anchor watch nor left-handed monkey wrenches need be sent for. From the moment the reservist comes aboard he need find only a friendly, though to be sure a superior, regular Navy man to show him how to make up his bunk, stow his locker, etc.
Some weeks before his time for embarkation, the reserve division officer writes to the captain with whom he is to cruise and sends a list of his officers and their qualifications and a list of the names and ratings of his men. The ship has to send out enough officers and men to make room for the reserves. It is highly important that each officer have a bunk and a regular place to put his clothes. If at all possible each officer should be in a stateroom because it is a nuisance for all concerned to have anyone sleep in the mess room. It is essential that every man shall have a bunk and locker. The men to be sent out from the ship may be sent on leave and nine-tenths of them are always ready to go, but for the other tenth which has no home to go to, or which has no money, provision must be made. Temporary duty in the destroyer tender is one answer but it has been found in our ship that it is a better solution to put them aboard another destroyer undergoing overhaul in the home yard. The same remarks apply to officers, with the exception that it is seldom that the officer is not willing and ready to take whatever leave is offered. Before these excess men leave the ship their lockers are cleared and cleaned out and their bags and bedding, having been cleaned, are stowed in the after hold and checked off. Before the reservists arrive every bunk, locker, mess table, gun, etc., is tagged with its number. Station billets are made out for each reservist showing the usual details and superscribed in red pencil “forward” or “aft” to emphasize his bunking place. It has been found a good practice to assign no special duties such as messman, captain of the head, etc., to the reservists. They should of course take their part in cleaning, chipping, and painting, but they should be left out of the less romantic assignments which fall to the lot of the bluejacket. It even works out now and then that the man’s specialty in civil life is obnoxious to him during the cruise. An expert sign painter cruising with us was given all such work that could be found. After doing a great many paint jobs beautifully, he let his division officer know that he was disappointed to have to do on the cruise what he did at home. As a result he, a landsman, was assigned as helmsman for the last three days of the cruise and went away satisfied.
The cruise begins on Saturday. The men bring their own bedding and bags. As soon as they are aboard, the ship leaves for the rendezvous, the different destroyers arriving at various times up until Monday noon. It has been our experience that with the detailed station bills provided in advance the strange men settle very quickly into their assigned stations and with the encouragement of their “regular” shipmates begin very soon to assume the pose and attitude of man-o’-war’s men. The ships go out Tuesday and remain until Friday, when they go to their respective liberty ports. Other officers may disagree, but it has been the writer’s practice to give liberty over this middle week-end to all reservists. The regular crew understands this situation. Every one of them gets leave during one of the cruises and if the regular crew has to stand a few extra watches during this reserve liberty week-end he does not feel imposed upon. In this connection this week-end liberty port should be as far as practicable from the reservists’ home town. To send men from Fall River for a liberty at Providence provides no thrill at all. The men from New York do not care to go to other cities. They like Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, and such places. Those from the South and from smaller cities are glad to go to New York or Boston. In 1926 the Bainbridge took Atlanta men to New York for liberty. Most of these men had never been to New York before. The National Navy Club kindly furnished the ship with a large number of transit maps of the city, which were a great help to the strangers in finding their way about the subways. After the liberty port the ships gather again at the rendezvous and work until the day when each must leave to reach its port for disembarking on Saturday. During the two weeks the training schedule is uniform in all ships. The squadrons commander prepares a working plan which utilizes all the time to its best purpose. The routine emergency drills are gone through several times and the engineers are given as much training as possible. It is not generally considered wise to leave any important station such as water tender or throttleman in the hands of reserves without supervision. The reserve gun crew trains intensively after coming aboard and fires a modified short- range practice a day or two before the end of the cruise. This is something really remarkable. These fellows, many of whom have never heard a gun fire, train for ten days and then get up and fire a rapid string of shots and hit the target. It is a great comfort to know that green American boys can be taught, or rather that they can learn, so much in such a short time. During the cruise special effort is bent upon teaching green men how to keep themselves and their clothes clean under the new conditions they find aboard ship. The principles of etiquette and the meaning of “aye, aye, sir,” are stressed.
In the writer’s opinion it is desirable to have a division cruise successively in the same ship. The period the men are on board is so short that when the officers and men are strangers the cruise is half over before the captain has learned the capabilities of the reserve personnel. On the other hand certain officers who have cruised in the ship the previous summer are known to the captain to be capable of taking a watch and should be put on watch as soon as they come aboard. Having had men the previous year it is possible to make their training progressive, taking up where it was left off. Going to a new ship each summer, the reservists have to repeat a great deal of elementary work because they are strange to the ship’s officers and it is natural to start them all afresh. I am informed by reserve officers that their divisions would prize very highly the spirit and background that would be afforded them if they “belonged” to a particular destroyer of the Scouting Fleet. They realize, of course, that they could not always cruise in the same ship, but even if they could make most of their cruises in the same ship it would be a great help from the viewpoint of both the reservists and the captain of the destroyer.
Some of the reserve officers have so much ability that it would be a benefit to the Navy to have them in the regular service. Others are of value only because of their interest in the Navy coupled with their standing in civil life—an intelligent liaison between the Navy and the civilian population. One lieutenant, a university graduate, was in active service during the war and now has charge of a reserve division. He has all of the best qualities of leadership, knows the rules and ways of the sea and of the Navy. His officers are not above average and his enlisted material is average but he has brought his division up to a high standard of efficiency. This officer is not only well qualified to take a watch under any conditions but the writer would consider him to be a fine executive officer for a destroyer. No young naval officer is likely to take much interest in trying to teach the rudiments to a reserve officer past fifty. Even the best of these officers who are now in charge of divisions are rapidly getting too old. It is also true that all of the ensigns and junior lieutenants who have cruised in the Bainbridge are too old, and in his experience during the last three years the writer has not seen any reserve officers who are younger than about thirty. The officer personnel of the reserve is generally a veteran organization. They should be getting in some young ones. Of course it is realized that the training activity at the several universities is bringing up young officers but the point made here is that these divisions should include some youngsters to take the place of the older ones as they get out.
It is my belief that there are some officers in the reserve divisions who should be eliminated. They come aboard for two weeks and as they leave the commanding officer makes out fitness reports. As a rule they all get good fitness reports whether they deserve them or not. One feels that two weeks is too short a time in which to judge an officer and that it would be too bad to hurt the feelings of the reservist by giving him a discouraging report on too brief observation. One also has the feeling that to recommend the disenrollment of an officer might tend to disrupt the morale of the whole unit which is none too steady anyhow. I have been told, however, by excellent reserve officers, that they believe the captain’s marks should be more strict and that some of the poorer material should be eliminated. If we had the same ones repeatedly the captains could verify their opinions and give unsatisfactory reports where deserved without fear of being unjust.
Some time before the reserves come on board it is well to acquaint the officers with the conditions they will find. The following letter has been used and it is believed to meet the purpose satisfactorily.
MEMORANDUM FOR OFFICERS OF THE NAVAL RESERVE CRUISING ON U.S.S. BAINBRIDGE
1. We are glad personally and officially to have you on board and intend to make your cruise as instructive and pleasant as possible. Make yourselves at home when you get aboard and feel that you belong to the ship and that the ship belongs to you, just the same as if you were permanently attached.
2. During each one of the cruises some of the ship’s officers will go on leave to make room for the reserve officers. It is not practicable, however, to reduce the ship’s officers sufficiently to provide ample stateroom facilities for all, and some of the reserve officers may have to sleep in the emergency cabin, or possibly on the transoms. In any event you will each share the wash-basin facilities with regular occupants of staterooms and there will be room for every one to hang and stow his clothes in staterooms. On each cruise the ship will visit some port for liberty during the middle week-end and in addition there will be liberty at Newport. Officers desiring to bring civilian clothes may do so but it is suggested that one suit is enough. Blue uniform only need be brought. Attention is invited to the fact that stiff starched collars are required with uniform. During these cruises our mess attendants have to wait on a large number of officers and for that reason you should make your demands on them as light as possible. They will make up your beds, take care of your shoes, serve food, etc., but will not be able to press clothes nor do much in the way of valet service. On account of the crowded condition each officer will be expected to do what he can to keep straightened the space he occupies. Your mess bill will be one dollar a day. Lieutenant is mess treasurer. Unless it is inconvenient to you the mess bill should be paid in advance. There are no laundry facilities in the ship. Tailor, cobbler, etc., are in the tender; the ship’s service store sells the usual small articles in the Bainbridge.
3. The officers attached to the ship are:
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4. After you get aboard read the ship’s organization. Read special instructions for the training of reservists. Read the brass plate on the forecastle and learn about the man for whom the ship is named.
5. You will sit at the mess table according to your rank. Although the ship’s officer with whom you are assigned to serve may not be senior to you, you will understand that in all matters relating to your duty and instruction, the ship’s officer concerned will, in the performance of his duties, be representing the commanding officer and you will be expected to take directions from him.
The men who make up these reserve divisions are well above average. The following are chosen at random from the Atlanta divisions to show the occupations of the reservists in civil life. Among the officers are an electrical engineer, an insurance inspector, an electrical salesman, a boiler- plant salesman, a railway mail clerk, an elevator salesman, a school teacher, and a telephone traffic supervisor. The men are high-school and college students, bookkeepers, insurance clerks, railroad clerks, dairymen, farmers, draftsmen, bank clerks, blueprint operators, sign painters, hospital foremen, restaurant owners, and lawyers. One first class boatswain’s mate is an artist, one seaman second class is a dentist, one a newspaper composer. One hospital apprentice is a doctor while one seaman second is a baker. The following are among the officers of the Twenty-Ninth Fleet Division of Hoboken: a ship operator for an oil company, a mechanical engineer manufacturing auto parts, a salesman, an electrical engineer, a life-insurance actuary, and a boatswain who is a fire-boat mate. A gunner’s mate is a tailor, a machinist’s mate is a policeman; there are bookbinders, bleachers, carpet layers, carpenters, mill foremen, a stock-exchange runner, several government clerks, a color mixer, and a wholesale drug salesman. This division has several high- school and college students. From another place we had a chief petty officer who was a fire-department lieutenant and a fireman who was a ticket-taker at a movie palace. Of all the men we have had, every one had some kind of a regular job and not one was of the class described as common labor.
To aid in spirit building it has been our practice to encourage the reservists to make a banner out of bunting with the name of the ship and the year. This banner is included in a photograph taken of the division at the end of the cruise and the banner and a copy of the photograph are available to go on the wall in the reservists’ armory as a souvenir of the cruise.
There is no question but that the destroyers go backwards a bit during the two months devoted to training reservists. With thirty to forty men of the regular crew out of the ship the progressive training of the ship’s company is retarded, and strange, new men aboard ship will naturally make more dirt than they clean up. However, it is the opinion of the writer that the benefits of these cruises far exceed the disadvantages and in addition to this, the personal side of the experience has been pleasant. To break the monotony of the yearly grind by having some new people about, people from various sections of the country with varying interests and fresh ideas, new contacts, new friends for the Navy and for Navy men; this is good for us. The reservists profit from these cruises and so do we.