Some years ago the phrase was coined, “The man behind the gun.” It is that man, both officer and enlisted man, who must operate the Navy in peace and in war. He must be the best type obtainable and must be trained to become a capable, efficient member of the nation’s first line of defense.
Under the general direction of the Secretary of the Navy, it is the duty of the Bureau of Navigation to procure this man, educate him, train him, assign him to his station, and in general direct his naval career. The Bureau also must provide a trained and organized force, the Naval Reserve, ready to augment the regular Navy at the outbreak of war.
Naval personnel as a whole may best be discussed under the several headings of officers, enlisted men, and the Naval Reserve, both officers and men.
Officers
The naval officer today must be a fighting man, seaman, and scientist all in one. He must develop those sterling qualities of character and leadership that will make it possible for him to command the most competent body of men ever assembled in a fighting force—the enlisted personnel of the American Navy. He must have the fighting heart of those who served with John Paul Jones, Decatur, and Farragut.
The mission of the officers is so to develop and utilize the men and the material given to their care that the fleet will successfully accomplish whatever task it may be assigned, whether it be defeating the enemy in battle, rendering assistance in time of disaster, or representing our government in home or foreign ports.
The Navy looks to its own Naval Academy at Annapolis to supply its line officers. Some enter from the enlisted personnel of the Navy and others from the Naval Reserve, but the majority are appointed by Senators and Representatives in Congress. From these young men who meet the prescribed mental and physical requirements the Navy must develop officers to fight the fleet.
The course at the Academy is a rigorous one. The scholastic year of eight months is supplemented by three months’ practical work each summer in naval vessels or naval planes. The instruction given in scientific, technical, and cultural subjects is important but less so than the development of military character and qualities of leadership.
At Annapolis a constant weeding-out process takes place; the survivors are imbued with the traditions, the ideas, and ideals of the service, and after four years under observation and training, those who meet the exacting requirements are commissioned as ensigns. That they may be reasonably familiar with the manifold activities afloat and may have a background of fundamental technical knowledge, the ensigns are detailed to both deck and engineering duties as well as other basic specialties. As their experience widens and their judgment ripens, they are given assignments of increasing importance. Gradually each one begins to develop a liking for some particular type of work. Within a few years some are sent to Pensacola for flight training; others go to New London for submarine instruction; while those in the fleet follow their particular bents. One group will become particularly proficient in gunnery, another will find its chief interest in torpedoes, engineering will appeal to some, while the intricacies of damage control, electricity, navigation, tactics, and communications will draw their respective quotas. To the practical experience gained in their assigned duty is added instruction at various schools within the fleet and ashore. To those who show special interest and capability in any speciality, there is given opportunity for a two- or three-year postgraduate course.
Neither fleet nor postgraduate schools mark the end of the officers’ study and training, only death or retirement can do that. The ensign in the steerage may study Diesel engines or new navigational methods, but the admiral in his cabin must be just as diligent in his study of the art of war, strategy, tactics, economics, and foreign policy. Those in intervening ranks will not be so absorbed in executive and administrative duties that reading and study will be laid aside. Each officer must not only strive to become proficient in his assigned duties, but must also keep abreast of the general developments in the naval profession and prepare himself for the next step in the chain of command. The courses at the Naval War College, sought by officers of appropriate rank, regardless of specialty, are essential to the preparation of an officer for high command.
One of the most important problems, besides training, with which the Navy deals is the distribution of its officer personnel. To every naval activity there must be assigned necessary officers, qualified by training and experience for the duties to be performed, so that the fleet may be maintained at its highest efficiency.
Individual details are also regulated to give each line officer an opportunity to develop into a capable fighting mariner with such varied experience as to character of duty and as to service in types of naval craft as is practicable. Naval Academy training, the rotation of duties of ensigns, and the common experiences shared by seagoing naval officers stimulate the development of an adaptability and a capability of performing a wide variety of duties which make practicable a rotation of duties that broadens the experience of officers. This rotation must insure that each officer has a reasonable amount of deck experience to fit him for command of large vessels and ultimately for high command.
Paralleling the career of the line officer is that of the officer of the staff corps, procured from graduates of the Naval Academy or from civilian sources. From Naval Academy graduates of two or three years’ commissioned service who volunteer for such assignment may be chosen officers of the Supply, Civil Engineering, and Construction Corps. Officers in the Chaplain, Medical, and Dental Corps are selected from civilian applicants who meet the professional, moral, and physical standards set by the Navy Department.
The officer list includes also a large group of warrant and commissioned warrant officers, capable specialists advanced from enlisted ranks.
Along with the procurement, training, and assignment of officers to ships and stations, the Navy must insure that officers are promoted and given heavier responsibilities at appropriate times in their careers so that they may, with confidence and ability, meet every demand in case of an emergency.
In the echelon of command, large numbers of officers are required in the subordinate positions, while there is room for but one Commander in Chief. The existing law provides for 6,531 active officers of the line. Of that number 58 may be flag officers, 240 captains, and 515 commanders, while more than two-thirds must be in the grades below lieutenant commander. Since the successive grades require fewer officers than the next lower one, only those best qualified are promoted.
Selection boards meet annually and give long and careful study to the records of all eligible officers. The limited number chosen for promotion are deemed to be those best fitted to fill the vacancies available. Those who fail of selection and, under the law retire, are efficient officers but lack of vacancies prevents their advancement. They are not lost to the naval service; their training, experience, and years of devoted service make them a most valuable group immediately available for the expansion of the naval service on mobilization.
Procurement, training, distribution, and promotion are everlasting problems of the Navy in peace or war; to these is now added the task of finding enough personnel adequately to man our rapidly expanding fleet and the supporting shore establishment. Legislation to provide additional officers followed promptly after the authorization for new ships and planes, but it takes four years for the Naval Academy to change the civilian youth into the inexperienced ensign, and longer still to make him a valuable officer. The first increase from the additional midshipmen provided for in 1935 will not join the fleet until 1939; the graduates in the intervening years will hardly take care of the attrition; meantime the new planes and new ships are being turned over to the Navy at an ever increasing rate.
To meet this situation, detail of officers to educational activities has been radically curtailed, reserve aviation cadets are being trained at Pensacola to man many of the planes, and chief petty officers and other petty officers are being used to man battle stations normally filled by officers.
The intelligence, education, and skill of the enlisted personnel; the high state of discipline in the Navy; the efficient and sympathetic leadership and the mutual understanding between officers and men have brought about a reciprocal relationship that leaves no doubt that this situation will be met with no lowering of efficiency in the fleet.
Enlisted Men
The quality of our enlisted personnel is the highest in the history of the Navy. Give the modern sailorman a job to do and he does it well. Not only is he dependable and able to keep pace with the intricate machinery of the modern Navy, but he makes suggestions tending toward its improvement. He strives continually to improve himself. Mentally, morally, and physically he represents a very fine cross- section of American manhood.
His duties aboard ship are manifold; he he is, respectively, seaman, gunner, electrician, machinist, signalman, radioman, cook. Under the competent direction of the officers he must operate all the intricate machinery that propels the ship and directs her gunfire; he must keep the ship and all her gear in tiptop operating condition and scrupulously clean. No one man can of course be a Jack-of-all-trades in the modern highly technical ship. The ship’s company is composed of men of many “ratings,” each roughly descriptive by name of the duties the men filling it are qualified to discharge—such as gunner’s mate, torpedoman, radioman, electrician’s mate, water tender, fireman, seaman. There are several grades in each of these. The men of the higher ratings are designated as “petty officers,” similar to the noncommissioned officers of the Army.
The enlisted man today compares favorably with his brother entering college or even the Naval Academy. As a matter of fact, it is as difficult to enlist in the Navy as to enter college. The applicant for enlistment must show not only mental ability but he must prove conclusively to the recruiting officer that he is morally and physically fit.
The procurement of enlisted personnel is handled by the Recruiting Service. For the purposes of administration, we have 35 main recruiting stations and 222 substations, divided into 5 divisions. With selective recruiting, we have no difficulty in obtaining plenty of men of the highest standard. During the fiscal year 1935, out of 203,070 applicants for enlistment only 10,754, or 5.3 per cent, were accepted. Even with the large increase in the Navy during the last fiscal year, July 1, 1936, 3,382 men were on the waiting list, fully qualified for enlistment. The number of applicants for enlistment is at present (July 1) approximately 15,000 per month, with about 1,250 enlistments per month.
The mental quality of our recruits has greatly improved; in 1934, 86 per cent had completed one or more years of high school. Physically their basic health is excellent; in 1934, with 11,312 first enlistments, there were only 315 discharges for poor health during the first year of enlistment.
On joining the Navy, recruits receive at training stations a 12-week training course which includes instruction in fundamental subjects. It introduces the recruits to discipline and naval duties and bridges the gap from civilian to military life.
After this course these men are sent to the fleet and in general assigned to seaman duties for some months. Having learned the routine and habits of the ship, they are continued as seamen or assigned to engine-room force or other special duties. Their work must be such that, (1) the ship’s company as a whole may be efficient and in proper condition at all times for war and (2) that they may be prepared to advance to fill the places of men of longer service and experience as the latter leave the service. It is a continual process of training, both for the immediate efficiency of the ship and for the ultimate advancement of the man. The basic training necessarily must be done at sea.
To assist commanding officers to produce an adequate number of men qualified to perform the intricate duties required on board ship, the Bureau has established three classes of service schools, called Class A, Class B, and Class C schools, most of which are at naval training stations.
Class A Schools are designed to assist the forces afloat by giving such elementary instruction to recruits as will make them more immediately useful and give them the groundwork necessary for the lowest petty officer ratings. This instruction follows immediately after recruit training, the most promising recruits being transferred to Class A schools upon completion of that period.
Class B Schools are designed to supplement the training afloat by giving advanced instruction when such instruction can be more advantageously given ashore.
Class C Schools are designed to meet the needs of the service by giving advanced training for particular duty assignments in special subjects not normally a part of shipboard training.
Special instruction is given for service in submarines and aviation, in schools established for this purpose.
The major part of training afloat is practical work, but a certain amount of theoretical education is also necessary for petty officers. Navy training courses are prepared and issued to the personnel to facilitate the development of skill and efficiency.
Men are enlisted for 4-year periods or during minority and may, unless their conduct has been such as not to warrant their continuance in the Navy, re-enlist at the expiration of each enlistment. After 20 years’ service (16 years for those serving continuously since June, 1925, or earlier) they may transfer to the Fleet Naval Reserve on a substantial fraction of their active-duty Navy pay. During their active service they may, on qualification by demonstrated ability and examination, be promoted from one grade or rating to another, achieving successively greater responsibilities and higher pay, up to the top rating, chief petty officers, and may finally be advanced to warrant officer rank.
Promotions of enlisted personnel, except to the rating of chief petty officer, are handled by the quota system in the fleet. At the beginning of each fiscal year, a promotion plan, dependent in the main upon funds available, is developed and certain advancements in rating are authorized once each quarter. The numbers to be advanced depend on existing vacancies and the amount of money available for pay. Promotions to chief petty officer are controlled in the Bureau of Navigation.
Entertainment for the men is not neglected in the fleet. Athletics are encouraged and ships’ teams formed in almost every sport. Motion pictures are given nightly and a large circulating supply of the most recent films maintained. Ships’ libraries are well stocked.
The Naval Reserve
Important as it is to build up our regular forces to required strength, we must not overlook the importance of creating and training an adequate Naval Reserve.
When it is realized that more than twice as many officers and men of the Reserve are required upon mobilization as regular officers and men, some idea of the scope of the problem can be realized. The mission of the Naval Reserve is:
To procure, organize, and train the officers and men necessary in the event of war for the expansion and operation of the United States Fleet and Naval Transportation Service.
Certain principles laid down by the General Board to govern the relationship of the Regular Establishment of the Navy to the Naval Reserve may be stated as follows: The combined strength of the personnel (officer and enlisted) of the Regular Naval Establishment and Reserve should, in general terms, be sufficient to insure on the outbreak of war:
(a) Prompt and efficient operation of all vessels and activities of the existing Regular Naval Establishment.
(b) Efficient operation of such additional vessels as may be initially required.
(c) Additional trained personnel to meet the needs of the expanding Naval Establishment while an even flow of newly trained men is being established.
The Naval Reserve as now constituted and organized under the provisions of the Act of February 28, 1925, consists of three classes: The Fleet Naval Reserve, the Merchant Marine Naval Reserve, and the Volunteer Naval Reserve. By a special Act of Congress, approved April 15, 1935, there was created also a separate corps of aviation cadets in the Naval Reserve.
The Fleet Naval Reserve has for its mission the creation and mobilization of trained organizations for service on board vessels of the United States Fleet and Naval Transportation Service in the theater of operations.
The Fleet Naval Reserve consists of two subdivisions: (a) Enlisted men who have served one or more enlistments in the regular Navy and who have been transferred or assigned to the Naval Reserve. This includes those men with 16 or 20 years’ service transferred to the Fleet Reserve; (b) civilian components organized into units for drilling and training.
At the present time there are 149 seagoing divisions and 31 aviation divisions of the civilian component of the Fleet Naval Reserve, widely distributed over the United States.
The Merchant Marine Naval Reserve has for its mission the training of officers and men serving on board seagoing merchant vessels of United States registry for service on board vessels commissioned by the Navy in the event of war.
The Merchant Marine Naval Reserve is composed of officers and men of the American Merchant Marine who enroll in the Naval Reserve and are available in the event of war for service on board naval auxiliaries or in the Naval Transportation Service.
Unfortunately, no appropriations have been made for drilling or training the Merchant Marine Naval Reserve. However, the importance of this branch of the Naval Reserve is such that the Navy Department has not waited for an appropriation but has proceeded with its organization, administration, and instruction as far as could be done upon a purely voluntary basis without funds. At the present time there are enrolled about 3,400 officers in the Merchant Marine Naval Reserve.
The Volunteer Naval Reserve has for its mission the provision of additional personnel for general service, usually in the United States Fleet and Naval Transportation Service, and other personnel for special service, usually on shore, as required by the war organization. This requires that the Volunteer Naval Reserve be divided into two main subdivisions: (a) Those officers and men qualified for combatant duties afloat in a degree similar to the Fleet Naval Reserve, designated for general service by the letter “G”; (b) those officers and men of limited qualifications available for specific technicist and specialist duties, designated by the letter “S.”
Aviation cadets.—Principally on account of the shortage in the required number of naval aviators to perform duty with the fleet during the next several years, the Act of April 15, 1935, provided for the grade of aviation cadet in the Naval Reserve. Under the provisions of this Act, desirable young men of proper educational background are enlisted in the Naval Reserve as seaman 2d class and given approximately one month’s training duty at the various Naval Reserve aviation bases, involving about 12 hours of flight. Those who appear to be promising naval aviator and officer material are then appointed aviation cadets of the Naval Reserve and sent to Pensacola for completion of their aviation training, which involves about a year at that station and 300 hours of flying in various types of planes. Those who graduate from Pensacola are sent to three years’ duty with the fleet. At the completion of this duty they are released from active duty and given commissions as ensigns in the aviation branch of the Naval Reserve.
The keen competition to fill the vacancies in aviation cadets has resulted in obtaining a body of outstanding young men. At the present time there are about 400 aviation cadets under training at Pensacola, the majority of whom are graduates from 94 different colleges and universities.
Naval R.O.T.C.—As a means of providing qualified reserve officers, Naval Reserve officer training corps units, limited to a combined total strength of 1,200, are formed among the students at Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, California, and Washington universities, and at the Georgia School of Technology. These students take a full 4-year course in Naval Science and Tactics, make summer practice cruises, and on graduation are given commissions as ensigns in the Naval Reserve or as second lieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve.
The basic Naval Reserve Act of 1925 and Navy Department policies emphasize that the Naval Reserve is an integral component of the United States Navy. Therefore the Naval Reserve is administered by the same agencies that administer personnel of the regular Navy. Every office and bureau of the Navy Department has an interest in administration of the Reserve. The Bureau of Navigation administers the personnel activities and coordinates the activities of other bureaus affecting the Naval Reserve. Command of the Naval Reserve is exercised through the commandants of the various naval districts.
Our Naval Reserve is composed of individuals of high patriotism who are willing and anxious to devote the time over and above that demanded by their private affairs to training and preparing themselves and their organizations to render maximum service to the nation.