In 1926 there were established Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Units at six leading universities: Yale, Harvard, California, Washington, Northwestern, and Georgia Institute of Technology. The object of this new policy was to create gradually, and at an even rate, a trained officer reserve from among college graduates. The success of that policy is unquestioned in the minds of those who are familiar with its results.
The maximum normal allowance for each of these six college naval units is 200, divided among the four classes from freshmen to seniors, giving a total of 1,200 constantly in training. With normal attrition from entrance as a freshman to graduation, about 200 complete the 4-year course each year and are commissioned ensigns in the Volunteer Naval Reserve. A few prefer to accept commissions in the Marine Corps Reserve. Here, except for the few whose pursuits and persistence enable them to become affiliated with Fleet Naval Reserve units, their prospects of a naval career end. This is so stated because there has been an increasing interest and hope on the part of many of these well-trained young men for an opening which would permit them to enter the regular naval service. The status of flying cadet, by way of Pensacola, with its limitation of an uncertain future, is not sufficient to attract more than a very few.
After 10 years of observation of the results of the Naval R.O.T.C. policy, and apparently feeling encouraged over the quality and performance of these reserve units, the Navy Department has encouraged the Congress to legislate an opening whereby these students are able to obtain direct appointments to the Naval Academy. Such appointments are made after nomination by the president of the university upon the recommendation of the professor of Naval Science and Tactics, with regular Naval Academy competitive examinations and observance of the normal entrance requirements. Considering that normally only freshmen and sophomores, with perhaps a few juniors, can comply with the age restriction, we find a new vein of selected material of about 600 college students from which the Naval Academy is bound to obtain some excellent candidates.
It is not the purpose of this discussion to indicate or claim that the new policy will provide the Naval Academy with better natural material, because the raw material entering comes from a fairly well- standardized source, the American community and family, and cannot be changed by any system of admissions. But observations, based on service in the Executive Department of the Naval Academy and in the Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Unit at the University of California, do indicate clearly that this raw material will be received from those units with the individuals’ aptitude for the service fairly well established, which is not true of too large a proportion of the candidates entering under the general system of admissions. Furthermore, candidates from the Naval Reserve units will have had their aptitudes and officer-like capabilities considerably developed before entrance. These two considerations should indicate a large gain in the long run for the naval service. The vagueness of the preliminary establishment of the natural aptitude not intelligence, which is fairly well determined—and quality of candidates, and the lack of their preliminary development, have long been considered weaknesses in the general system of admissions. The step which enabled enlisted men to obtain appointments was in the right direction to overcome partially this deficiency.
The general system of admissions is the result of many factors, most of which are, or have been, beyond the control of the Navy Department. Any system based primarily on political considerations is directly at odds with the general theory of naval organization and administration. The two steps mentioned above, in departing from this system, are beneficial in many ways, but particularly in that a preliminary system of selection eliminates many candidates who would otherwise waste their time and the government’s money for a year or two before it could be discovered that they should not have entered in the first place.
The new policy, then, can safely be considered a step in the right direction, and it should result in greater internal efficiency in the Regiment of Midshipmen, with a higher percentage of graduates and less cost to the government. It would seem logical to conclude from this that the final output might eventually be improved. A large percentage of failures, to which we often point with pride, is in itself no criterion of the quality of graduates; it may well be an indication of poor selection of candidates.
The new policy provides a rich field, drawn from the same source of raw material, but with its quality and aptitude already established and well developed. The high standards of the naval R.O.T.C. units, as indicated by their campus ratings academically and in general student activities, including athletics, at six of the best universities, are a matter of pride to any officer who has served with them, and should give to anyone, who thinks at all about the condition of the Navy in any sudden expansion, a feeling of high confidence in our future Naval Reserve officers. The system of selection of candidates for the units by naval officers, the many recommendations that are presented by faculty members, high-school principals, and other responsible citizens, together with a keen effort on the part of the students to keep the standards of acceptability high—all result in general excellence according to naval standards as well as campus standards. There are usually from 3 to 5 candidates for every vacancy in these units. The selection board calls in each candidate privately and examines his academic and personal credentials. He is questioned and allowed to express himself. His vocational, seagoing, and athletic experience is determined, together with his prospects of being able to complete 4 years uninterrupted at the university. His choice of colleges and his major are considered, premedical and theological students not being eligible. When the board has determined all that it reasonably can about the candidate, he is given a mark of acceptability. In cases of close decision near the end of the selection list, engineering students or those with previous seagoing experience of one kind or another are given preference. All the above, of course, is accomplished after the candidate has successfully passed the regular Naval Academy physical examination.
Here, then, is real selection of candidates to the naval R.O.T.C. units, backed up by the academic entrance requirements of a large university of high rating. If we add to these features of selection one, two, or three years of university experience, plus the same amount of time of acquaintance with naval subjects and drills in R.O.T.C. classrooms and on weekly and summer cruises, we are beginning to narrow our field of Naval Academy candidates to a select group. If from this group we obtain candidates by nomination of the president of the university, on recommendation of the professor of Naval Science and Tactics (who is a captain in the Navy), and subject the candidate again to a competitive mental examination and final physical examination, we have gone about as far as possible to obtain the best material available within the age limits. We are approaching, within our peculiar limitations, a Rhodes scholarship system of selection. The adequacy of such a system is well indicated by the very low percentage of failures among those selected.
It will be admitted that a youth who enters the Naval Academy after such preliminary selection and preparation should be classed as a high-grade investment by the government. For many reasons he should stand a better than average chance to graduate. He has had an opportunity to become acquainted with naval terms, customs, traditions, drills, watches, life aboard ship—all those features of naval life which cannot be learned thoroughly from books alone. Being so acquainted, he will have had pretty well established in his own mind whether or not he really wants to be a naval officer for life. He has been taught and drilled by naval officers and petty officers and has, therefore, learned the real spirit of naval competition—excellence for excellence’ sake. He has matured somewhat in the matter of social relations by his participation in, or his observance of, the manifold activities of campus life at a big university. He has become more matured physically, although not necessarily a better athlete. He has already passed two naval physical examinations, which makes him a superior risk physically. He will have a large start on his contemporaries from high schools in the strictly naval subjects, which, though it cannot help him much academically during plebe year, will bear large dividends from then on. Much of his upper-class work will be, in fact, merely review, and from the same books he has already covered. From this aspect, he is a fair answer to the oft-recurring demand for the 6-year academic course. In a measure he is the answer to the new and insistent demand for a more liberally educated graduate, because he has almost certainly had in the university more cultural subjects than the midshipman gets in four years. He has started his major at the university and thus gets a beginning which may direct his efforts into profitable postgraduate work later on. His transition to naval life is very much easier (and let no one forget this difficult period in his naval career!) because he has already experienced several phases of it and has lived away from home while attending a university. In summation, he is far better selected and prepared for a naval career than the great majority of youths who come from high schools and preparatory schools. Finally, his aptitude has been quite accurately established, or he would not have made the effort to get into the Naval Academy after his experience in the naval unit.
In the West Coast universities there is a surprising number of students who have had seagoing experience of one kind or another. The Sea Scouts, amateur yachtsmen, and even the merchant service, are well represented. A few have attended state nautical schools and licenses are not uncommon. Even though too old in most cases to enter the Naval Academy, their influence among their classmates in naval subjects reacts to raise the standard in those subjects. Many of the candidates entering the Naval Academy from the units will have had one or perhaps two summer cruises of one month each, and many week-end cruises in eagle boats. On the regular annual summer cruise, they will have stood watch throughout a battleship or a destroyer, fired the guns, and accomplished navigation work in the same manner as midshipmen. The scores and standings of the naval units in intercollegiate rifle shooting, together with their quite remarkable performances at the guns on the summer cruises, are clear evidence of their suitability as gunnery material. The large preponderance of engineering students is an indication that our new field of material is limited in the first place to the technically-minded student.
In the summer of 1935 the Marine Corps opened the way for appointments as second lieutenants in the regular service to graduates of Naval and Army R.O.T.C. units. Of the four who were appointed from one university, three were from the naval unit and one from the coast artillery. Two were Phi Beta Kappas, all held high rank in their respective units and in the campus social-military organizations. All were honor students in their respective units, and three were honor students in the university. One had majored in civil engineering, one in chemistry, one in law, and one in finance. All had four years of R-O.T.C. classroom instruction and drill. Two were major letter athletes, one being captain of a team. Without discrediting the Naval Academy graduate in any way, it is the opinion of the writer that these four men were better qualified by their Majors in the university for commissions in the Marine Corps than the average Naval Academy man. The Marine Corps was greatly impressed with the performance of these college R.O.T.C. graduates at the Basic School and offered similar openings in 1936.
It is not suggested here by any means that the university R.O.T.C. graduate might also step into a commission in the regular Navy with the same prospects of success that he would have in the Marine Corps. Naval technique aboard a man-o’-war requires a wholly navy-trained product. But it is held that the Department has taken a wise step in opening up the same rich vein of material that has laid neglected for 10 years and using it in the established and proved way to get better material for the Naval Academy. It is a vein that is fortunately located, both academically and geographically. It is a vein that, in its preliminary analysis, has assayed very high. It will provide material already refined to a considerable degree in the mill of service conditions as far as they can be applied.
The new policy has lent new significance and even greater prestige to the naval R.O.T.C. units, which will, in turn, also benefit by an even higher grade of applicant. It will tend to link these universities closer to the Naval Academy, which in the past has been regarded by them with detached disinterestedness. It will call into play in the selection of Naval Academy candidates a certain share of the interest and ability of faculty members, which is bound to have favorable results in more than one direction. Hence, a “Bonanza” for our Navy: an exceptionally rich ore pocket!