There are no skeptics left. Commandants and Commanding Officers are convinced that recreation facilities and a well-directed program are a very important function of the Navy.
Civilians having no opportunity to visit within the guarded gates of naval stations have no picture of the extent of the recreational facilities and programs available to the hundreds of thousands of naval personnel in operational and training stations. Only by personal contact and through references in letters have they been able to picture what the sailor ashore does in his free time after a hard day’s work or school.
In early 1940, the Navy Department realized the importance of a professionally directed recreational program and authorized as part of its mobilization requirements the billets of Director of Recreation and Welfare activities in each naval district and that of station Welfare and Recreation Officers.
Three successive Commandants of the First Naval District have availed themselves of the authorization and have given full support to the development of needed recreational facilities and program.
What the Program Implies
This program is seen differently through different eyes. To the Commandant it means in official language the following:
To provide means for physical, emotional, and mental expression.
To aid in the development of leadership, initiative, co-operation.
To enhance the development of zeal, confidence, and spirit within the individual.
To eradicate as far as possible all demoralizing and destructive influences.
To the Commanding Officer beset with a million immediate problems of construction, space, security, discipline, transportation, food, clothing, training, production, or patrol, it means:
Building a pride in the station quickly
Contented personnel
Less trouble from liberty parties
A few moments of personal relaxation
A pride in the achievements of his own personnel
To the Recreation Officer, professionally it means:
Well-rounded development of the individual Opportunities to develop latent talents
Applying the results of educational recreation research to the problems of training and production Keeping the individual physically fit by self- satisfying sports cheerfully engaged in
To the individual sailor, it means:
“Hi mate, what’s cooking?”
“Boy, a real dance tonight! 500 gals in evening gowns”
“Our gang’s going fishing Saturday”
“This is our station and we are damn proud of it” “Lots of good books”
“Where the Hell can I get a little privacy to write that letter?”
Music to fit the mood
“Our station paper”
“The best team on the station”
“He’s OUR Captain”
Of all the naval personnel in a naval district, perhaps only the District Recreation Officer has a complete picture of the magnitude of the recreation plant and program in the district and even he wishes he could keep pace with the expanding plant and myriad demands so that all of the hundreds of thousands of sailors would get their just dues.
Type and Extent of Stations
During the past two years, old naval stations have expanded to occupy every square foot of land. Scores of new activities have sprung up over hundreds of miles of coast line. Huge training stations (boot training, officer training, motor torpedo boat training, Seabees), training schools (radio, sound, machinist mate, yeoman, gunnery, antiaircraft, fire control, etc.), warehouses, hotels, college and university property utilized. Supply depots, net and fuel depots, ammunition and other depots. Naval Air Stations (lighter than air and heavier than air) for both training and combat, auxiliary air fields. Torpedo Stations, Torpedo Testing Stations. Section Bases. Harbor Entrance Control Posts. Marine Barracks. Receiving Ships. Receiving Stations and Fleet Anchorages.
Each of these stations presents a radically different administration problem and entirely different recreational facility and program problem.
One station is located in the heart of a major city with men awaiting assignment to an operation station or to a ship. Another is located in the wilderness, hell bent on training Seabees in all kinds of construction work in six weeks, with the nearest liberty town 130 miles away.
One station may have hundreds, yes thousands of acres with ample room for every known sport; another is on an island with every foot of space occupied by roads or buildings and not enough space to locate an extra horseshoe pit or ping-pong table. At one station the sailor sits 12 hours in classrooms or in studies or in record keeping, at another the sailor heaves away at heavy torpedoes, bombs, or shells all day.
Extent of the Program
No recreation program can be projected without full consideration of the mission of the station, its physical property, its relationship to local communities, transportation and liberty schedules.
To a city Recreation Director, the scope of a naval district’s recreation program can be grasped when by comparison it dwarfs the largest city’s program in physical plant, operating personnel, attendance.
To a bowler when you say 200 alleys
To a boxer when you say 98 rings
To a fisherman when you say tackle and homemade boats for 100 fishing parties
To a baseball fan when there are 582 soft ball and 40 baseball diamonds
To a tennis player when you say 217 tennis courts
Or to a business man when you say profits from:
$15,000,000 ship’s service stores
$12,000,000 worth of recreation gear and equipment
$1,000,000 worth of motion pictures
Or to the girls when you say:
A dance hall for 3,000 at one time Roller skating for 500 in one hall
5,000 hostesses per week for dances, not counting those in town
When there are indoor swimming pools ranging in size up to 75'X275'
In addition to these facilities there are, of course, two score football fields, innumerable horseshoe pits, and other sport facilities.
Appraisal
The test of the recreation program is, of course, not in the buildings, the gear, or the statistics, but in the heart and mind of each bluejacket. He gave up the privacy of that room in his home to train and do the job, the job the Navy assigns. Instead of that private room he now has the-company of 400 snoring on the same deck of a receiving station or the chance to be tossed from his berth with every roll of his escort ship.
Every commanding officer knows his men are proud of their ship and their shipmates, but usually there are too many men for the space available. Under these .conditions, recreation is indispensable.
It is difficult to measure the results of a good recreation program because of many other factors, but the following, all considered, give a fairly accurate appraisal:
Extent of A.W.O.L., A.O.L.
Spirit of the station paper
Number and nature of disciplinary cases
Respect for government property
General pride in station
Venereal disease rate
When a naval district repeatedly shows the lowest venereal disease rate in the country— to a large degree it reflects a good recreational program, on the station and in the community.
Service to the Fleet
In addition to providing for the welfare and recreation of personnel in the shore establishments, Commandants, through their District Welfare and other Recreation officers, endeavor to give maximum assistance in the form of welfare and recreation service to all naval vessels in the ports whether assigned to the District or to Local Defense, Sea Frontiers, or to one of the fleets. This service consists of advice on the expenditure of both appropriated and welfare funds in behalf of ship’s crews, ship’s dances, community sports, entertainments, and other recreational services.
Innumerable games, pianos, musical instruments, books, magazines, radios, phonographs and records are placed aboard. Usually all such gear is destroyed before battle or given away to naval or army personnel in battle areas and consequently needs to be replenished on arrival in a district port.
Other Services
Four naval recreation camps, each providing for 14 officers and 200 men, are located in attractive public park areas. These camps are operated under the supervision of the District Recreation Officer primarily for the crews of naval vessels recently returned from combat. Other naval personnel may be assigned. Frequently they are for pre-training and conditioning of new crews.
The camps offer sports from swimming to skiing, fishing, nature study, crafts, and social affairs.
Service to Foreign Bases
The operating bases and the various air stations and a score of minor naval activities under them naturally look to the nearest naval district for assistance in procuring the necessary personnel, supplies, and equipment essential to the morale, welfare, and recreation of the personnel located in these isolated stations. The personnel of the District Welfare and Recreation Office derive a great deal of satisfaction in procuring all sorts of material for these outlying activities. This type of gear has ranged all the way from a number of million packs and bars of cigarettes and candy to sun lamps. Other items are athletic gear of all kinds, games, playing cards, newspapers, magazines, books, and occasionally an unusual item such as a considerable shipment of Christmas trees, ornaments, and lights. In one case, the request for Christmas trees was so close to shipping date that it was not possible to procure the trees commercially. Consequently, through the generosity of the State of New Hampshire, naval personnel at one of the naval recreation camps cut, packed, and transported trees in time to make the last ship which would arrive at the treeless base in time for the Christmas holiday.
Conclusion
It is perfectly natural for those personnel of the Navy who have been assigned the duties of promoting a wholesome recreation program for naval personnel to wonder as to the effectiveness and worthwhileness of their work. Occasionally, we have the satisfaction of getting a letter, such as the following which is quoted, from an enlisted man from one of the more rugged naval bases:
The Welfare and Recreation Department here does a “bang-up” job in my estimation. I have remarked to my friends back home that it is the one bright spot in the otherwise drab routine days and to the point that the feeling of restriction and suppression is alleviated. So many others make similar remarks. Therein lies its objective and in meeting this objective so well, surely is a tribute to the men in the Welfare and Recreation Department and its policy. I am constantly amazed at the scope of their activity and seemingly their earnest and sincere desire to provide every bit of wholesome recreation that can be offered.