Discussions, Comments and Notes

When T.R. Streamlined the Officers

(See page 1310, December, 1952, Proceedings)

Captain Frederick V. MacNair, U. S. Navy (Ret.).—I read Admiral Johnson’s article with both interest and considerable amusement, as I still have a copy of General Order No. 6 in my old General Order File.

In 1909, at the time of the issue of General Order No. 6 requiring officers to choose the walking, riding, or bicycle test to establish their physical fitness early, I was command­ing the 1st Submarine Division consisting of the Adder and the Moccasin—huge “subs” displacing 170 tons each!

“Readying” the Adder and Moccasin for transporting them to Cavite in the Philip­pines in the Norfolk Navy Yard was a long, tiresome chore. The Officers and Chief Petty Officers of the Reserve Flotilla, were quar­tered on the old Lancaster, the receiving ship moored at St. Helena across the Elizabeth River.

The physical order by “Teddy” caused much discussion—not to say consternation among the officers at the Norfolk Yard, as it did elsewhere.

At lunch in the'Wardroom Mess of the old Lancaster, Tom Hagner and Hilton, both young Paymasters, were violently arguing about the 50-mile walking tests. Tom Hag­ner, then only about thirty, stated that the 50-mile walk would wreck any officer to walk it in three days. Finally “Pay” Hilton, who had been a sports writer for the Balti­more Sun, said he’d “bet that McNair could walk it in one day.”

Thus drawn into this usual “Wardroom brawl”—which nobody ever wins—I al­lowed that I had no time to fiddle with this “test” and was going to walk the 50 miles in 12 hours in one day.

Tom Hagner and another young officer offered to bet that it couldn’t be done. So Pay Hilton and I took the bet that we would pay for the best dinner in Norfolk with still Burgundy if I did not walk the 50-mile test in 12 hours and that Hilton was to accom­pany me on a bicycle to check with speed­ometer that I had covered the 50 miles, and the time for same.

The test was taken on Feb. 20th walking from Norfolk, to Piney Point four times and return, and Hilton and I won a good dinner with much laughter at Tom Hagner.

Here is a copy of my report to the Secre­tary of Navy through Chief of Bureau of Navigation—then Chief of Personnel—who happened to be Admiral J. E. Pillsbury.

U.S. RESERVE FLOTILLA, NAVY YARD, NORFOLK, VA., February 23, 1909.

Sir;—

1.    I respectfully report having taken the physical test prescribed by General Order No. 6 of walk­ing fifty (50) miles in 10 hours and 12 minutes.

2.    I took said test on Saturday, February 20th, 1909, starting at 7 A.M. ■

Very respectfully,

F. V. McNair Lieutenant, U.S.N. Commanding.

The Secretary of the Navy

Navy Department, Washington, D.C.

Thru Bureau of Navigation.

Bureau of Navigation stated that I was the third officer to have taken this test, and Capt. Harry Leonard’s followed later which caused the Department to rule that the test had to be taken in three subsequent days, requiring them to take it over again.

Admiral Pillsbury had been much worried about the Physical Test, for he believed—- with many officers—that such tests would retire or kill many officers; so that on receiv­ing my enclosed report of completion, the 50 miles in 10 hours and 12 minutes, he was so greatly relieved that he approved my re­quest to command a new submarine build­ing at Quincy, Mass., instead of taking the Adder and Moccasin to Cavite, since I had only recently completed four years and ten months in the Philippines and the China Station.

The “finale” occurred when I was listed in the 1910 World’s Almanac as having broken the World’s Record for the 50-mile walk as having made the distance in 10 hrs. 12 min.

This was followed by the invitation to compete in the Marathon Derby at Flat- bush, Brooklyn, N. Y. on May 30, 1910, with other winners of Marathons including the Italian Dorando who had won at the Olym­pics.

I was foolish enough to accept and finished fifth among twelve Marathon winners— though I was an old man of thirty with two children,—how foolish can you be at thirty!

I heard many stories of officers “riding a 100 miles in a baggage car” over which we all laughed, but the conclusion is absolutely correct that the memory of General Order No. 6 still exists as does the memory of “Teddy” Roosevelt—who many people still believe was right 90% of the time!

Enough Is Too Much

Hobart Key, Jr.—During the war I had the opportunity, while acting as outfitting officer for vessels built on the Gulf Coast, to observe first hand the amazing amount of useless or superfluous equipment stowed aboard all types of naval vessels. The ship’s outfit, exclusive of ammunition and com­missary stores, consisted at that time of the following classifications, each of which I will take up in detail:

Machinery spares and equipment Hull spares and equipment Electrical spares and equipment Ordnance spares and equipment Ships supplies, miscellaneous (included under Hull list)

The ship’s allowance list was a detailed list of each item of spares or equipment furnished and amounted on the average to some 30,000 items for a DD of the Fletcher' class. The colossal task of assembling these items from the diverse and often remote manufacturer, bureaus, authorities and depots required constant and painstaking work. After the outfit was assembled, all these items had to be checked personally by ship’s personnel, stowages provided, properly marked and designated in a master stowage plan. It will be seen that a reduction in the number and diversity of spare parts and equipment would save endless confusion, loss of valuable “readiness time” and effect a great saving in money.

It was a disappointment to me that after weeks of hard work very few of the ship’s company even knew the location of the spares connected with their department. It was then that I evolved a master plan and index showing in detail the location of this equipment about ship. I regret also to say that much of this equipment, obviously of a useless nature, was immediately surveyed over the side as soon as convenient by the more non-reg C. O’s.

I have often thought a more practical ap­proach might be made to the problem which would cut the allowance to less than half the size then in use.

In the category of paper work gone wild, the machinery and electrical spares are a standout.

It seemed to me that in DD, DE, AM and similar class vessels the hopeless task of pro­viding spares for every possible contingency had been expanded beyond all reason. It should be realized that any major overhaul or repair is beyond the capability of the hastily assembled crews with which we will have to man these vessels in time of war; therefore, fleet repair ships, bases, etc., and as a corol­lary it should be kept in mind that any re­pairs underway are difficult even for the highest trained crew. We felt that we were doing well if we could teach the crews how to operate the ship, much less rebuild parts of it-

In this line of useless items should g° spare cylinder heads, spare tail shafts, spare main engine gear of all types except that usually required or replaced in actual operat­ing practice. The electrical spares should be reduced to those items that any jack-leg electrical man could readily convert to the uses required by emergency. Such superflu­ous items as spare parts for each electric buzz fan could be dispensed with without ma­terially reducing the fighting efficiency of the ship. To appreciate the appalling amount of junk heaped on the unsuspecting operating personnel it must be realized that spares were furnished for every circuit breaker, every motor, every switch of any size. Seemingly all this was done without much consistent thought, the spares for identical equipment duplicated over and over and similar spares furnished for each piece of equipment, i his not only resulted in needless waste of effort and diversion of badly needed parts from construction of actual units to spares but actually constituted a menace to the operat­ing force when in battle. The stowages pro­vided required that spare parts boxes be stowed in racks in the engineering spaces, living spaces, galley, and steering aft. A shell hit in any of these places would spray any survivors with hundreds of items ranging in size from a cylinder head to a nut Hex, size A2c per specification provided by manu­facturers diagram 20.

None of this seems to make sense. If spares are required, they should be at a minimum, and they should be kept aboard repair ves­sels or at bases for eventual use.

Of all the spares furnished, ordnance was the only department to show any apprecia­tion of the spare parts situation. This was a noble exception.

The hull allowance in some cases must have b^en taken direct from the list of equipment necessary in the time of Nelson. It included little of any value for practical purposes and a multitude of gear for which there was no use. It was further padded to include typewriters, paper and clerical equipment far in excess of what was required.

It is to be hoped that some re-examination may be had for this whole problem, the mag­nitude of which can be scarcely compre­hended by a quick glance at this article. Spares constitute a problem that is handed down like the proverbial mule lost in Custer’s Last Stand and still on the books.

I once spent weeks tracing a set of pump spares for a certain DD. Eventually I got them—for a DD of the same name that had been sunk in the 1st World War. The amount of lost motion checking, stowing, heaving over the side, making reports, trac­ing, and transporting this material would keep thousands of men busy.

An analogy could be drawn of a milk-toast character in his automobile, with a trailer hitched behind loaded with everything from a carburetor gasket to a spare axle, ready for any emergency but not smart enough to re­pair a leaky tire valve.

In these days of aircraft support the spares could be flown to the vessel with an expert to put them in. This makes some sense.

The officer I admired most during my en­tire experience in this work was the C. 0. of a British Mine Sweep. He put ashore every spare as soon as he reached his base, put ashore every typewriter (if anybody has anything to say, he can find the man to say it to on this small ship), took out the “Bull Horn” (the boatswain can pass the word and report to me that it was heard), every piece of luxury equipment deemed unnecessary to fight the ship went overboard. This and much more he did and in my opinion greatly increased the safety and efficiency of his ship. He also installed a small piano in his state room to make up in a way for the things he left behind. He said he felt it would sound pretty and look pretty and that was more than he could say for the surplus of spares.

This whole matter of spares and equip­ment, the ships outfit, must be examined in the light of present day conditions.

The saving in time, money, manpower, parts, materials and equipment, the safety of the operating personnel, the weight saving to be employed for further capacity for fuel or ammunition must be weighed against the remote possibility that some of this equip­ment would be needed, and if needed could be used by the people at hand and with the limited skills and facilities on board. If this problem is appraised honestly, it is my opinion that each ship and ship’s company will be spared the burden and care of tons of excess baggage.