October 13, 1775, might well be considered as the birthday of recruiting in the Navy, for it was on that date that the Continental Congress set up the Marine Committee and instructed it to recruit men for the ships of the Continental Navy. Thus, two years later in early November of 1777, when Captain John Paul Jones took the sloop-of-war Ranger out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to harry English shipping, we can speculate that perchance her crew joined up partly because of the recruiting efforts of that Committee. The records show that they had prepared an attractive poster enjoining gentlemen seamen and ablebodied landsmen to present themselves on board the Ranger, in Portsmouth, or at the “Sign of Commodore Manley,” in Salem. Further inducement was offered by shrewdly mentioning that an advance in pay would be made.
From the end of the Revolutionary War until April 30, 1798, when the Navy Department was created, the recruiting record is quite blank. On that date, however, the Secretary of the Navy was charged, in addition to numerous other duties, with procuring men for the Navy. The term of enlistment was limited to one year only, a system which quickly broke down under the strain of war. In 1801 President Jefferson sent a squadron to the Mediterranean to put an end to the depredations of the Barbary corsairs, but the recurring need to send each ship home at the end of a year to discharge caused the operations to drag on through four summers. They were finally brought to a successful conclusion after Congress authorized two-year enlistments.
The history of naval recruiting reflects the many ups and downs which the Navy as a whole has known. One manner in which this is manifested is through recruiting quotas. In an expanding Navy quotas are high and recruiters do a brisk trade. At present recruiting goes on at a fairly good rate—not that the Navy has such a huge enlisted population (711,184 now as compared with 3,500,000 at its World War II peak)—but the reenlistment rate indicates that out of twenty first-cruise sailors, less than one ships over. As a result, the ranks must be filled by recruits.
The third significant event in the history of naval recruiting occurred in the 1840’s when on August 13, 1842, Congress created the first five bureaus of the Navy. One of these, the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair, jointly shared recruiting responsibilities with the Secretary of the Navy’s office. In the decade before the Civil War a momentous step forward was taken when Congress authorized the continuous service system based on reenlistment. In thus making it possible for a seaman to extend his service through twenty or more consecutive years, the Navy for the first time created the same career opportunities for non-commissioned personnel that had previously been available only to officers.
Three more bureaus were established in 1862, one of which was the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting. For almost 27 years recruiting came under this bureau. On June 25, 1889—and in accordance with General Order No. 372—recruiting responsibilities were taken over by the Bureau of Navigation, one of the three bureaus which had been created in 1862.
It remained under BuNav for eighty years, continuing to reflect the fat and lean years of the Navy, and in 1942, when BuNav’s title was changed to BuPers, it remained with that bureau. Today recruiting, or procurement, is one of the major functions of the Bureau of Personnel. One of the first changes after this transfer was the changing of enlistment periods from three to four years. Seventy-five years later this is still the standard term of enlistment, although shortly after World War I a two to three year enlistment period was brought into use.
Recruiting had not long been under BuNav before the Chief of the Bureau, Captain J. G. Walker, USN, noted on October 7,1889, that there was a “strong need for an overhaul and reorganization of the enlisted recruiting, training and retirement situation.” He recommended several changes. Among the more prominent were the following: (1) that an enlisted man be allowed to retire at half pay upon completion of thirty year’s service; (2) that the enlistment of aliens be curtailed, with a view to its final discontinuance; (3) that something be done about the large numbers of trained men leaving the Navy at the end of the first enlistment; (4) that the total naval strength be raised to 9,000 men; (5) that an apprentice be provided with a gratuitous uniform not to exceed $45 in value; and (6) that the pay spread between the non-rated and the rated enlisted men be widened and the pay spread between rated men and commissioned officers be lessened.
His report concluded with the statement that the cost of training recruits amounted to an alarming sum. Our system contrasted strongly with that of Great Britain where a man who joined as a teenager remained in service until he was 28 or 30 years of age. This long-term system completely revolutionized the character of British enlisted personnel. In brief, the U. S. Navy had a training system, but an untrained Navy. “The training should be for the good of the Navy; not for the good of the man,” Captain Walker succinctly stated.
For 127 years there existed a recruiting term which passed away but fifty years ago. This was “rendezvous center.” The term goes back to the early days of the Republic when naval officers made arrangements with proprietors of public houses or inns to rent or use them for a short period as headquarters for recruiting purposes.
A record of this practice is given by the March 19, 1798, edition of Columbian Centinel, a Boston newspaper. In part it read, “. . . a House of Rendezvous is opened at the sign of the ‘Federal Eagle,’ kept by Mrs. Broaders, in Fore-street, where One Hundred and Fifty able Seamen, and Ninety- Five ordinary Seamen, will have an opportunity of entering into the service of their country for One Year. . . . These brave Lads, are now invited to repair to the Flagg of the Constitution now flying at the above rendezvous.”
In 1903 this term was replaced by “recruiting station,” its present designation. Through the years recruiting became more settled. Personnel on what would now be a tour of shore duty had begun operating out of offices in government buildings or commercial buildings. By 1903 there were seven permanent recruiting offices in major cities. These stations were located in the following cities: Boston, Buffalo, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and San Francisco. Today every large city and community has a recruiting station.
A proposed Naval Apprentice System was approved by Congress in 1837. Behind this was the attempt to provide a continuing source of young, new crewmen for Navy ships. Canvassers began signing up boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen to serve on certain men-of-war for “training as seamen” until they reached their twenty- first birthday.
This effort resulted in failure. The law provided for the recruitment of only a limited number of boys for each cruising ship. The number of recruits on any given ship was too small to insure results that would be felt throughout the Navy. In 1843, after a six-year trial, the recruitment of boys under this plan was dropped.
In 1855 Congress again authorized the recruitment of boys—this time between the ages of fourteen and eighteen—and again under a Naval Apprentice System. At the end of the year, Secretary of the Navy J. C. Dobbin passed on to President Franklin Pierce comments from officers in the Fleet about the progress of the system.
Commodore Hiram Paulding of the Home Squadron wrote; “In reply to your verbal inquiries in respect to the apprentice and other boys serving on board the flagship Potomac, it affords me more than ordinary satisfaction to bear testimony to their excellent conduct.
“I trust it may be but a beginning of a new order of things in the Navy and that the system will be extended until our ships-of- war are manned with a class of seamen that shall be conspicuous for their energy and cheerful subordination.”
Lieutenant (commanding) W. D. Porter of the Mediterranean-based Supply reported, “The apprentice boys you allowed me are doing well. In one year they will make good ordinary seamen.” At that time about one man in twelve of the crew of a sea-going Navy ship was an apprentice boy.
When in 1863 Congress passed the Army draft law, the Navy found itself with a touchy situation on its hands. Men already in the Navy were not exempt from Army service. Sailors serving in ships of the home squadrons, as well as in ships overseas, often learned that they had been drafted into the Army. For that reason, men preferred not to enlist in the Navy at the risk of later being drafted for Army service. Furthermore, the draft law offered substantial bounties to men volunteering for Army service, but no bounties were offered to Navy volunteers. As a result many men left the Navy and enlisted in the Army.
Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, wrote President Lincoln in 1863: “It certainly could not have been intended by Congress that persons in actual service afloat should be withdrawn from the Navy, and be compelled under penalties of law to go into the Army.” The following year Congress rectified the error. When the war ended more than 50,000 men were in Navy uniform.
In 1893 the commandant of the Newport, R. I., Naval Training Station requested BuNav that recruiters not be permitted to enlist fourteen-year-old youths. These lads were too immature both in mind and body for training, he said. He urged that “recruiters make a concentrated effort to enlist men of good character who were between the ages of fifteen and thirty.”
Shortly before this, Captain F. M. Ramsey, Chief of BuNav, had complained— apparently to the recruiters in the field— that “Many boys are recruited into the Navy who soon tire of the novelty of the life —many others are urged to enlist by their parents who apparently want their sons educated and disciplined before putting them at other work.”
Enlistment requirements were not easy in those days. In 1894, out of 16,000 applicants, only 5,000 were accepted. Life in the Navy must not have been easy, either, since about fifty of those accepted later purchased their discharges. The practice of “buying out of the Navy” was discontinued soon after World War I.
Rigid requirements continued. In 1895 only 6,000 men out of 32,000 candidates for enlistment were shipped in. Physical disqualifications took the greatest toll. Reports indicate that recruiting was especially good in the South, Midwest, and the West.
Unhappy news continued to come in from Newport. Commander John M. McGowan, USN Commandant of the Training Station there, said in 1898 that the greater number of apprentices recruited and sent there were entirely unacquainted with methods of taking care of their person or clothing and that “sanitation is to them a problem far in advance of anything they ever thought of.”
A new recruiting idea was temporarily adopted in 1899. Men of foreign birth and foreign service—men who were ignorant of man-of-war discipline and the use of shipboard arms—were forming a substantial part of the Navy’s enlisted strength. To offset this a number of youthful American citizens were enlisted and put directly aboard cruiser training ships as “landsmen.” This plan, in which men learned as they earned, worked out satisfactorily and was continued until World War I.
In the early 1890’s more than half of the enlisted strength was foreign-born. Some of these, of course, had grown up in America; but most were not only foreign in birth but foreign in varying degrees in their personal manners and customs. Their records in many ways were not exemplary. According to one early report, for example, “A number of aliens had been enlisting in the Navy just to obtain passage from one part of the world to the other.”
In 1872 Commodore Stephen B. Luce, “father of our naval training system,” wrote Secretary of the Navy G. M. Robeson, “Our ships go to sea manned by heterogeneous crews representing nearly every country on the face of the globe; men, many of them utterly destitute of any feeling or attachment for or interest in the Navy.” The Commodore went on to draw a word picture of the unhappy results of permitting “sailors of many foreign tongues” to join the U. S. Navy. He accompanied it with a table showing that 35 countries were represented on five U. S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean and that only 46.6 per cent of the crewmen were Americans.
The situation was slow to improve. In the early 1890’s there was a U. S. Navy gunboat in Chinese waters with but one American in a crew of 135. It was on this gunboat that the well known word was passed by a visiting officer, “If there is anyone in the gangway who can speak English, lay aft.”
One ship in the Mediterranean had this sign posted in a conspicuous place: “Id on parte anglais.” About her decks might be heard French, German, Spanish, Italian, Gaelic, and occasionally Chinese.
Small wonder it was that responsible naval officers were concerned. This situation continued to be a sore point for several years. A few years after the turn of the century, however, laws went into effect curtailing the recruitment of foreigners. Prior to 1907 an alien could enlist in the Navy—all other conditions having been met—merely by declaring his intention to become a citizen of the United States. Beginning with that year only full fledged citizens were permitted to enlist. Those already in the Navy had to take out full citizenship papers before being allowed to reenlist.
Men shipped in the Navy as coal-passers were also the cause of an unproportionate amount of trouble in the old days. An analysis of desertions in the Navy showed that 35 per cent were made by coal-passers. These men were “usually from an undesirable element, predisposed to disaffection, and with no knowledge of the requirements of the service, or of discipline, the latter brought about mainly because they were permitted to enlist, by-pass training stations and go directly aboard ship.” In fairness to these men, though, it must be remembered that they were shipped in under one title—coal-passer, and for one type of work—passing coal and feeding fires.
Recruiting in 1906 was hampered by a shortage of officers on full-time recruiting duty. In addition, the enlisted pay situation at that time was rather meager when compared to civilian scales. This is highlighted by five commercial advertisements which appeared in a prominent newspaper of Chicago on the same page as the local naval recruiter’s advertisement. The five advertisements told of various railroad companies with lines either entering or passing near that city. They offered high inducements in positions of brakeman or conductor. Wages offered started at $65 a month and ranged up to $200 a month. The recruiting advertisement offered a miserable $15 to $17 a month to future sailormen.
In 1910 steps were taken to improve the efficiency of the recruiting service and to establish a uniform operating system for all recruiting stations. A more careful selectivity of enlisted recruiters was started, with special attention being given to habit and bearing. Those whose behavior warranted it were given a two-year tour of such duty. Five years later reports were coming in to BuNav from various stations that parental objection to the enlistment of sons was steadily decreasing. In fact parents often brought their sons directly to the recruiting stations and encouraged them to join up.
“All enlistments are voluntary and all enlistments are for four years.” The Navy was able to, and did, make that boast in 1917. However, with a war to contend with the picture changed the next year. Under the provisions of the Congressional Man Power Act of August 31,1918, the Navy had to accept draftees—and it did so from October 1,1918, to December 2,1918, operating under the title of Navy Mobilization Service. Some 240 substations closed down because of this move. After two months of this method the Navy went back to volunteer recruiting and the substations reopened. By the end of World War I more than 507,000 men had entered the Navy.
In the years immediately after World War I recruiters again found it impossible to fill quotas. Trained men were leaving the Navy by the thousands. Fighting back, the Bureau brought into use a short-term enlistment period of two to three years. Posters on display at post offices and city halls across the country began showing the itinerary of ships. Potential enlistees and reenlistees then had the opportunity to study these schedules and ports and ask for assignment aboard those ships whose travels were to their liking.
On October 10, 1919, a practice of many years’ standing went by the board. Henceforth first enlistments could only be made at recruiting stations. Up to this time a man could also apply at a naval training station or a ship carrying a medical officer.
In the summer of 1921 enlistments were averaging 1,500 a week; by the end of the year, nearly 4,000 a week. Over 29,000 were shipped in the Navy between October 14 and December 16. Undesirables totaling 2,660 were prevented from reentering the service, even though they used assumed names. Thanks to the Navy’s new Identification Section they were stopped not long after their fingerprints had been taken.
The Navy was up to strength in 1922, and for five months no first enlistments were made. The current Naval Appropriations Bill had provided money to take care of the wages of about 100,000 men, but there were 112,000 men to be paid. Consequently, men were being discharged three months early. Physical standards were raised the same year to prevent the young men who were not up to par physically from joining the Navy. Two years before, when quotas were not being filled, physical requirements had been considerably lowered. As a result, naval hospitals were over-crowded with physically handicapped patients at a time when there was a critical shortage of trained pharmacist’s mates.
The year 1926 marked the assignment of a number of active duty Fleet Reservists to recruiting duty—a procedure carried on until 1940—and the establishment of the Office of Recruiting Inspector. The following year all new recruiters were required to take one- month courses of instruction at Recruiters Schools located at Norfolk and San Diego. These schools had been set up in 1924 and are still going strong, turning out more than 120 new enlisted recruiters every seven weeks at the present time. Later, reports began to show that the school training resulted in the improvement of the recruiters’ ability to carry out a more effective program. Character references and employers’ references were now required of each applicant.
By 1929 the mental caliber of recruits reached its highest level up to that time. The average recruit had nine years and four months of schooling to his credit. Quotas were beginning to tighten up, however, and the bleak period of the early and midthirties was approaching.
Some 114,000 men applied for first enlistment in 1930, indicating that the Depression was at hand. Only 8,883 were accepted. The next year 131,857 applied and 7,061 were shipped in. The percentage of successful applicants during this time was, in the long view, remarkably low.
Many persons still in the Navy recall the temporary fifteen per cent pay cut they received in 1933. In spite of it, the Navy attained an all-high record of 93 per cent of its reenlistments. Nearly 126,000 men applied for enlistment at the various recruiting stations throughout the United States. However, a still lower number, a mere 4,572, was accepted. In May, 1933, the recruitment of all first enlistments was stopped. The training stations at Great Lakes and Newport were closed down. Only the training station at Norfolk remained open, and it was on a part time basis. With but one candidate out of thirty being accepted, the year 1933 was the leanest in a series of memorably lean years.
Then in August, 1934, the recruiting of men was resumed when recruiters west of the Mississippi began shipping in men. These men were sent to the San Diego training station. In October the training station at Norfolk was reopened and the enlistment of men east of the Mississippi was resumed on a restricted scale. The two training stations at Newport and Great Lakes remained closed. Recruiting was speeded up in the fall when the Bureau of the Budget indicated its willingness to recommend funds for an increase in personnel strength. Substations gradually reopened and more men were assigned to recruiting duty. All recruiting stations were in rent-free quarters. By the end of the year, 11,575 men had been enlisted. The picture was slowly beginning to brighten for the average young man of two decades ago who wished to have a fling at life in the U. S. Navy.
Conditions continued to improve through the next year. For the second year in a row there had not been a single under-age discharge. This pointed out the thorough investigations made by recruiters. Main stations were reopened at Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. In anticipation of the resuming of recruit training at Great Lakes and Newport, crews were ordered to the two stations. Over 200,000 men applied for enlistment; nearly 11,000 were accepted.
Reenlistments in 1936 continued to remain high. Recruiters, working out of 35 main stations and 220 substations, looked over 181,489 applicants and approved 18,039 for enlistment. The two training stations at Great Lakes and Newport still remained closed. However, Norfolk and San Diego training stations were operating at a normal capacity. In 1937 just enough men were admitted into the Navy to fill the ranks of those few men who did not reenlist. Approximately 131,000 applied for enlistment, with 15,484 being accepted. Reenlistments averaged 84 per cent. By now the other two training stations were open for business— thus four training stations were carrying on their mission of bridging the gap from civilian to naval life for youthful enlistees. The next year (1938) found another rush for enlistments when 170,000 civilians desired to see the world as members of the U. S. Navy. About ten per cent of them were finally permitted to don the bluejacket’s uniform. Recruiters were able to use a stringent, high selectivity scale, and the recognized excellence of the enlisted force in the years immediately preceding World War II was attributed to the care they had been exercising. At that time there were 81 officers and 403 enlisted men on recruiting duty.
With World War II approaching in 1940, the Recruiting Service began to settle down to big business. About 39,000 men were shipped that year, the largest number since the first World War. Most of the regular Navy recruiters had their tours cut short and went to ships and overseas bases. Many of the Fleet Reservists being recalled to active duty at that time were assigned to recruiting duty, to replace the younger, regular Navy recruiters who were urgently needed on ships. Soon after the recruiting force began to be augmented by newly enlisted Naval Reservists. Most of these men were specialists from civilian public relations agencies and advertising concerns. The recruiting service gradually built up strength, and by June 30, 1944, more than 5,000 men were serving in recruiting billets. About 90 per cent of these were Naval Reservists. That they kept themselves on the go is testified to by the fact that from December 7, 1941, to V-J Day, September 1, 1945, 3,500,000 enlisted men and 86,000 enlisted Waves had entered the Navy via recruiting stations.
The recruiting station today is a well known American institution. For many people it is the only part of the Navy they ever see. Because of its role in representing the Navy to so large a section of the public, the Recruiting Service personnel is carefully chosen. “Mr. Navy” is the title often given by local businessmen to a popular recruiting petty officer serving a community. Few types of shore duty are held in higher regard than a tour of recruiting duty. Applications are many; consequently, the Recruiting Service is able to exercise a high degree of selectivity.
At the present writing about 260 officers, 3,500 enlisted men, and 81 enlisted Waves have full-time recruiting duties. There are 43 main stations and 385 substations. Recruiters are located in each of the 48 states, as well as in Hawaii and Alaska. In the days of the sailing ship Navy recruiters had but one job—recruitment of sailors. Future sailors today still account for the largest numbers of personnel shipped in; however, there are various other categories of personnel with whose procurement or recruitment recruiters are actively concerned. Prominent among these are: Naval Aviation Cadets, Reserve Officer Candidates, some Naval Officers (including dentists and doctors), Enlisted Waves, Wave Officers, Navy Nurses, Medical Service Corps Specialists (Women), and Naval Reservists.
Many years have passed since the time when a Revolutionary War sailorman had only to report on board the ship in which he was to serve in order to join the Navy. Such early methods present an interesting contrast with our modern efficient system in which specially trained recruiters, using the latest personnel handling procedures, process the inquisitive and eager young civilian into the U. S. Navy and start him on the road to his naval career.