OFFICERS FOR THE U.S. NAVY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 13

OFFICERS FOR THE U.S. NAVY

yHEL United States iNavy is engaged in the most ambitious shipbuilding programme ever undertaken by any nation at peace. Huge hulls of fighting ships are shaping quickly in their skeleton cradles, even as finished dreadnoughts and destroyers and other men-of-war put to sea months ahead of schedule.

By George Barrett

A nor an almost twenty-year lapse ni naval construction. America's goal in the development of a mighty navy now comes fairly dose to the combined construction programmes of ail six of the worlds other major naval Powers. But behind the scenes of warship construction the navy is also working quickly to organise a corps of Trained officers to serve on the new men-of-war. For in J917. when the I nitcd States is expected to have 32 battleships and a total of almost 700 S warships, the navy will need ,t ? £, ffi . cers lo "Perate the huge fleet Tins is ifi.ooo men in excels <>t the l<«uil of officers now on active Limits of Training Annapolis, for years the traditional training academy for the navv cannot c,»pe with this task, for the Naval Academy is graduating onlv about •><Ju ensigns a vcar. The ROTC units in coMogcs and universities together with the navy's aviation cacc programme, are not expected to supply more than 400 officers annually, or a total, with the Naval Academy, of fewer than .",000 bv J j it. Even allowing for the call to active ?«HvLi° f a - adtll,l °nal reservists and tetired officers now in civil life, and also for the proposed change of the -Naval Academy course from four to

three or three-and-a-half years, it will .-till be necessary for the naw to train elsewhere at least 10,000 "new (•nicer:*. With the traditional efficiency and thoroughness thai characterises the service, the navy has quickly cleared the decks for action—action <=o speedy that within this vear (some six or seven years before the threeocean fleet will be completed) those 10.000 officers should be in uniform' _ Beginning a few months ago. some .000 college graduates between the ;iges of 20 and 27 were enrolled in ;i four-month intensive course, from which about .">OOO are expected to graduate and to receive commissions as ensigns. I>ast year about G6OO Young men were enrolled for the brief traininj; and almost r.oou have been or will be commissioned as officers The completion of the final phase, now under way. will make up most of the 10.000 officer shortage. In culling the -cream students" who will be made naval officers in i<;ur months, the navy is taking a practical view of the situation of supply and demand. And the problem of personnel is therebv solved Ihe young man enrolled in this intensive programme is actually an apprentice seaman for one month and a naval reserve midshipman for the final three months. Preliminary Training The first month of the four months' course is regarded as preliminary and is comparatively easv because it is not generally considered a part of the main training course. year, for instance, the first month was spent entirely at sea aboard a battleship or cruiser, to •break the boys in' - to the wavs of the water.

This year the initial thirty-dav period is being spent in a similar indoctrination course" on shore because the navy can spare no ship? 25 ln is time for training purposes Those candidates temperamentallv unsuited to the service will be weeded out in the first thirty days But after the thirtv-dav trial i« over, the future admiral who starts up the long and. for the non-Anna-polis man. particularlv difficuli ladder of officer promotion will find inat his three months of basic instruction as a midshipman will probably mark the most arduous ninety-day period in his life. »fcSSS t i?f r !?f U attending school aboard the old hulk of the battleship Prairie State in New York, or North Western I niversity in Chicago, or the special course at the Naval zSOrSSL* *2 Annapolis, he will look with healthy respect and excusable pride upon that blue uniform bedizened with gold. Compressed Coarse For the days arc all prettv hard Reveille is at 6.20 a.m. Taps are sounded at 10.15 p.m. on the lands mans timepiece, or "2215" bv the schools clock. If the midshipman •* assigned to late-dutv section for that day he will work up to within fifteen minutes of "lights out*" tn make things shipshape for the following day. Even if the midshipman is free from section duty, he will still be hard at work on studies, for no respite or 'seconds" are granted. At IiJL Ind1 nd - of **£} month an examina uon is given bv the navy At the school on the" Severn, sea manship. navigation, ordnance and gunnery are not touched upon until the third year. In the four-month training course the same subjects are taught from the very start Compressed as the new course is certain ground must be covered if the graduate midshipman is to take his post as an ensign aboard a man of-war. For where Annapolis nor mally requires about 400 Tiours of study in seamanship and navigation 2. r^Lßeserve can spare onb about 170 hours.

On ordnance, midshipmen at Annapolis spend 190 hours; midshipmen in the Naval Reserve take about 80 hours. The engineer students, concentrating on engineering subjects rather than seamanship and gunners-, face the same stiff schedule.

However, the "intangibles." dear to the heart of ail Annapolis men arc on "full schedule" as part and parcel of the Naval Reserve pro gramme. Naval customs and tradi t tonal "form," the rigid rules of naval etiquette, have their place and ihe language at the school is the language of the sea.

The/re Still "Misters"

Midshir n are still "mister?" whether it is Annapolis or the spocia i four-month school, and. like the bov. at the Naval Academv. the Naval Keserve lads march smartlv .between classes and stand at attention until the class js accounted for and th< order given to sit down.

Practical navigation is not forgotten, for the future admirals get a little bit of sea work tossed inu. their intensive course. At each of the three special schools there is a converted yacht or patrol boat serv mg as a training ship. When the small man-of-war puts out to sea for a day or for a week-end. midshipmen take their posts where normally the ship's officers would stand.

I pon the completion of the four months" course the Naval Reserve midshipman is given a Reserve ensign"s commission. Most of the midshipmen, however, because of the emergency and the need for t rained officers, are being enlisted into active duty with the fleet.