US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Ten Years of Big ship G.wmevy 69
Conference. This conference met in Washington on 12 November 1921, and
drafted a treaty that was signed on 6 February 1922 and ratified by all the
signatory powers by July 1923. During 192 1–1922, 376 ships of the United
States Navy were placed out of commission, and the total of enlisted personnel
was reduced to 86,000. On 31 December 1921 all permanent officers
with a wartime temporary advancement in rank, some 1,059, were reverted by
departmental fiat to their permanent rank. In addition, some 700 Naval
Reserve officers were ordered to inactive duty, and over a thousand enlisted
men were reverted from temporary officer rank to their permanent enlisted
ranks. These events, leaving less than 20 officers of the Naval Reserve on
active duty, and no temporarily commissioned enlisted men, raised doubts as
to the future of the naval profession, and led to the thoughtful resignations.
It was a period of great discouragement for the officer corps of the Navy.
There was a shortage of over a thousand officers of the Line in the Navy.
The budget did not allow adequate money for purchase of fuel oil, with
the result that “the movement of ships was restricted far below that which
is necessary to maintain efficiency in the Fleet and to train new personnel in
seagoing habits. ” 26
Ships were undermanned, and they were not going to sea. Strange as this
may seem to the naval officer of the mid- 1960’s, it made many naval officers
of the early 1920’s most unhappy.
By the time the Selection Board of 1924 and 1925 started looking over
Lieutenant Commander Turner and his classmates, there were 109 on the
Line of the Navy list remaining out of the 131 who had made the rank
of lieutenant commander initially. One hundred were selected to the grade
of commander. This was selection at its easiest. In fact it couldn’t be called
selection. It was a modified form of plucking those whose records indicated
they were the less able 10 percent. But the promise of tougher hurdles lay
ahead, and only 50 percent of the 1908 graduating class was still around
working at seagoing chores.
THE 1924 SEAGOING NAVY
The 1924 United States Fleet had four major components in U. S. waters.
These were the Battle Fleet, operating in the Pacific, the Scouting Fleet
= SECNAV,Annual Report, 1923, pp. 10, 12.