US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Ten Years of Big Ship Gunnery 73
There were 103 destroyers in commission in the Navy in July 1924 and
38 of them were in the Battle Fleet. The new 7,500-ton light cruisers of the
Omaha class were starting to join the Fleet, and the “experiment of substituting
bunks for hammocks” was being tried in the larger ships of the
Navy.sT
The memory of the Honda disaster of September 1923 in which seven
destroyers were stranded and two temporarily grounded by running ashore
in a fog on the California coast was fresh in every destroyer man’s mind.
The Afervine, along with the rest of the division was in the Puget Sound
area, when on 28 July 1924, Lieutenant Commander Turner assumed com-
mand, the previous Commanding Oflicer, Lieutenant Commander Robert M.
Hinckley, having already gone to shore duty. The Executive Officer was
Lieutenant Frederick D. Powers, Class of 1914, and the ship had one more
than her full allowance of seven officers.
As the officer personnel situation eased, the Department ordered Com-
mander Theodore A. Kittinger, Class of 1901, as Commander, Destroyer
Division 35. Commander Kittinger had missed stays in his first chance at
selection to temporary commander in August 1917, and when later selected,
served out World War I junior to a number of the Class of 1902 on the
Navy List. On the reversion of all oflicers to their permanent rank on
1 January 1922, he regainedhisoriginalseniority within the Class of 1901.
Considered for selection to Captain in the same year that Turner was
selected to Commander, Kittinger was not amongst those picked for promotion
that year nor by any later Selection Board.
While Turner was in command, the Mervine participated with the other
destroyers of Destroyer Division 35, Destroyer Squadron 12 and Destroyer
Battle Force in the scheduled ship training, division training, squadron train-
ing, and force training incident to the Fleet schedule of tactical and strategical
training and competitive exercises.
The Metwine also participated in Fleet Problem v, 2–1 I March 1925. This
was the first Fleet Problem to incorporate actual aircraft operations from
a carrier, the USS Lungley, Aircraft patrol squa&on5 had participatedsince
1923 in scouting and search during Fleet problems, as had observation
planes from battleships and cruisers. These aircraft had also simulated
carrier aircraft bombing operations for several years, but the 1925 Fleet
Problem opened the tide gate of seagoing aviation advancement.
Early detachment from the Mervine denied Lieutenant Commander
* SECNAV, AnnualReport, 1924