US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

CHAPTER IV
In and Out of Big Time
Naval Aviation
1932–1940
EXECUTIVE OFFICER—SARATOGA (CV-3 )
The United States Fleet had been reorganized in April 1931, and the use
of the terms Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet discontinued. Under the reorganization,
there was a large Battle Force in the Pacific Ocean with battle-
ships, carriers, destroyers, minecraft, and shore-based patrol squadrons, and
a smaller Scouting Force in the Atlantic Ocean with no minecraft and fewer
of all the other types, but strong in cruisers. There was a widely dispersed
Submarine Force to supersede the Control Force, and a Base Force, the latter
performing expanded d~ties of the former logistic Train, and including a
few shore-based aircraft squadrons, largely patrol aircraft.
The Saratoga was half of the aircraft carrier strength in the mighty Battle
Force, sharing that honor with the Lexington. The third carrier in the United
States Navy, the ex-collier ]ti@er, now the Langley, was in the Scouting
Force. The number of battleships on 1 July 19?J1 was at a new low, as only
12 battleships were in full commission, and the number of enlisted personnel
in the whole Navy was down to the post World War I low of 79,7oo.
Just to make the modern naval officer’s mouth water at the thought, the
percentage of reenlistments in 1933 was over 90 percent, and to shed a tear,
the 15 percent pay cut was in effect and officers did not receive any increase
of pay when promoted or when completing stipulated periods of naval
service.1
Fleet Problem XIV was to be held in 1933 in the area between the
Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific Coast, and Fleet Problem XV was held in
1934 in the Caribbean.
‘ SECNAV, Annual Repor$, 1933, pp. 8, 14, 16
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