US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

14 Amphibians Came To Conquer
PLEBE YEAR ( 1904-1905)
Plebe Year opened Midshipman Turner’s eyes to the world of the Navy,
which was agreeably busy with trying to keep the Caribbean peace, and
zealously busy with acute professional problems incident to healthy and
vigorous growth. 31
In 1904, naval interest in the political-military arena centered in the
fiscally unsound and politically unstable Dominican Republic. In professional
development naval interest centered in the recent decision to shift from coal
to oil for generating steam for propulsion purposes, and in installing wireless
telegraph stations on shore and on ships.”
The Navy at this time, maintained a cruiser-gunboat squadron in the
waters of the Caribbean, available to proceed on short notice to Santo
Domingo, as the Dominican Republic was then known, or to Panama,
recently involved with gaining its independence from Colombia. As the
year 1904 ended, the Commander of the Caribbean Squadron optimistically
reported that a conference held on board the USS Detroit in Dominican
waters when the revolution was at its height resulted in