US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

The First Thirty Years 29
65 Line officers instructing midshipmen in professional and cultural subjects
and in the Command and Discipline Departments. The number of future
Flag officers among the 58 to 65 Line officer instructors varied from 18 to
23, depending upon which of the years from 1904 to 1908 is chosen.83 Any
naval command with a nucleus of from 30 percent to 40 percent potential
Flag officers is fortunate indeed. This fact indicates the great importance
attached 50 to 60 years ago to the training of midshipmen.
Victory at sea in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War can
be attributed, in a considerable meastire, in this writer’s opinion, to the
excellence of this fundamental schooling and training, and the high caliber
of those managing and conducting these tasks.
GRADUATION
On 30 March 1908, Midshipman Turner wrote his mother—then visiting
his oldest brother, kzer Turner, teaching school at Lingayen, in the Philippines:
I have requested to be assigned to duty on the Colorado, an armored cruiser,
now on the Pacific Coast. She is one of a squadron of eight ships and this
squadron is expected to be sent to China in the Fall, so 1’11probably be able
to see you then, as they will visit Manila, of course.
****
I expect to have a final mark for the year of about 3.60, which will give me
a mark for the course of about 3.47 with a standing either sixth or seventh.
With that standing, I could probably get into the Construction Corps, but I
prefer the Line.84
On 5 June 1908, Midshipman Turner was graduated, his diploma stating
“with distinction, ” and was ordered, not to the Colorado and the Armored
Cruiser Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, but to a smaller cruiser, the USS
Milwaukee. The Milwaukee in the 3rd Division and the 2nd Squadron was
a new 9,700-ton, 22-knot, protected cruiser officially designated as a {‘Cruiser,
First Class” and one of the 25 cruisers and gunboats which together with
23 torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers, made up the LTnited States
Pacific Fleet, then under the command of Rear Admiral John H. Dayton,
U. S. Navy. While the Milwatikee’s protection of 5-inch armor was light,
she fairly bristled with guns. Her main battery consisted of fourteen 6-inch
mU.S. Nau~l Academy Registevs, 190 P1908; U.S. Naval Regi~ter.r, 1908–1936.
“ RKT to Mother, letter, 30 Mar. 1908.