US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Ten Years of Big Ship Gtirznery 53
b. Every ship should be a school.
C. It must be true in the American Navy that every sailor carries an
admiral’s flag in his ditty box.10
The educational urge caught on like wildfire, but the Secretary’s personal
desire and order to put all sailormen into pajamas each night was a great
flop as anyone serving in the Navy 50 years later will attest.
The professional Navy had long urged the Secretary to enunciate a policy
that “Henceforth all the fighting ships which are added to the Fleet will use
oil. . . .“ 11When this was done, it was obvious that technical engineering
education in the mass must be undertaken in the Navy, and that the 11 existing
technical schools would have to be expanded many times, and many more
officers would have to be employed ashore in areas of technical training.
Since the Line of the Navy was 75 percent on sea duty, change in this
seagoing condition was in the ofling. An unsteady flow of promotion, then
as always, was another problem. The Chief of the Bureau of Navigation
noted:
An abnormal condition exists in the Line of the Navy and to some extent in
the Staff Corps.”
The abnormal condition was that there were only about 40 yearly promo-
tions out of the grade of junior lieutenant, while 140 ensigns were being
promoted into the grade of junior lieutenant each year, at the completion
of three years of service as ensigns. The junior lieutenants and ensigns
constituted almost 60 percent of the Line of the Navy.
Resignations of past midshipmen and now ensigns, who saw no future
promotion beyond lieutenant commander until in their middle fifties had
been running at a high rate, as has been noted for the class of 19o8 with
13 resigning as past midshipmen and 14 resigning as ensigns. The result was
seen on board the ships in Mexican waters during the 1914 Vera Cruz
seizure and occupation, about which the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation
said:
Half of the Heads of Departments [on the battle ships) were lieutenants.
Practically all officers on ships in Mexican waters, except Heads of Departments
[and above] were in the grade of ensign.ls
A description of the 1914 Navy would not be complete without mention-
‘0 Ibid., pp. 6-35.
= Ibid., p, 17.
u CHBUNAV, Annual Report, in SECNAV Annual Report, 1914, pp. 144-45.
= Ibid., p. 145.