The problem of personnel training in the Navy is ever with us, due to our large turnover of men. As this article is written, the Bureau of Navigation has indicated that 25,000 men will be recruited within the next year. While this is over the yearly average, it is probably safe to say that the average yearly turnover of men on all ships and stations will run between fifteen and twenty per cent. All officers realize the importance of having trained men at all stations, and all of them realize how hard it is to attain this desirable condition. It is hoped the article that follows may lead at least to discussion of methods and to improvements in the system now in use.
The Bureau of Navigation Manual states in detail the qualifications necessary for each rating in the Navy. These qualifications were made up by experienced officers in this -bureau under direction of the Chief of Bureau and represent the standard of training necessary for every rating, in order that they may meet all emergencies in the Navy. That our men generally do not meet these requirements is evident to all officers. That this condition exists is due, primarily, to lack of time and to lack of a systematic and thorough schedule of divisional training. A discussion of these points will first be taken up, after which a proposed remedy "fill be submitted.'
Lack of time is due to the importance given to gunnery training over all sorts of other training, and to the highly competitive efforts on all ships to outdo the others in “cleanliness and upkeep.” While the efficient use of the armament is, and always will be, the first consideration, yet it seems that it has, at the present time, taken on such importance that it has crowded out other valuable training. What training, for instance, is regularly held to land and seize a base, or to land an army? These operations demand highly- trained men in the care and operation of rifles, machine guns, and field guns; highly skilled crews for our motor sailing launches, under power, oars and sail; men trained in infantry, especially extended order; highly trained artificers, etc. That this training is necessary is evident to most of us, who in our life time have known our Navy to land the Army in Cuba under trying conditions, and to send landing parties ashore in China, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Conditions still exist to warrant the importance of training in these lines. The history of our Navy points out fully the importance of having our personnel trained efficiently in all the duties as specified in the Bureau of Navigation Manual.
The other contributor to our lack of time, is our “ship’s work.” The time now taken for “ship’s work” and for “cleanliness and upkeep” can well be cut down with proper organization. Bright work and bright steel work at the present time demand more man hours than is allotted for divisional training. An order that no bright work, not allowed during times of war will be permitted during times of peace, would immediately allow for a large expansion of time for necessary cleanliness and upkeep and more time for divisional instruction. A battleship battery was penalized ten per cent of its score due to the ship being “illuminated like a passenger ship” at night battle practice even though the commander battleship divisions, his chief of staff and gunnery officer, and others, stated that they looked carefully for and could not see a single light on the ship. The reflection of the moon on the wide-spread bright-work made the ship stand out like a lighted passenger ship to the observers on the towing ship several miles away. This bright-work took immeasurably more time to keep up than was allotted to any drills except possibly gunnery drills. The upkeep and cleanliness schedule should be made out as carefully by the heads of departments concerned as are other drill periods. Each department should have a schedule for the routine overhaul of all equipment and appliances pertaining to the department and this schedule should be placed in the ship’s drill and work schedule each week. This would tend to efficiency in carrying out necessary work by letting division officers know what was expected of them. This pertains especially to the deck divisions which naturally come under more than one head of department. These weekly drills and work schedules should be made out under direction of the executive officer with cooperation from all heads of departments. Since drills and divisional instruction periods will ordinarily last for only one or two hours, there will be plenty of time, if efficiently used, for necessary upkeep and cleanliness each day.
Our lack of a systematic and thorough schedule of divisional training is caused by a lack of a definite schedule for this training in the fleet schedules; a lack of a complete course of instruction for each rating which will assure each rating being trained in all the duties of his rating; and a lack of textbooks by means of which the men can study all the duties of their rating in a thorough manner, and at division instruction, receive aid from and do practical work under the direction of the division officer. These three points will be taken up in the order named.
The time for divisional training should be allowed for in the schedule for fleet training. Every commanding officer must be assured that this schedule for divisional training will be maintained. The details of the schedule on each ship must be delegated to each commanding officer, who is, naturally, responsible for the state of personnel training on his ship. The only exception to this rule would be where certain drills, involving more than one ship, as division or fleet landing forces, would require a definite place in the schedule. With the establishment of these definite training schedules, division or other unit commanders should carefully ascertain the efficiency of personnel training on the various ships at their routine inspections. These personnel training inspections should be given the same importance as is now given to “upkeep and cleanliness.” If this were done, personnel training would immediately take its proper place in the front line of ship’s activities.
With this lack of definite schedules for divisional training, it immediately follows that there can be no complete courses of instruction for each rating. The division officers can hardly be blamed for the failure to provide comprehensive courses of training for their men under these conditions. They would hardly be able to carry out any schedule which they did make. Officers are given only the ground work at the Naval Academy. They develop into efficient officers by constant training and association with the older officers and with men under them. Take this opportunity of training away from them and their development stops. Gunnery training alone, as now standardized, gives officers very little opportunity to develop that knowledge and leadership which commanding officers want to see in their officers-of-the-deck. The present system in most of the engineering departments gives those officers little opportunity to assure the important leadership of their men which is their due, and which means so much to the efficiency of the department. Divisional training under the direct supervision of the division officer, with well-defined schedules of training, is as helpful to the officers as to the men. This training, by its very nature, will increase the efficiency of the ship in every way. A gun crew made up of midshipmen first class can be developed into a prize gun crew in a few weeks’ training where it will take years to do this with men not trained mentally to this high state of efficiency. We concentrate on physical training without realizing that mental training added to this will produce far greater results. We worry too much over the immediate problems at hand and keep our days filled by having untrained men do their work in two weeks’ time, where a trained man would do it in one. We do not look ahead and realize that a few hours each week spent in scientific and efficient training will eventually increase the efficiency of each man so as to repay this time spent many times over in more efficient work. Besides, trained men do not desert or stay over leave or cause trouble. An excessive number of offenses on any ship is a sure sign that that ship lacks proper training.
A complete course of instruction for each rating can be secured most efficiently by using good textbooks designed to cover the duties of that rating. The lack of textbooks for use by enlisted men in conjunction with efficient divisional training is now overcome for nearly all ratings by the training courses issued by the Bureau of Navigation. These training courses are being improved, and new courses are printed as funds become available. These excellent training courses are not being used to any appreciable extent in the Navy. Officers, generally, know very little about them. Ships usually have an “educational officer” who issues out courses to men who ask for them. Sometimes officers will be detailed to assist men taking these courses. In most cases men have little or no help from the officers. Records in the bureau show that under these conditions, only one assignment is completed every two months by each man enrolled for a course.
It might be well to point out conditions in our Navy which make the use of these courses especially valuable. In the first place, our present recruits have a very high average in intelligence and training. Bureau records from analyses of recruits at each training station show that about seventy-seven per cent of the men have completed elementary school education, and over half of these have completed one or more years in high school. These same records show that seventy-three per cent of these recruits made more than a mark of fifty per cent in the general classification test. Men of this type have an excellent foundation on which to develop a high state of efficiency in a very short time, 'f given a thorough, scientific course of instruction. Our Navy is especially fitted to give this type of instruction as we have the officers with the necessary qualifications to instruct. We have the ships and stations with their daily routine of work and drills which provide every facility for daily practical work in the courses given and which no laboratory could even approach for efficiency. We have the courses to form the foundation for this efficient .training. With our highly intelligent men, these courses will provide the means for imparting this training in the minimum of time. A man today can learn more about electricity in ten minutes from a good textbook than Franklin could learn in his whole lifetime. As an example of what can be done with an efficient system of training, I will cite the case of the electrical officer on a certain battleship. This officer found himself confronted, soon after taking over the division, with, about fifty per cent reduction of his allowed complement of rated electrician’s mates, due to discharges in the near future. He instituted a daily instruction period for his whole division. All men not on watch were required to attend. The periods lasted only one hour, and weekly examinations on the work covered were held. All marks were posted every week. Within six months, this officer told me that the results obtained were far beyond what he expected. The new men had become efficient electrician’s mates third class, and the others were far more efficient than before. The electrical department was better and more efficient. This latter point I can vouch for myself as I was in the gunnery department, and the increased efficiency of all electrical appliances in this department was decidedly marked. Instead of this hour per day interfering with the carrying out of the daily upkeep, it helped it out tremendously. The experienced men who were discharged during this time were hardly missed. This is an actual case of how divisional training, under an efficient division officer, using good training courses in conjunction, with daily practical work, can work wonders in efficiency. It is just this type of training which, I believe, we should have for all divisions. It involves no radical departure from our established methods or organization. It simply puts our training of men on a scientific basis under their logical leaders, their division officers; under the supervision, of course, and the direction of their own heads of departments.
Training such as this would automatically do away with our Class A service schools with their 1,350 non-rated men. Conditions afloat are better in every way for giving more efficient training than can be given at these service schools, and these 1,350 men would be doing useful work for our Navy in the meantime. Our Class B and Class C service schools, with their 650 men, can then be further developed to fulfill their important mission, that of giving advanced and special training to competent and highly trained men from the fleet. Our present system of training has operated to cause commanding and other officers to look to our service schools for replacement of trained petty officers on board ships. They are not designed for this purpose, and rightfully not. Service schools, Class A, made up mostly of apprentice seamen knowing nothing of the Navy, with short crowded schedules, under no more efficient instructors than can be found on any ship or station, and with limited equipment, can no more make trained men for our Navy than a newly graduated ensign can be made into a trained C-in-C by a similar short course at the Naval War College. (There is not, in the above comparison, any intention to belittle the importance of our Naval War College. This War College offers to trained officers the benefits now given to trained men by our service schools. All of these are indispensable to our Navy. They give a “post graduate” course of training in special lines which it is impossible to include in the routine training either afloat or ashore.) These courses help the individual to a certain extent, undoubtedly, but their final benefit to the Navy as a whole is insignificant when compared to the good resulting from a general system of scientific training for all of the men.
The commander destroyer squadrons, battle fleet, in a circular letter to the destroyer squadrons, dated 7 July, 1926, desires among other things, in order to make those squadrons self-sustaining in rated personnel, that:
(Paragraph 1 [b]). Divisional instruction of training be continued and actively supervised by ship’s officers.
(Paragraph 1 [c]). The department’s educational courses be used for divisional training and that men be encouraged to take these courses.
This system of training is exactly the system which all of our ships and stations should have. As training courses become available for the various ratings, these courses should be made the basis of all divisional training for that rating, and questions from these courses should be used in all examinations for advancement in rating. A seaman, coxswain, fire controlman, yeoman, fireman, water tender, cook, or carpenter’s mate, wherever trained, or wherever advanced in rating, would then have a standard and efficient training.
The number and length of periods for divisional training will vary for the various departments aboard ship and will vary for various ratings in those departments. This is due to the fact that drills and practical work for some ratings will consist almost entirely of routine ship’s work for that rating. At least three afternoon periods each week should be allotted to divisional training and these periods should be utilized so as to give the maximum amount of training to men of all departments.
Where the practical work or drills fit in with routine ship’s, work, as for instance, with yeomen, deck artificers, engineer artificers, etc., the divisional training periods need not be longer than one hour. During this time the officers should give personal help to all of the men in the work assigned for duty. Lectures, various experiments and special problems should be given by the officers to expand on the work covered and to make the courses more interesting. The courses studied should particularly apply to the duties being performed. The firemen, for instance, while overhauling boilers should be studying the course on boiler care and repair. While standing steaming watches they should be taking the course on boiler operation.
Where the practical work or drills consist of work outside of ship’s work the divisional training periods should be about one and one half hours long. The first half hour should be devoted to personal instruction by the divisional officers on the work assigned for study. The remaining time should be spent in drill and this drill should follow as closely as possible the work assigned for study. For instance, if the subject studied is boats under oars the drill should be the same. If it happens to be ground tackle the drill can be “overhaul of ground tackle.” If it happens to be guns the drill can be “overhaul battery.” Where drills are in the nature of necessary ship’s work as in the latter two cases mentioned the period for this drill can automatically go on into the ship’s work period which immediately follows.
The important points I wish to emphasize in this divisional training system are:
- That the weekly schedule for ship’s work and divisional instruction be carefully worked out together, and then carried out.
- That the instruction, drills, and practical ship’s work must be directly supervised by the heads of departments and division officers.
- That training courses be made the basis for this divisional training, which by its nature is the professional training of the men in the theoretical and practical duties of their rating.
Assuming then an allotment of three periods per week for divisional instruction, each period to be from one to two hours long, the following schedule is proposed:
- The deck divisions come naturally under three departments, Navigation, Gunnery and C and R. The heads of each of these departments will have cognizance of such drills and instruction for the seaman branch as pertains to their department. The navigator will supervise all training for signals, steering, lookouts, etc., or all duties in connection with communications and ship control. The gunnery officer will supervise all training in gunnery, small arms, artillery, landing forces, etc., or all duties in connection with armament, fire control and landing force. The first lieutenant will supervise all seamanship, emergency drills, etc. The drill schedule must be made out carefully in order that each subject may be covered thoroughly by each division before going to another and so that the equipment for the various drills will be available for efficient training.
- The engineer divisions, under the engineer officer, should study the courses available, with stress placed on having men study first the equipment on which they are detailed in their daily duties. The firemen third class should be given lectures on general steam engineering and then required, in their practical work, to trace out all lines and engineering equipment on their own ship so as to give them a thorough knowledge of their own plant. After this, they are assigned courses like other ratings.
- The C and R department under the first lieutenant should study the courses available for each rating. The entire division instruction period should be devoted to this study. Their practical work is almost entirely “ship’s work.”
- The supply department under the supply officer should study the courses available for the various ratings. The entire division instruction period should be used for this purpose, their practical work being a part of their routine daily work. Mess attendants should be given courses in English, uniform regulations, and A to N, and oral instruction in their duties as specified m the Bureau of Navigation Manual.
- The medical department, under the medical officer, should study the courses available for their ratings. The medical department has uniformly carried out efficient personnel training with rigorous examinations for advancement in rating. Their efficient personnel is an example to all other departments of what can be accomplished with real training.*
New and revised courses are being printed each year. These courses are as complete as it is possible to make them. They are designed for, and can be used as excellent textbooks in the professional training of men at divisional instruction. Used in this manner, they insure a uniform, complete, and thorough course to all ratings in our Navy.
*In every case where courses are not available, or where they are not complete, the division officer should make up his own courses, following the requirements as laid down by the Bureau of Navigation Manual for each rating.