VAST OPERATIONS COULD HARDLY HAVE BEEN CARRIED ON WITHOUT NAVAL RESERVES AND NATIONAL NAVAL VOLUNTEERS—MANNED HUNDREDS OF VESSELS PLYING TO FRANCE—SERVED ON TRANSPORTS, DESTROYERS, SUB-CHASERS AND EVERY KIND OF CRAFT—NAVAL AVIATION COMPOSED MAINLY OF RESERVISTS—THIRTY THOUSAND MADE OFFICERS.

"We are coming, Uncle Samuel, three hundred thousand strong!" That was the spirit if not the song of the reservists who besieged the recruiting stations and flocked into the Navy at the call of war.

They came from every walk of life—mechanics and millionaires, farm boys and college students, clerks and merchants, yacht owners and boatmen, fishermen and firemen. There was hardly a trade, profession or calling that was not represented. Ninety-nine out of every hundred were landsmen, knowing nothing of the sea. But they took to the naval service like ducks to water, and the rapidity with which they learned, and the efficiency with which they served, amazed the old sea-dogs.

Never again will men dare to ridicule the volunteer, the reservist, the man who in a national crisis lays aside civilian duty to become a soldier or sailor, to shoulder a gun or take his place in the turret. The splendid body of young men from civil life who quickly adapted themselves to military service astonished the old timers, who believed that long service was absolutely necessary to make one efficient.

On every ship in the Navy were found young men who, without previous training, had enrolled for the war, and in a short time were performing well the duties of naval service. Moved by a zeal and patriotism which quickened their ability to learn, the ambitious young men who responded to the call in 1917-18 mastered military knowledge so rapidly as to astonish naval officers, as well as the country. The most capable were placed in command of small naval craft, and the commendation of older officers was hearty and enthusiastic.

Before 1917, responsible naval officials knew that the chief need when war came would be trained leaders. There was never any doubt that patriotic young men would enroll by the thousands and tens of thousands. But you cannot make a naval officer in a day. It is easier to secure good officers on land than on sea. It was leadership, a quality indefinable, that the Navy needed.

There was need for many more officers. After promoting many capable regulars, we turned for officer material to the apt and alert young men in colleges and schools, in shops, in professions and on the farms. Most of them were given their intensive training on board ship, but the Navy was able to give 1,700 a special course at the Naval Academy. Securing that assignment by competition with all other reservists, they came with the imprimatur of approval from ships or shore stations. After the thorough course at Annapolis they went immediately to service afloat, and from admirals and captains I received reports that gave proof of their efficiency. Some did so well that they were keen competitors, in the special duties they performed, with those who had enjoyed a full four-year course at the Naval Academy.

Over 30,000 reservists were made commissioned or warrant officers, nearly three times as many as the total, 10,590, in the regular Navy. They served on vessels of every type, from submarine chasers to battleships. On the transports the larger percentage of the officers were reservists. The usual plan was to have the duties of the captain, executive officer, chief engineer, gunnery officers, senior supply and medical officers performed by regulars, the others being of the reserve force. Out of a total of, say, thirty officers on board a transport, twenty-four of them would be reservists. They were on duty on deck, in the engine room, in the sick quarters, in the supply office, and in practically every part of the ship.

The idea of some who thought in the early days of 1917 that family or political influence would get them a commission was the subject of not a little good natured ridicule in the service, which found expression in verses like these:

It was not easy work, this learning to be a seaman and studying to be an officer. But it made men of those youngsters. The fact that promotion depended on their own efforts, that there was a fair field and no favor, inspired them to effort as nothing else could have done.

Men of all trades and professions were in the reserve. Millionaires from New York and graduates of Princeton served alongside young fellows who a year before had been plowing behind Missouri mules. An heir of one of the country's largest fortunes was a seaman gunner, and his mate in the same crew was a strapping youngster who had been working in a factory.

An officer who went out for a run on a sub-chaser from Brest thought there was something familiar about the grimy seaman who was testing the forward gun. As the man turned the officer recognized him.

"Well, of all things!" exclaimed the officer. "You're the last man in the world I'd ever expect to find here. The last time I saw you, you were the ladies' favorite, engaged in photographing every debutante and stage celebrity in New York. How did you get into the Navy?"

"Well, it is funny, even to myself," he laughed, and told his story.

He had made a picture of a well-known actress and her baby, and was on his way back to the studio when he struck a recruiting party holding a meeting in the street. Aroused by the enthusiasm, he felt he ought to do his part. He enlisted on the spot, turned over his studio to others, and in a month was shooting a gun on a sub-chaser instead of a camera. He stayed on that boat until the last horn blew, and the boys were ordered home. One of his mates at the gun was a former actor, another a clerk in a store.

One day in New York four young fellows suddenly walked out of a motion-picture studio and enlisted. Two of them were high salaried photographers, but they said nothing about that and went in as seamen. Several months afterwards a call was sent out for a few men experienced in photo work. One of these four was found shoveling coal at Pelham. He had been for three years the photographer for Sidney Drew, but he was plugging along at coal passing, and doing a good job until found fitted for other work.

"Captain, I'd like to get a transfer," was the request a young reservist made of his commanding officer in 1918. The captain was surprised. The youngster had rendered service in the armed guards and was doing well on a cargo transport.

"What is the trouble with your present duty?" the Captain asked.

"Well, sir," he answered, "I've been going across on merchantmen. I have been torpedoed three times, but I'd like to get on a destroyer or a submarine-chaser, where I can see a little real action."

That was the spirit of the reservists. Willing to perform any duty, they wanted to get into action, to be sent where the fighting was.

Naval aviation was made up largely of reservists, and the Naval Reserve Flying Corps grew during the war into a force of more than 26,000, with 1,500 qualified pilots and 4,000 student officers in training. Not only were hundreds of bright young men enrolled as prospective aviators, but thousands of skilled mechanics were enlisted in the ground personnel.

Looking over the list of officers of the Cruiser and Transport Force, I find that eight reservists were on Admiral Gleaves' staff, eighteen on that of Admiral Jones. Of the 166 officers who served on the Leviathan, the largest of all transports, 93 were reservists. On the George Washington there were 63 out of the total of one hundred. Thirty-five served on the President Lincoln, 46 on the President Grant, 69 on the Mount Vernon, 51 on the Great Northern, 43 on the Orizaba, 28 on the Pastores, 33 on the Pocahontas, 24 on the Powhatan, 30 on the Princess Matoika. Of this large force, there was not a transport or cruiser which did not have a large proportion of reservists in its officers and crew. In carrying the American Army to France and bringing it home, the reservists did their full share of the work.

They played an even larger part in the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. Five thousand officers and thirty thousand men were required to man this vast fleet of cargo ships carrying munitions and supplies to France. Of the officers all but twelve were reservists, as were a large majority of the enlisted men. Thousands more were in training to furnish crews for the hundreds of vessels being built by the Shipping Board which the Navy was preparing to man.

Of our 350 submarine chasers, which were on patrol duty in French and English waters, in the Adriatic and all along the American coast, the large majority were manned by reservists, who performed this hard and often monotonous duty with a cheerfulness that was unfailing. These sturdy little 110-foot boats stayed at sea in all kinds of weather, and braved storms that even the largest vessels did not relish.

The record shows that the reservists could have done anything required at any time anywhere. At the aviation assembly and repair base at Pauillac, France, during an inspection by members of the Naval Affairs Committee, one of the party, Congressman Peters, of Maine, remarked:

"My watch is broken and I have tried both in Paris and at Bordeaux to get it repaired, but was told that it would take two weeks to do so."

Lieutenant Commander Briscoe, in command of the repair base, told the Congressman that it could be fixed right there at the station.

"But," said Mr. Peters, "I have only an hour to spend here."

"All right," said Briscoe, "we can do it."

An instrument repair man was sent for. He took the watch, and fifteen minutes later handed it back to the astonished Congressman, who found it running and set at the correct hour.

"Well, well, I didn't think that you had such skilled mechanics in the service." "That's nothing," said Briscoe. "We can build a locomotive here—and run it, too."

It was a fact. The mechanical personnel of the Flying Corps was competent to manufacture, overhaul, repair and operate almost any mechanical device made in America.

The United States had no naval-reserve legislation until Congress authorized the creation of a reserve in 1915. It did have the nucleus of a naval militia prior to the act of February 16, 1914, when Congress coÖrdinated these distinct and scattered branches into a cohesive real naval militia organization, subject in time of war to the call of the President. In pursuance of that act a division of Naval Militia was organized in the department, and a board named by the Secretary of the Navy to formulate standards of professional examinations for officers and enlisted men, and also to strengthen the militia as an effective arm of naval power. That board, which pioneered the organization so well that it met the test of war with credit, was composed of Captains W. A. Gill, Edward Capehart, and Harold Norton, and Commanders J. J. Poyer and F. B. Bassett, of the Navy, and Commodore R. P. Forshew, Captain C. D. Bradham, Captain E. A. Evers, Commander J. M. Mitcheson, and Lieutenant J. T. McMillan, of the Naval Militia.

Cruises covering several weeks in the summer were organized for training and were continued until 1917, when these short cruises merged into war service. In encouraging and training these reserves we were carrying out the wise counsel of Jefferson given in 1807: "I think it will be necessary to erect our seafaring men into a naval militia and subject them to tours of duty in whatever port they may be." The act of August 29, 1916, provided that the militia in Federal service be designated as "National Naval Volunteers." The force grew to twelve thousand by 1917, and when war was declared this body of men, who had enjoyed practical training, were at once available for duty. They were given important assignments, ashore and afloat, in the fighting zone on ships of all types, in administrative positions; and, as leaders and instructors of newly enlisted reserves they rendered timely and useful service. During the war the National Naval Volunteers and Reserves were amalgamated along lines largely worked out by naval militia officers. But for the naval reserve legislation of 1916, I do not see how we could have promptly provided naval personnel for the war. It will always be a monument to the wisdom of the then Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Admiral Victor Blue, who was again called to that post after serving as captain of the Texas under Rodman in the North Sea Fleet, that the legislation was made ready and prepared against the day which we hoped would never come, but which did come, with all suddenness, upon us.

It was the act of August 29, 1916, that created a Naval Reserve Force of six classes—the Fleet Naval Reserve, of former officers, and enlisted men who had completed as much as sixteen years' service in the Navy; the Naval Reserve of men of seagoing experience; the Naval Auxiliary Reserve, men employed on merchant vessels suitable for naval auxiliaries; the Naval Coast Defense Reserve, in which civilians without previous sea experience could be enrolled; the Volunteer Naval Reserve, whose members obligated themselves to serve in the Navy in any of the various classes without retainer pay or uniform gratuity in time of peace; and the Naval Reserve Flying Corps, composed of officers and student flyers and enlisted men qualified for aviation duties. At the same time a Marine Corps Reserve of five classes was authorized, corresponding to the Naval Reserve Force.

This was the basis upon which was built up the vast reserve force of more than 300,000 which was enrolled, trained and put into service during the war. Beginning with a few hundred the force grew rapidly after the break with Germany. Upon the declaration of war the Naval Militia were mustered in, and from 977 officers and 12,407 enlisted militiamen and reserves in service April 6, 1917, the reserves grew in six months to 77,000, in a year to 123,000, and eventually reached a total of 355,447—30,358 officers and 305,089 men.

Except for a few thousand ex-service men and merchant seamen, this immense force was made up of men who had had no seagoing experience, men who had to learn the game from the beginning. And the rapidity with which they were turned from landsmen into sailors reflected great credit on instructors and apprentices. There is no page of the war more illustrative of what the colleges did, in addition to the college spirit of lofty patriotism which sent educated youths into the service by the thousands,

than preparing students for all branches of the service. The college campus became a national training ground. Institutions of learning were converted into naval schools where young men were given instruction in branches fitting for service in the Navy. Harvard became a radio school; Massachusetts "Tech" taught aviators, Princeton specialized in cost accounting, Yale's units were commanded by a retired admiral, Stevens Institute had its engineering school. Scores of other colleges and universities in all parts of the country extended their facilities in whatever way was most needed. There was not a rating in the Navy, from the new duty in connection with listening devices to the oldest calling of cook, without special schools. Intensive courses sent men afloat with the best instruction possible in the brief period allotted.

College men did everything from peeling spuds to commanding ships. Trained minds, plus work and courage in the test of war, forever answered in the affirmative the question whether college education is worth what it costs. The college man mastered navigation more rapidly because he had mastered mathematics. His ability to learn readily paid his country a large dividend upon its investment in educational institutions.

Though colleges and universities were giving instruction and nearly all our ships and stations engaged in training reserves as well as regulars, the typical reserve camp was at Pelham Bay. We needed a training station near New York. We had to have a good waterside location with plenty of space, well drained and wholesome, and we found it in the park at Pelham, which the municipal authorities generously tendered for temporary use. Ten miles from the heart of the city, with water on two sides, Pelham Bay was an ideal location, and there we built a station capable of providing for 25,000 men. It was efficiently commanded by Captain W. B. Franklin, a former officer in the regular Navy, and a fine type of the reservist of mature years. I made it a habit during the war, whenever my duties called me to New York, to run over to Pelham. Being myself in the reserve class, called from civilian life to service with the naval forces for a period, the chance to touch elbow to elbow with these men was always embraced, and after every visit I returned to Washington with new inspiration and new zeal. Many young reservists trained there won promotion—I say won, because commissions were not handed out. They were awarded by demonstration of fitness. The course was so thorough that the reserves called Pelham the "Reserve Naval Academy."

Eighteen reservists were commended for acts of personal bravery, 110 for courageous and heroic action. Four Medals of Honor were awarded reservists; eleven received Distinguished Service Medals; the Navy Cross was awarded to 265 officers and 50 enlisted men, and special letters of commendation for exceptional performance of duty were sent to 171 officers and 20 men of the Naval Reserve Force.

This is the record that glorified all the reservists, not alone those marked for special distinction but the thousands who were of the same stuff and spirit. They fought well. They died well. They have left in deeds and words a record that will be an inspiration to unborn generations. As illustrating their spirit I recall a legacy left by a valorous young aviator for whom I named a destroyer.

Kenneth MacLeish, of Glencoe, Ill., was enrolled in the Reserve Flying Corps in March, 1917. In October he went to France and became a member of the bombing group, taking part in many air raids over the enemy's lines. While on a raid his squadron was attacked by a dozen enemy airplanes. Fighting desperately, to enable his fellows to escape, MacLeish's plane was shot down and he was killed. His daring, his fortitude, his Christian spirit were a trinity which make him immortal. Writing to his parents, just before he was killed, MacLeish penned this classic that will live in the annals of the Naval Reserves:

In the first place, if I find it necessary to make the supreme sacrifice, always remember this; I am firmly convinced that the ideals which I am going to fight for are right, and splendid ideals, that I am happy to be able to give so much for them. I could not have any self-respect, I could not consider myself a man, if I saw these ideals defeated when it lies in my power to defend them. *** So you see, I have no fears, I have no regrets. I have only to thank God for such a wonderful opportunity to serve Him and the world. *** And the life that I lay down will be my preparation for the grander, finer life that I take up.

I shall live! *** you must not grieve; I shall be supremely happy *** so must you—not that I have "gone west," but that I have bought such a wonderful life at such a small price, and paid for it so gladly.