Arizona republican., 1918-10-02
Where the People
 May Have Hearing

The other night I heard the remark made, with the snug complacency of utter ignorance. that Men enlisting in the navy were nothing but slackers | and that all they were looking for was so1t berth for the duration of the | war and also, "the reason sailors | didn't like marines was because the | marines had better position than the :. sailors
 fersons starting or repeating such | remarks should be elected to the su- preme command of the order of "Yel- l low Dogs In trying to find out where | the remark originated the only reply l was "A lady told me-"
 It has been my lot to sail the seas both before and after the war and rom my limited experience have come to the conclusion that the feeling be- tween the marines and "gobs,' where such feeling does exist, is only natural rivalry between two branches of the service that are thrown into close quarters aboard ship. Also the marine acts more or less as a policeman aboard ship and most any man is apt to resent being placed on report and losing his shore liberty. Personally I would rather be Skipper of the Head than marine and I expect if I had been marine first I would rather be skipper of a U-boat than a gob. But all Of this isn't the real question, IL IS rather whether men in the navy are slackers or not as one is led to believe, from these remarks. Don't be- lieve anyone making a remark like that that has seen the ocean except from the land side
 | Winter and summer the navy is do- ing big business off there beyond the l nriz nd 1A,- r=t now many thousand people there are in thls country who realize what that winter business is they are doing. Do you think it is pleasant to stand your trlck at the wheel when it is 10 below ana the wind is scooting along at 40 miles and no lights showing or to come into port in this same weather and put on 2.4O0 tons of coal and clean the ship from top to bottom in eight hours and then be off once more for some place beyond the horizon.
 Have seen the ice two feet thick on the fo'c'stle of our ship and have seen the little Spec" boats come stagger- ing into port nearly foundered from the ice on their upper works. I've seen fships suddenly spout water about amldshipS and then list sharply while the enlisted men moved about hur- rledly, but orderly preparing to aban- don ship and caring for everything and everyone including the mascot, with the exception of the poor devils in the fireroom who went down with the ship after having done their duty.
 l wonder have you ever seen a rat drown and in watching him shuddered at the prospect of your being in the same place? With this conception in your mind picture what a fireroom is when a torpedo hits the ship. And not only the fireroom but all over the ship for the depth charges are occasionally exploded
 Few people realize that the bottling tup of the German sub bases at Zee brugge and Ostend had vital bear ing on the present successful offensive of the allies This feat of the British navy is one of the biggest and most brilliant of naval achievements In compelling the U-boats to make a longer trip to get supplies they length ened the turnover in trips and in this way materially decreased the effec- tlveness of the subs. American troops poured into France as troops have never moved before and it was Amer ican aid that helped turn the trick
 People can have no conception of the work that is being done in European waters nor can they get this concep- ton except by reading through the lines of articles published in the better class of periodicals. Publicity for the navy is not pushed mainly because of military reasons and also because the type of men enlisting are the sort that realize what they do is all in a days and nights work and having done this work they are apt to blush and stam- mer If commended for it. If a gob brags of what he has done he is either a boot (rooky), lying or else trying to cop off a woman. Except the secre- tary of the navy feels that all the re- ward that is necessary is the published accounts of troops landed as given out by General March and at that 10. COG men landing daily is not such bad work.
 In spite of the satisfaction you your sell have of knowing a hard job is well done 1t is rather hard to come home and meet up with such talk as this There is no daily account of the activ- ity of the navy to keep the people alive 10 what IS going on, only an occa slonal report of a torpedoed ship with the brief announcement that "3O. 40 ol sO enlisted men of the navy are miss ing. If one could but look behind that bare statement and see all that was happening remarks as this would "dit d-DOrnlng.
 Would like to meet the person that started off on this course for I thinl they would find a first class sailins man is a first class fighting man.
 No one can have the slightest doub that the. country is behind the army ana wouldn't it be a good thing to le the feloWs off younder with a piece O steel between them and water know that the folks ashore are behind then good and strong? It certainly would not do any harm.
 An Enlisted Man of the Navy.