Evening star., 1934-10-28
- ENTHUSIASTIC response was
given by Volunteer Naval Re
serve officers residing in this
n ritv onl 1yiripitv IN the Ye-

- ENTHUSIASTIC response was
l. given by Volunteer Naval Re-
serve officers residing in this
IL city and vicinity to the re-
quest to attend O meeting OF
commissioned personnel in this class
for the purpose Of arranging an in
struction program for the current
year The invitation was extended
by Lieut.. Comdr. F. w. Benson, U. S.
N, the officer in charge of Naval Re-
serve affairs here, whose efforts to
interest the volunteer officers in an
instruction program last year met
with considerable success.
The attendance of the volunteer
group at classes of instruction, lee
lures, ETC., is not compulsory, as they
are not required to attend drills or
exercises of any kind. On the other
hand, the Fleet Reserve officers are
required to attend drills regularly
and to participate in a training cruise
each year.
The meeting of the Reserve officers
was held at the Reserve Armory in
the Washington Navy Yard last week,
and 36 of the local officers attended,
some Of whom during the year have
received instruction at sea on one
or more of the training cruise op-
portunities provided by the Navy De-
partment for volunteer officers.
1t was announced that many excel
lent suggestions were made regarding
subjects for talks during the coming
year and places to inspect. The gen.
eral consensus of opinion appeared
to favor continuation of talks held
less frequently than last year and
the inspection trips at about the same
frequency, one month.
Some of the suggestions for topics
on which talks should be conducted
were: Functions of various bureaus of
the Navy Department, the situation
in foreign countries to be delivered
by officers on duty in the Office of
Naval Intelligence, talks by naval
attaches in Washington, talks of their
experiences by war correspondents.
Some of the places suggested for
inspection trips were: Powder factory
at Indian Head, Nd; naval proving
grounds at Dahlgren, Va; the Bel
levue, D. c.; Naval Research Labora-
tories, Bureau of Standards, naval
gun factory at the Washington Navy
Yard, Naval Academy at Annapolis,
Coast Artillery post at Fortress Mon
roe, Va, and the United States Army
maneuverS at Aberdeen, Md.
During the discussion of training
cruises, Lieut.. q. g. ]. R. kirkland
gave an interesting talk on his ex-
periences while performing training
duty on the U. S. S. Wyoming while
on the midshipmen's practice cruise.
In regard to the training duty per-
formed by volunteer officers in the
District of Columbia, Comdr. Benson
said, the numbers taking such duty
this year has been most ENCOURAGING
and it is hoped that more officers will
avail themselves of the opportunities
offered each year. 1t was pointed out
that 1t will not only be an assistance
when becoming eligible for promo
ton but will give an opportunity to
get the seagoing point of view and
greatly broaden their scope from the
Navy angle and increase their mobili-
cation efficiency. 1t was announced
that training duty orders, without
pay, can be issued by the commandant
practically at any time and on ap-
proval of respective commanding
officers to practically all ships and
stations.