Evening star., 1934-11-18

The instruction program for officers
of the volunteer branch Of the United
States Naval Reserve residing in this
city is expected to get under way at
the Naval Reserve Armory at 1921
Eleventh street southeast Thursday
night, according to an announcement
last week Of Lieut. Comdr. F. w. Ben
son, U. s. NJ, the officer in charge of
Naval Reserve activities in this city.
A comprehensive schedule has been
mapped out for these Reservists who
are not required to put in any regular
amount Of drill or training time, but
whom the Navy Department feels
should receive some instruction in
naval procedure and practices so that
they would not be entirely green
should the Government find it neces-
sary to call them into service at any
time during an emergency.
In addition to a series of lectures
by officers from the navy yard and
Navy Department who will talk to the
Reservists, plans have been formulated
for series of inspections of naval
activities in and around Washington
to acuuaint the Reserve officers with
what the Navy had to do on the shore.
The lecture series will be opened at
the armory Thursday night, when
Capt. C. w. Hinkamp u. S. N, on
duty in the Office of the Secretary Of
the Navy, in the War Plans Division,
will discuss the relations of the Navy
with other departments of the Gov
ernment. 1t also is planned to open
the inspection series on November 27
with a trip to the naval powder
factory at Indian Head, Md. Later
the Reservists will 60 to the naval
proving ground at Dahlgren, Va, near
Colonial Beach, and other places, in
at Bellevue, D. c.
Many of the Reservists in this
branch are men whose civilian occu-
pations especially fit them for service
to the Navy in time of war, and they
have been commissioned with the idea
of using these services. However. it
was pointed out, that most of these
officers are totally unfamiliar with
the naval practice, and unless they
| voluntarily take some instruction now
much time would be lost should they
be called into the service to train
them, SO that they would thoroughly
understand naval procedure. In ad-
dition to the lecture courses which
| will require personal attendance at
the meetings arranged by the instruc-
tor here, the Navy has provided a
number of correspondence courses
| which are available to these officers
and which they are expected to avail
themselves Of. For instance, officers
assigned to the intelligence unit have
| available course to acquaint them
with naval practice in regard to gath
ering information in time of war
There also is a course in naval reg
ulations. and it is this course which
the officers are urged to take first, as
many of the questions asked by the
new officers will be found answered in
the course of naval regulations.
Although the destroyers which took
the Reservists on their annual cruises
last Summer have been ordered in
Reserve commission to be relieved by
others which have been in that status,
it was indicated that they will be
available to the Reservists only in
time of the annual cruise period.
| The Reservists have been hopeful
that at least one of the vessels would
be sent here to remain for several
weeks so that the divisions could
hold their weekly drills aboard. Some
time ago a plan was formulated and
for a while carried out, which pro-
| vided for one destroyer in this area
to visit the various ports where Naval
Reserve units we're Quartered and
remain for long periods of time. so
that the officers and men could keep
up on their shipboard drills How
ever, since the Cuban troubles upset
this scheme, the Navy Department
has never returned to it. although
the Reservists say that they received
a large amount of good out of it.
While the local Reservists have fit
ted up their armory to appear as
much like a destroyer as it is possible
to do under the circumstances, they
nevertheless feel that the instruction
would be much better if they could
have a ship here between the regular
cruising periods. The engineers would
have the actual machinery to observe
and the deck force would have the
6re-confro1 euStepo and other features