Evening star., 1940-10-12
Member Of the Associated Press.
Fleet Personnel


der that the man power of the Pa
cific Fleet be brought to full strength
has served to emphasize the serious
personnel problem which confronts
the Navy at this crucial hour. 1t is
disquieting, of course, to learn that
the warships which are the country's
first line of defense against ominous
threats from the Far East are only
eighty-five per cent manned; that
there are just enough men aboard
our battleships to operate them safe
ly under peacetime conditions. But
the situation should occasion no sur
prise to those familiar with the eff
forts which the Navy Department
has been making over a long period
to obtain a fully manned fleet, ready
for any emergency.
The authorized strength of the
regular naval establishment in
peacetime is 10000 men. That is to
say, Congress some years ago "au-
thorized" such a strength, but it has
failed consistently to grant the ap-
preparations which would create
naval force of that size. The last
annual report of the Secretary of the
Navy pointed out that appropriations
for 1889 provided for an average en-
listed strength of 1O7,55O men and
that this allowance permitted main
tenance of the larger ships at but
eighty-five per cent of war compile
ment. while the eighty-fve per
cent allowance is sufficient for the
peacetime requirement of certain
types of combatant ships" he said,
"the total personnel is inadequate in
experienced men to provide for
mobilization of the fleet. The de-
partment must maintain mobiliza-
ton plans which contemplate the
complete and efficient manning of
useful combatant ships. . . To this
end, in order to provide trained men,
supplemented by the available Naval
Reserves, the ships of the fleet
should be fully manned with COM
plements of war strength"
1t was not until passage of the
naval supply bill this year, however,
that appropriations were made avail
able for any substantial increase in
the enlisted strength of the Navy.
That appropriation provided for
172, 900 Navy men and $4,000 Marines
1t is toward those figures that Navy
and Marine recruiting officers have
been working assiduously this sum-
mer. AS of October the man power
of the Navy had grown to 153 900.
But new and converted warships
are being added to the fleet and, as
the new construction program ad-
vances, more ships, both combatant
and auxiliary, will swell the ton
mage af1oat on our two protective
oceans. That will require more and
more men. To help meet this de-
nand, the President has ordered into
active service thousands of men,
bers of the Organized and Fleet Re-
serves. Meanwhile, coincident with
the ever-enlarging threat to our Sc
curity in the Far East, the graduates
of the Navy's four big training sta
tions-NeWport, Norfolk, Great Lakes
and San Diego-have just been or
dered to the West Coast to fill out
the crews aboard our battleships
based at Hawaii. More will be sent
to units of the fleet as trained men
become available from the Reserve
lists or from volunteer or draft
sources.
It must be remembered, however,
that funds so far have been appro-
priated for only $4,000 men-not
for the 10000 men needed to bring
the personnel Of the one-ocean fleet
to wartime operating strength and
not for the thousands of men above
100000 who will be needed to man
our new tWo-ocean Navy as it devel-
ops. This problem of naval man
power is one that must be given
careful attention by congressional
appropriation committees-the soon
er the better.