Evening star., 1941-12-21
Rush Of En|istments
.5wamps D. {. Office
OF Naval Reserve
Men Seeking Immediate
Action Advised Weeks
Of Troining Necessary

Heavy demands by the hundreds
of applicants for enlistment in the
Naval Reserve here has for the time
being somewhat Slackened the train
ing. Ever since the first news of
the assault on Pearl Harbor. the
headquarters of the Reserve in
Washington Navy Yard has liter
ally been besieged by men of all sta
tions to enlist. Officers point out
that almost without exception all
now want to go to the battle fleet
on the West Coast, and can't seem to
understand it is a highly technical
job and must spend a few weeks at
training tsation before being sent
to sea-
Those in charge OF Reserve re-
cruiting said that prior to the Ha-
waiian incident they had been
little discouraged by the failure of
the youth to respond to calls for
enlistment sent out by the Navy.
But they now have to give many
extra hours of duty in order to in
terview every man who applies.
1000 Applicants.
More than 1000 men applied for
enlistment the week after the Pearl
Harbor attack. and last week there
was no letup. Men came to the Re-
serve armory and waited five to six
hours until officers interviewed
them. If the rate of applications
continues it probably will be neces-
sary to find more officers to conduct
the interviews.
Officers said men who desire to
enlist might save a lot of time by
arriving at the armory as early as
8 am, so that they could complete
their interviews and be started on
their enlistment. if qualified. be-
fore noon. But those who appear as
late as 10 a m. may not be reached
before 6 pm. 1t is pm. and after
every night before the officers COM
plete the interviews for the day,
under the present setup Of six inter-
viewing officers.
Men seeking enlistment can help
materially in speeding up the proc
ess by bringing with them their
birth certificates or some other evi-
dence of their United States citizen
ship, as only citizens of the United
States can be taken into the service.
There will be brief respite in
training divisions during the cur
rent week, becaust drills have been
called off for Christmas Day, which
happens to fall on the regular drill
day. There was some doubt about
having a New Year drill night holi-
day, the plan being to shift the
drill to another night, but this has
not been decided.
Academy Unit Intact.
While the Naval Academy candi-
date unit will be kept intact, be-
cause these men have to perform
a specified number of drills in order
to take the examination for en-
trance into the naval school next
July, there was some indication that
the war had forced some curtailing
of the numbers who could drill in
the specialist division, which is
made up largely of petty officers
who have been taken into the serv-
ice because Of their special knoWl-
edge. Among these are the yeomen.
or stenographers, typists and clerks
OF the naval service.
1t was announced that because of
the demands on officers on duty at
the Navy Department, the planned
formal inspection of the divisions
on duty here had been called off for
some time. 1t had been planned to
have a formal inspection right after
the first of the year. but unless
there Is a decided change in the
naval situa ton, this probably will
not be held
The District Chapter of the
United States Naval Reserve Off
GERS Association held annual elec-
ton of officers last week as follows:
1t. George H. Happ. president; 1t.
Comdr. Walter B. Armstrong, first
vice president; 1t. Arthur Godfrey,
second vice president; 1t. T. D.
Gatchel, secretary-treasurer, and 1t.
Harold B. Atkinson, national di-'
rector. 1t. Comdr. J. w. Huckert,
retiring president, was named chair
man of the Policy Committee of the
chapter. 1t. Atkinson was retained
as the national director. it was ex-
planned, because of the fact that he
was thoroughly familiar with the
efforts of the local chapter OF keep
the national association functioning
during the defense and war emer-
gancy.