The Wilmington morning star., 1944-01-10
NAVY RESERVISTS
DO THE FIGHTING


WASHINGTON, Jan. g. R -
Navy reserves are doing the great
er share of the big job of smash
ing enemy fleets throughout the
world.
This is the conclusion of old
line regular Navy officers who
have watched the Navy expand
from a small peacetime force to
the largest fighting fleet that ever
sailed the oceans.
These boys really are winning
the war, and They're not getting
enough credit said one officer
in Washington who has had years
of service at sea since his gradu-
alton from the Naval Academy at
Annapolis.
And Secretary OF the Navy Knox
agrees. He has pointed out that
nine out of ten of the line officer
berths in the fleet are filled by
reserve officers - most of them
men who have been trained for
sea duty since the war began. Per-
centages of reserves among enlist
ed men are even higher.
The reserves feather mer-
chants if they hold commissions
haven't climbed to high COM
mand, instead they're filling the
little jobs, the fighting jobs. But,
says Knox, battle reports uni
versally contain the highest COM
mendation of the conduct of Off
GERS and men,"
Some of the reserve officers
have commands, certainly, but
not of the big and glamorous war
ships. All of the landing craft
mean little vessels that move men
and materials ashore for invasions
are skippered by reserve Off
GERS manned by reserve person
mel.
The PT-deadly motor torpedo
boats that have smashed enemy
warships and cargo vessels alike
are commanded and manned by
reserves. So are most of the gun
crews of merchant vessels, fight
ing little units with three-inch
guns as their principal weapons,
who have been knocking off ene-
my submarines and airplanes
while their cargo ships slog through
the seas carrying supplies for the
fighting front or materials for
home consumption.
Largest commands given-thus
far-to the reserve officers have
been destroyers, the four stackers
of World War One vintage which
are guarding conveys for the most
part, although some have seen ac-
ton away from convoy routes.
Notable among the reserves COM
manding destroyers is 1t. Comdr.
Charles H. Hutchins, 81, Terre
Haute, Ind, who rode his Destroy
er Borie up onto the back of a
German submarine and held the
U-boat while his crew-mostly re-
serves - battled the Nazi raiders
with pistols, shotguns, even with
knives.
The Borie sank the sub, but was
damaged so severely that she had
to be destroyed by other ships in
the task force of the escort car
rier Card That exploit won a
unit commentator for the Card
and her escorting vessels.
1t wasn't mentioned at the time,
but Skipper wasn't the only re-
serve officer-all of the ships in the
Cards unit excepting the carrier
itself were under command of
fighting reserves.
Literally hundreds of examples
of heroism and hard fighting by
reserves are in navy archives and
in records of the many decorations
awarded for valor-three reservists
even have been given the nations
highest award, the Medal of Honor.
But, the highest tribute to re-
serves as a group comes in this
matter-of-fact language from Sec
rotary Knox
THE increasingly important
role played by the naval reserve
officers in this war is reflected in
the fact that, at the end of 1913,
nine out of ten line officers with
the fleet were reserves produced
and trained since the outbreak of
the war and now occupying respon-
sible assignments.