Evening star., 1945-10-27
100000 Expected
To Visit Navy Yard
For Celebration Today
Destroyers Prove Biggest
Navy Day Attraction;
Sailors Exhibit Ships

N IcCUT TU-pIedkInR CTUWQ Ol
more than 100000 was expected
at the Navy Yard this afternoon
as Washingtonians took advan-
tage of perfect fall weather to
celebrate their first peacetime
Navy Day since 1910.
Throughout the day the sleek,
gun-studdied destroyers of the val
liant Little Beaver" squadron drew
the biggest throngs, although addi-
tional thousands were attending
ceremonies and displays of battle
equipment at all stations of the Po-
tomac River Naval Command.
Three battle-tested submarines
and a destroyer escort home from
the war shared attention at the
Navy Yards crowded docks with the
destroyers Ausburne, Claxton, Dyson
and Converse, whose combined
strength represents half of the
famed Destroyer Squadron %.
Great Day for the Sailors.
1t was great day for the sailors
showing the home folks, including
no end of pretty girls, over the
ships they had fought all the way
from the Solomons or the Turkey
Shoot" off the Marianas to Coffin
Corner" where the radar picket pa
troll threw hurricanes of steel at the
Kamikaze pilots off Okinawa.
Swing music and tunes like Bell
Bottomed Trousers" rolled from
ships loud speakers which so recent
ly had blared grim commands to
man battle stations and inquisitive
small boys swarmed over gun turrets
that had dealt out plenty of death
and destruction to Jap ships, planes
and shore installations.
The line of destroyers In their
dark blue battle paint made an
impressive showing as civilians and
sailors crowded decks, gangways and
wharves in the bright sunlight.
Submarines Popular.
Popular also with the crowd were
the submarines Atule, Cobia and
Tyrone, the destroyer escort Lowe
and the LIST $50. All of the fighting
craft, with exception of the Lowe
and Atule, now docked at $50 Maine
avenue Sc, are moored in the Navy
Yard. Visiting hours this afternoon
are from to o'clock and the ships
will be open for inspection tomorrow
from l to 4:3o pm
Later in the morning, another
colorful group gathered around the
John Paul Jones Statue in Potomac
Park at the foot of Seventeenth
street to hear an address by Rear
Admiral Thomas L. Catch, judge
advocate general of the Navy, at
ceremonies arranged by the Military
Order of the World War.
Sees Long Job Ahead.
The admiral declared the world
is too small to hold 100000 Japs
and twice that many Americans un-
less the 100000 change radically.
He declared it will take centuries to
make the japanese "semicivilized. "
"The only answer" the Admiral
said, "is an unremitting, vigilant,
strict watch over them-the abso-
lutte prevention of their ever copy
ing their betters in matters of war
so that they can egotistically think
they can defeat them. If we fail
there our children will pay for our
softness."
1t. Eldene Paige, Navy nurse lib
Grated from Santo Tomas prison at
Manila, placed a memorial wreath
at the base of the statue in behalf
of Secretary of the Navy Forrestal
in the presence of representatives Of
go patriotic societies. Rear Admiral
Ferdinand Reichmuth, commandant
of the Navy Yard, presided at the
exercises, and the invocation was
delivered by Rear Admiral William
N. Thomas, chief of Navy chaplains,
The ceremony was preceded by a
parade which assembled at Seven
teenth street and Constitution ave-
(See NAVY DAY, Page A-5.)