Evening star., 1949-11-11
Sherman Faces Task
OF Gaining Confide dence
Within Navy Itself
New Chief Of Operations
Must Find Way to Halt
Cuts in Air Arm
By David laurence

Admiral Forrest Sherman, the
= new Chief Of Naval Operations
could conceivably be known some
day as the man who saved the
Navy from disintegration and
collapse.
The recent controversy has
placed the case Of the Navy not
r only before the public but be-
fore the civilians who will decide
: its fate - the top level score
taries and the members OF Con-
gress. viii they take Admiral
Sherman's advice?
One immediate consequence Of
the recent change has been the
quiet development Of q plan by
Secretary Matthews and Admiral
Sherman to spare the Navy some
Of the drastic cuts scheduled fol-
4. next July. There now is a posi-
bility that the Navy will not have
its air power diminished as ex-
tensively as was feared when II
became known that orders had
Z. been issued to eliminate many
= carriers.
Plenty Of Ships In Reserve.
The effort now is to find some
other places to economize in the
: Nays budget - as. for instance,
Ia the huge shore establishment
- 20 as to make 1t possible for
more aircraft to be purchased for
naval, aviation. Unfortunately,
: too many people think OF q navy
Is consisting only of seagoing
ships. They think Of steel, and
other components, when the real
necessity for a modern navy is
more and more aircraft and the
maintenance Of its trained per-
sonnel. The Navy doesn't need
more ships now. It has in re-
serve plenty of ships. What it
. needs is modernized decks for
existing carriers and modern
, weapons to use on the mission Of
. modern navy. This mission
primarily Is control Of the air
over the seas and over those por-
tions Of the inland coasts from
which control Of the air over the
seas can be threatened.
Admiral Sherman not only il
an aviator but he comes fresh
from an aircraft carrier task force
in the Mediterranean. where the
British have forsaken their re-
sponsibilities due to financial dif-
flculties and where the United
States thus far has failed to pro-
vide . substitute defense.
p. As. matters stand now, the
United States is weak in the Med.
iterranean. The myth that the
Russians have no navy must give
Moscow quite a chuckle. For they
have a fleet of battleships. cruisers
and destroyers in the Black Sea
which can get into the Mediter-
ranean pretty quickly and, with
the aid of about 1000 land based
planes OF coastal force, could
raise havoc with the tiny aircraft
carrier task force which is sta
toned there and which Admiral
Sherman recently commanded.
Published dispatches in the last
few days also tell of Russian SUBJ
marines in the Mediterranean.
coming out of bases in Albania.
These bases, while not covered
as yet with concrete protection,
probably would be so covered In
wartime.
Must Build Mutual Trust.
Admiral Sherman has q tough
job ahead of him. He can hold
up his end in conferences at the
Joint Chiefs of Staff because he
has the absolute confidence of
Secretary Matthews and Secre-
tary johnson. But can he win
the confidence of the Navy itself?
That will take time. It will come
when high officials here stop
thinking Of the Navy as Just q
bunch Of Fancy Dams" or Of the
recent controversy as arising from
, only . few naval aviators. The
feeling goes deeper. It is related
to Q deep-seated belief that the
spirit and letter Of the unifca-
tion law have been violated by
the two-to-one decisions in the
Joint Chiefs of Stats.
So the problem now Is to build
mutual trust and confidence,
Secretary Matthews has been
through q grueling experience and
knows now what the pitfalls are
His position under the Secretary
OF Defense Is stronger because
now everybody knows that the
key to the controversy Is naval
, aviation and that inter-service
ambitions or riyalries should not
permit naval aviation to be Inn
paired. Secretary Matthews ID
, known to be anxious to demon.
strate to the Navy itself that he
is as jealous In behalf Of the sery.
ice he represents as has been any
predecessor secretary.
Emotional feeling such as has
been stirred up by the contro.
versy will not vanish overnight.
e But it will disappear in time as
the evidence mounts up that the
Navy is not to be deprived of the
air force 1t needs to bomb sub
marine bases Of the enemy, to
lay mines In enemy's inland
waters and to defend its control
OF the seas against the lone-range
bombers and fighter planes that
emerge from the land bases Of
the enemy.
Confidence inside the Navy IA
Admiral Sherman and Secretary
Matthews will grow as the Presi-
dent and Secretary johnson see
the need for giving the Navy the
air power 1t requires to carry out
its primary missions as laid down
in the Key West and Newport
agreements.
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