Слике страница
PDF
ePub

are completely manned and officered, and are in all respects ready for immediate service. Those in reserve are laid up at a navy yard or elsewhere, practically ready for service excepting that their crews are of reduced strength and must be increased before service. Those in ordinary are thus laid up with only enough officers and men aboard to serve as caretakers.

In time of peace a fleet consists of one battleship used as the flagship of the commander-in-chief; four divisions containing four battleships each; several divisions of armored cruisers; and various auxiliary and supply ships, and when practicable flotillas of torpedo boats, destroyers, and submarines.

The entire naval establishment is under the President, as commander-in-chief, and, after him, under the Secretary of the Navy. The officers who serve on the ships are of two kinds, line and staff. The officers of the line are, in order of rank: The admiral of the navy, an office not always filled; vice-admirals, offices also not always filled; rear-admirals, captains, commanders, lieutenant-commanders, lieutenants, lieutenants of junior grade, and ensigns. The staff officers are medical, dental and pay officers, chaplains, professors of mathematics, naval constructors and civil engineers. Midshipmen, graduated from the Naval Academy, are ranked as officers of the line.

THE NAVY DEPARTMENT

The Secretary of the Navy is the head of the Navy Department. He has an assistant secretary and a chief clerk. In the absence of both the secretary and the assistant secretary, the chief of naval operations is acting head of the department.

The chief of naval operations is a rear-admiral, ranking as

admiral, and he is charged with the operations of the fleet and with the preparation of it for use in war.

The General Board corresponds with the General Staff of the army, and is composed of the admiral of the navy, the chief of naval operations, the commandant of the Marine Corps, the director of naval intelligence, the president of the Naval War College, and such other officers as the Secretary of the Navy may choose.

The judge advocate-general corresponds with the officer of the same title in the army.

The Bureau of Yards and Docks has jurisdiction over all navy yards and naval stations, buildings and other public works of the department.

The Bureau of Navigation has charge of the training and education of officers and men and their enlistment and assignment to duty; of the Naval Academy and other schools; and of all records of service.

The Bureau of Ordnance has to do with all arms and ammunition, including torpedoes, and with those portions of ships directly concerned with arms and munitions.

The Bureau of Construction and Repair has to do with the designing of all ships, and the construction of all that are built in the government's own navy yards; with the supervision and inspection of all that are built by private contract; and with alterations and repairs.

The Bureau of Steam Engineering has under its care all the engines for the propulsion of vessels, electrical equipment, fuel, etc.

The Bureau of Supplies and Accounts is the fiscal or business agency of the department.

The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery corresponds with the Medical Corps of the army.

THE NAVAL MILITIA

The Naval Militia was first organized n Massachusetts, in 1890, as a part of the national guard of that state. There are now more than a score of such organizations, in as many states, with nearly 600 officers and more than 8,000 enlisted men. The Navy Department lends ships for the practice of the militia, and Congress appropriates money for arms and equipment. There is a National Naval Militia Board, consisting of five officers of the Naval Militia, representing the various lake and seacoast regions of the United States, which meets at Washington for general advice and direction of the Naval Militia.

In the summer of 1916 more than 2,000 members of the Naval Militia went on a two weeks' practice cruise, on nine battleships of the reserve fleet. The militia has also organized aeronautic sections.

THE MARINES

The Marine Corps has been described as the soldiers of the sea. It dates from November 10, 1775, and has a record of efficient service not surpassed if equaled by that of any other part of the navy or army. Its members have the training of infantry soldiers, but their service is rendered in connection with the navy. They form the landing parties which are occasionally sent ashore in foreign lands for the protection of American lives and property, and they do a vast variety of work, both on ship and ashore.

The Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service are normally under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department, but by an act of Congress in 1915 they were consolidated into the United States Coast Guard, and were placed in time of emergency at the command of the Secretary of the Navy.

Such, in brief, is the organization of the two great services upon which the nation depends for protection and for victory in war.

[blocks in formation]

Rear-Admiral..

Captain.....

Commander.

UNITED STATES ARMY TABLE

DUTIES

.Commands a Field Army or a Division.
Commands Brigade (4,000 rifles).

.Commands Regiment (1,500 rifles).

Assistant to Colonel, commands Regiment in his absence.

Commands Battalion (400 rifles).

Commands Company (100 rifles).

Commands Platoon (24 to 32 rifles) and assists Captain.
Commands Platoon (24 to 32 rifles) and assists Captain.
Commands Platoon (24 to 32 rifles), acts as file closer
and commands Company in absence of Officers.
Assists Officers and First Sergeant.

Commands Squad (8 rifles).

Performs duties assigned by Officers.

UNITED STATES NAVY TABLE

DUTIES

Chief of Operations, or Commander of Atlantic, Pacific or Asiatic Fleet.

Second in command of Atlantic, Pacific or Asiatic

Fleet.

.Command of a Division of a Fleet or Department

Duty.

Commander of Battleship or Cruiser.

..In command of second or third-class ships or special duty on board first-class ship.

Lieutenant-Commander.. ...Commands fourth-class ship or special duty.

Lieutenant.....

Lieutenant (Junior

Ensign.....
Midshipman.

.Assigned to command of a department of first-class
ship or subordinate duty on smaller ship.

Grade)...Junior Officer assigned to special duty.
Junior Officer assigned to special duty.
Naval Academy Student.

Chief Warrant Officer.
Warrant Officer...
Mate..

In charge of department of ship.

In charge of department of ship.

In charge of special department of ship.
In charge of small department.

Chief Petty Officer.
Petty Officer, first class. In charge of group of seamen or special duty.
Petty Officer, second class...Same as first class.
Petty Officer, third class....Same as first class.
Seaman, first class
Seaman, second class
Seaman, third class

Performs duties assigned by Officers.
Performs duties assigned by Officers.
.Performs duties assigned by Officers.

CHAPTER XXVII

UNIVERSAL MILITARY SERVICE

No "Peace at Any Price" Advocates Among the Founders of the RepublicThe Volunteer System Discredited and Repudiated at the Very Beginning and Again in Every War We Have Ever Waged-Washington's Condemnation of the Volunteer Militia System - Its Disastrous Effects in the Revolution - Jefferson's Earnest Advocacy of Universal Military Training and Service - Disgraceful Results of the Militia System in the War of 1812 - Why the Traditional Policy of Washington and Jefferson Was Abandoned-Universal Service the True Democratic System Examples in Switzerland and Other Republics - Advantages of the System for the United States - The Duty of the Citizen to Serve the State in Either Peace or War.

"I DIDN'T Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" was not a popular song among the founders of the American Republic. The mothers of 1776 were proud and glad with a fearful gladness to buckle sword-belts about their sons and send them forth to battle with their blessing. The statesmen who resisted the misgovernment of the Mother Country and pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the achievement and maintenance of our national independence, were not believers in "peace at any price." The true spirit of America, the only spirit that could have made America a nation, the only spirit that can be worthy of the successors of those devoted men, was voiced in Henry's familiar words: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!" That was and is the "tradi

tional spirit" of America.

Washington, addressing the Congress of the young republic, on January 8, 1790, said: "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."

« ПретходнаНастави »