The CHAIRMAN. This is as of what date? Admiral DENFELD. September 8, 1939, when the limited emergency was declared. The authorized strength of the Regular Navy on September 8, 1939, was 131,485 enlisted men, exclusive of the numbers in the Hospital Corps and other special categories, with the proviso that the President, when a sufficient emergency exists, was authorized to increase this strength of the Regular Navy to 191,000. The line officer authorized strength at this time was 7,562 officers plus 3,099 officers of the staff corps, or a total authorized strength of 10,661 line and staff officers. On April 22, 1941, legislation was approved which increased the permanent authorized enlisted strength to 232,000, which could be further increased to 300,000 by the President in time of emergency. This 300,000 emergency strength of the Regular Navy was further increased to 500,000 by an act approved January 12, 1942. By this authority of April 22, 1941, the authorized line officer strength of the Regular Navy was increased from 7,562 to 12,760. No change has been made in permanent authorized personnel strength of the Regular Navy since that time, the current authorized strength being 232,000 enlisted, exclusive of the Hospital Corps, 12,760 line officers and 5,395 officers of the staff corps, or a total of 18,155 line and staff officers. It must be borne in mind, in consideration of authorized strength, that only Regular active list officers and enlisted men count in this computation. Naval Reserves employed on active duty may be employed in numbers determined by the Congress in naval appropriations. When the Congress declared that a state of war existed on December 8, 1941, there were, on active duty, a total of 34,973 officers and 290,122 enlisted personnel, both Regular and Reserve. Of the officers, 21,846 were naval reservists and 13,627 were Regular officers of the active list and retired officers on active duty. On July 30, 1942, an act of Congress was approved which authorized the establishment of a Women's Reserve in the Naval Reserve. Plans to inaugurate a women's component were started before December 7, 1941, with the anticipation that, should war be forced upon us, the employment of such personnel would be of great assistance in the national effort in averting a manpower shortage. The act expressly provides that members of the Women's Reserve shall not be used to replace civil-service personnel employed in the Naval Establishment, but shall be trained and qualified for duty in the shore establishment of the Navy to release male officers and enlisted men for service at sea. Our anticipation was entirely realized when, as of September 2, 1945, there were 8,399 female officers and 73,685 female enlisted who released 65,000 male personnel for combat service. I cannot commend the work of members of the Women's Reserve too highly; they have been splendid. Senator TOBEY. Right there, I want to ask a question about the women in the Navy. Are they on a discharge-point system the same as the men? Senator TOBEY. And do they correspond with the points of the enlisted men? Admiral DENFELD. The Waves have to have less points than the enlisted men. Senator TOBEY. Are they all being let out of the Navy or are you going to keep some? Admiral DENFELD. Well, under present legislation, they must all be out by 6 months after the war. We have no personnel legislation enabling us to keep the Waves after the war. Senator TOBEY. I did not know. If they prove to be as efficient in peacetime as they were during the war, a certain group might be useful in departmental work. Admiral DENFELD. We have certain types in the Women's Reserves which we want to keep. For example, we have Waves in communications; there are some doing cryptanalysis whom we would want to keep. There are a certain number of them in the Hospital Corps whom we would like to keep. There are a certain number of Waves in the Aviation Service we would like to keep. They have been very valuable in running link trainers for aviation training purposes; also they have been running the control towers. Senator TOBEY. Are you preparing legislation to keep them? Admiral DENFELD. We have prepared legislation. It is now in the Bureau of the Budget. The plan was to keep in the Naval Reserve a certain number on active duty. Senator TOBEY. You say they did very well? Admiral DENFELD. Yes; very well, indeed. Until December 5, 1942, the Navy procurement of personnel was entirely on a volunteer basis. During the first year of the war, even though we refrained from recruiting in critical manpower areas, the Navy enlisted 81,182 men in the Regular Navy on a 6-year-enlistment basis and a total of 791,863 in the Naval Reserve, or a total of 873,045 enlisted volunteers. This is an average of 72,754 per month. During the month of October 1942, a total of 124,000 men were enlisted. On December 5, 1942, the President, by Executive order, terminated volunteer enlistments in the Navy between the age groups of 18 and 38 years, making it mandatory that personnel requirements be met by selective-service process. Voluntary enlistments were thereby confined to those between 17 and 18 and those over 38 years of age. It is interesting to note that on that date the Navy had more than 1,000,000 enlisted men, all volunteers; the active-duty strength on that date was 111,178 officers, 1,017,879 enlisted, 25,615 officer candidates, and 2,691 nurses on an over-all strength of 1,157,363 personnel. By August 14, 1945, the Navy had expanded from 34,973 officers and 290,122 enlisted, the size on the declaration of war, to 323,755 officers and 3,004,811 enlisted an increase, during hostilities, of more than 288,000 officers and more than 2,700,000 men. In other words, the number of officers and men had increased about nine times in a period of 3 years 8 months and 7 days. It is of interest to note, also, that in 1941 an average of one ship was commissioned and manned per day; in 1942, 3.4 ships were commissioned each day; in 1943 the number was 5.6 ships per day; in 1944 it was 11.7 ships per day. This number includes only ships in commission and excludes district craft, such as oil barges, lighters, et cetera, which are also manned with naval personnel. The problem of procurement of the large numbers of personnel required for the two-front war necessitated careful interview and classification of millions of men and women in order that best use might be made of the talents available. Mistakes were made, it is true, but it must be remembered that the vast majority of the personnel who entered the service subsequent to December 7, 1941 had been engaged in peacetime civilian pursuits in the many diversified fields foreign to those of the Navy. OFFICER PROCUREMENT At the beginning of the emergency the procurement of Reserve officers was done by district commandants. Early in 1942 it became obvious, because of the types of officers desired and the necessity for speed in processing, that this duty could not efficiently be decentralized. Accordingly, offices of naval officer procurement were set up throughout the United States directly under the Chief of Naval Personnel; 38 such offices were established. Controls were rapidly standardized, procurement expedited, and "prospect work" undertaken to seek out the specialized personnel needed for the wartime task. How well this organization functioned is shown by the record: (a) More than 130,000 officers were commissioned directly from civil life-70 percent of which were for the line; the remainder for the staff corps of the Navy, construction battalions, and specialized engineer officers. (b) Ninety-three thousand young men were selected for rigorous college training under V-12 (deck, engineer, and staff corps) and V-5 (aviation program). (c) More than 100,000 Waves were recruited. (d) About 2,000 Navy nurses were appointed. (e) Nearly 20,000 combat air-crew men were enlisted. RECRUITING AND INDUCTION-ENLISTED Prewar recruiting is quickly illustrated by the year 1937 when there were 35 main recruiting stations and 232 substations with 703 enlisted personnel. There was a restricted quota upon enlistments. The total of Regular Navy enlistments for the entire year was 15,484. September 1939 brought the declaration of an emergency. Enlistment restrictions were removed but substantial increases were not reflected until 1940 when they were increased over a hundred percent to 38,232 for the Regular Navy. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought a quick upsurge in enlistments followed by a decline. No time was lost in expanding and reorganizing the Navy's recruiting service to keep pace with the ever-increasing personnel requirements. Civilians of special selling, advertising, and promotional talents were brought into the service. Modern business methods were applied to the recruiting problem, while men of technical naval training were released for sea duty. Physical requirements and other policies were liberalized. Though all monthly quotas were being met and the move was not occasioned by any failure to meet requirements, the Navy's participation in the draft began on December 5, 1942. At the same time, voluntary enlistments were continued below and above draft ages. Organizational changes were made to include induction and the operation of armed forces induction stations became a joint responsibility of the Army and Navy. By December 31, 1942, the recruiting and induction service of the Navy consisted of 496 officers and 5,658 enlisted personnel. The summary of results shows that the Navy procured 1,653,062 voluntary enlistments from M-day through August 1945, and 1,534,241 inductees. At the present time, the Navy is attacking the job of Regular Navy recruiting for postwar requirements of unprecedented proportions. The recruiting and induction service currently consists of 383 stations, 350 officers, and 2,750 enlisted personnel. I might say here that the Regular Navy has now about 350,000 men in it. TRAINING OFFICERS In 1940, facilities for the training of naval officers and Naval Reserve officers consisted of the Naval Academy, 27 naval ROTC's and three Reserve midshipmen schools. The Reserve midshipmen schools were located at U. S. S. Prairie State, New York City; Northwestern University, Chicago; and the Naval Academy. Naval ROTC The only source of Reserve officers was from the schools and the Naval Reserve midshipmen schools. of students under training for the NROTC was 7,300. of the three Reserve midshipmen schools was approximately 1,500 men. The first Reserve midshipmen school was started in 1940 when it became evident that sooner or later the United States would become involved in the war. Also, a short time before war was declared, a definite drive was made to receive naval officers from civilian life. In order to indoctrinate these officers into the ways of the Navy, it became necessary to establish certain indoctrination schools. The first class in the indoctrination school was actually convened before war was declared, but for all practical purposes, it can be assumed it was a wartime school. After war was declared, it became evident that the officer-training facilities were inadequate to supply officers for a Navy requiring 300,000 officers. Steps were immediately taken to provide additional Reserve midshipmen schools and additional indoctrination schools. Reserve midshipmen schools were established at Notre Dame University, South Bend, Ind., Fort Schuyler, N. Y.; Camp MacDonough, N. Y. Indoctrination schools were established at Cornell University, Princeton University, University of Arizona, and Hollywood Beach, Fla. The facilities provided by the Reserve midshipmen schools produced over 50,000 junior officers for the fleet. In addition to the general line training that was provided by the Reserve midshipmen schools and the indoctrination schools, a certain amount of technical and special training for officers was required. The only facilities providing this type of training prior to the war were those at the postgraduate school, Annapolis, and several colleges throughout the country working in conjunction with the postgraduate school. These facilities were inadequate to train the vast number of Reserve officers needed for the expanded Navy. Therefore, Diesel schools. were established at Cornell and North Carolina State; radio and radar schools were established at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hollywood Beach, Fla., and St. Simons, Ga. Special schools were also established in chemical warfare, military government, and oriental languages. It became evident early in 1943 that an officer-candidate program must be established to provide officers from the college-level students. The Navy V-12 program was established to satisfy this need. By July 1, 1943, V-12 units were established in 131 colleges and 110 medical and dental schools. The over-all capacity of this program was 80,000 students. Of the facilities described above, it is planned to retain only the Naval Academy, the naval ROTC's and the postgraduate schools in the postwar training program. The V-12 program, which was an emergency program, will be merged into the naval ROTC program with a total capacity of 14,000 students. The entire NROTC program will utilize the facilities of 52 colleges. It is impossible to establish NROTC's in every college utilized by the V-12 program for several reasons: (1) A number of the colleges did not wish the NROTC; (2) naval personnel will not be available during the postwar period to staff this many NROTC units; (3) sufficient technical equipment would not be available for equipping this many NROTC units. Fifty-two locations were selected for the postwar NROTC and were selected on the basis of (1) geographical location; (2) quality of instruction available; (3) general over-all reputation of the educational institution; (4) desire of the university authorities for the NROTC unit; (5) normal peacetime enrollment of about 1,000 or more. During the emergency, facilities at the Naval Academy were greatly expanded providing for a capacity now of 3,423. It is planned to utilize these facilities to a maximum for the training of Regular Navy officers during the postwar period. Training will be provided in the postgraduate schools covering all specialties required by the postwar Navy. TRAINING -ENLISTED Prior to December 7, 1941, enlisted training was being conducted at the naval training stations, Norfolk, Va.; Newport, R. I.; Great Lakes, Ill.; San Diego, Calif. These training stations represented practically the entire capacity of enlisted training facilities in the Navy. The over-all capacity of all these stations was approximately 15,000. Upon commencement of the war, it became evident that trainingstation facilities had to be increased approximately tenfold. Action 80523-46- -3 |