Battleship in the Desert

BATTLESHIP IN THE DESERT THE U. S. S. "BEARDOWN" ISN'T LISTED IN JANE'S FIGHTING SHIPS BUT SHE IS DOING A VALIANT JOB FOR OLD GLORY

PREPARED FOR ARIZONA HIGHWAYS BY THE U. S. NAVY PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE, ELEVENTH NAVAL DISTRICT OFFICIAL U. S. NAVY PHOTOGRAPHS "AYE, AYE, Sir!" when properly spoken will you find in the daily press any mention conglomerate of their teachings and their dis means "I understand your order, I can of her christening as such. ciplining of the student-officers who arrive execute your order, I will execute it, and I But for all that, her commanding officer, fresh from civilian pursuits. recognize the authority vested in you to give Capt. Willard E. Cheadle, U.S.N. (Ret.), has Captain Cheadle and his capable staff of the order." trod many a ship's bridge in his 31 years of officers are attempting to instill in these stu That is the connotation of those three brief Navy life, which began when he emerged from dent-officers more than the meaning of "aye, words. Together they comprise the most-used the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. aye, sir." They are giving the trainees basic phrase in the naval service, and the least as an Ensign of the line in 1912. He, like information which will enable them "to know understood by those outside the service. any true naval officer, knows well what an what to do when no one is around to tell you," It is one reason why the recently-commis"aye, aye, sir" should mean. as Rear Adm. Ralston S. Holmes, U.S.N. (Ret.), sioned-from-civilian-life Naval Reserve officers Early October last the "desert ship" received former 11th Naval District Commandant, told spend their first 60 days in the Navy at a her first complement of officers and menFirst Battalion graduates December 11, 1942. Naval indoctrination school, similar to the one nearly 100, which is somewhat less than the But it is by no means an easy task to reach situated on the University of Arizona campus peace-time complement of a "four-stacker tininto a man's mind and inject the naval view in Tucson. can" (World War I four-stack destroyer). point, which is a composite of tradition, expe The naval establishment in that southern They came aboard her with high hopes, a diency and generic knowledge. The men who Arizona city, while entirely landlocked, is a cargo of textbooks and all the other materials, come to the desert ship have been reared in veritable "ship in the desert." She has a which, when fused in the proper proportion different locales, have been subjected to con bow and a stern, and she has, most importantly, can produce a naval training school. trasting environments, have trained themselves a name the U.S.S. Beardown. Her name is not The thing they could not bring with themfor numerous divergent civil professions. They however, listed in "Jane's Fighting Ships." Nor naval tradition-must come slowly out of the may have one creed-but they are of a hundred minds.

What then do these aspiring student-officers absorb while at this desert naval school-far removed from the native habitat of most seafaring men?

That was the question which flashed through the minds of many Arizonans when the site for the school had been selected. They knew that the nearest real water was a few hundred feet below the crust of the Tucson deserta subterranean river but hardly navigable. How could you make a naval officer of a quondam civilian in such a location? Tucsonans especially were puzzled.

But the Navy had not chosen the University of Arizona for lack of any other place to train reserve officers; there were countless other sites available. The very fact that Tucson was isolated from any other naval life was sufficient to bring about affirmation.

Officials reasoned this way: "These men are entering a new life, perhaps a confusing one to them, in the beginning. The transition must be gradual, not abrupt. Teach them the basic things they need to know, then let them board ships. They will be prepared for it by that time. A man's viewpoint can change radically in 60 days time. Let the naval way of life sink in. We are trying to make the transitional period easier for each man, thus he and the Navy both profit."

desert ship since she set sail October 15, 1942. Four groups, each numbering 500, have come and studied and drilled under the omnipresent Arizona sun, and have gone to quench another, less popular but more incarnadined, sun.

These 2000 are the proof of the pudding.

Basically the training program is three-dimensional. One phase stresses theoretical knowledge of seamanship, ordnance, navigation, naval administration, and naval regulations, and customs. A second phase emphasizes physical conditioning, which includes recreational play, calisthenics, corrective physical procedure, and determination of strength quotients. The third accents military drilling, the manual of arms, military conduct and bearing, achieving its object by rote methods.Because most student-officers who come to Tucson are college graduates they seldom encounter difficulty with any of the scholastic requirements of the course. And, as perfection in military drilling and the manual of arms is a matter of practice more than anything else, in this too, few experience failure.

But, except for men athletically inclined, the physical portion of officers' training is exacting and difficult. Each man, according to ChiefFour battalions have graduated from the Student officers of the U. S. Naval Training School applauded Rear Adm. Ernest L. Gunther, U. S. N., 11th Naval District air officer, and San Diego Naval Air Center Commandant, when he spoke briefly to them at the Fourth Battalion graduation exercises. "Above all else, the Admiral said, "carry on."

An entire battalion of student-officers strides along for the first class of the day at the U. S. Naval Training School. Note that only the student-officer platoon leaders carry books in left hand they're the only ones required to render the hand salute while marching. Men in ranks salute on the order "eyes right."

Specialist W. K. Kliewer, U.S.N.R., is expected to score 200 points in strength tests, which include chinning the bar, push-ups, body levers, and the standing broad jump. To satisfy Navy standards, a student-officer would have to chin himself 10 times, pushup 15 times, execute 25 body levers, and leap 6 ft. 6 in.

Those who score less than 200 points, and 14 per cent fail the initial test, are placed in a corrective platoon and every effort made to raise their strength quotient. Records indicate that these men increase their score by 34 per cent at the conclusion of their 60-day course. Furthermore the over-all average for all men tested at the naval training school for the first five months showed an average increase of 40 points for their 60 day period. Few fall below Navy requirements in the final tests. The highest number of points ever scored by any student-officer is 430.

Student-officers must master the program mapped out for them by Navy training technicians, because their commissions are probationary while they are undergoing indoctrination. A deficiency in any one of these phases may be sufficient to return one to civil life. As a result, all work assiduously at the task of becoming officers.

While the course outlined for these studentofficers is ostensibly of three dimensions, the officer himself constitutes the fourth. Whether or not he has the inherent qualities required of a naval officer is highly important. Without proper response from the student-officer the Navy can do little.

"Men make themselves officers. We give them bare essentials, but they alone must transform themselves," explained Captain Cheadle. "Many of them wonder when they get here, exactly what an officer is expected to be. That's where we come in."

That hallowed English admiral, Lord Nelson, around whom revolves so much naval tradition and custom, summed up succintly the requisites of an officer. "As you from this daystart the world as a man," he said, "I trust that your future conduct in life will prove you both an officer and a gentleman. Recollect that you must be a seaman to be an officer; and also that you can't be a good officer without being a gentleman."

In addition to age and educational requirements, the Navy demands that officer-candidates should have, in some measure, the following attributes: ability to lead, willingness to shoulder responsibilty, loyalty, a spirit of cooperation, fearlessness, confidence, honesty,tactfulness, patience, fairness, coolness of mind, and consideration for others. Beyond these basic qualifications a man must acquire a mastery of his particular billet when he has finished indoctrination.

After a few days at the Tucson ship on the desert these student-officers begin to learn Navy terminology. Things are no longer "left"or "right"; they are "port"or "starboard." A floor is the "deck," and anything above is "topside." They begin to acquire the habit of saying "sir" when addressed by a senior of the student-officer were Hon. Hiram Bingham, former U. S. senator from Connecticut; Lt. Col. J. J. Gannon, U.S.M.C.R.; Lt. Comdr. H. S. Munson, U.S.N.; Lt. Comdr. I. S. Hartman, U.S.N.; Lt. H. W. Nicholson, U.S.N.R.; First Lt. Ruth M. Straub, Army Nurses Corps; Lt. (jg) A. Wright, U.S.N.R., and C. H. Older, T. C. Heywood and Ed F. Overend, all members of the American Volunteer Group of "Flying Tigers," who operated with such efficiency in China under command of Brigadier Gen. Claire Chennault, A.A.F.

The student-officer turns in at 10 p. m. when taps sounds. Tomorrow is another day, but slightly different from today.

However, life aboard the good ship U.S.S. Beardown is seldom humdrum. There is the usual amount of good-natured ribbing. The loudspeaker system periodically belches forth orders of the day and other miscellaneous data as the University of Arizona has athletic teams. Since that tragic day those two words have been the battle-cry of Wildcat teams, who remember them most vividly when the going is tough.

The student-officers who have borrowed this brief fighting slogan for the name of their desert ship can remember them also. And when the going is tough and the battle waxing hot, they too can "bear down." After 60 days of indoctrination, they know what "bearing down" really means!

The Bandar Log Press

Each of them, for instance, remembers him in flashing visions, always breezing past with overcoat flying, acting on sudden impulses; another remembers him as a good fellow, holding open house for his newspaper friends among his wonderful collection of books and drawings; another recalls his quaint sayings, rare humor, and cheerful smile; another sees him in memory as a surpassing craftsman as well as the fastest pen-and-ink artist in the world.

Of course Frank Holme worked under special difficulties. Of his life in Arizona he wrote in a letter: "Our daily routine is not calculated Sextants in hand, these navigation students are learning to shoot the sun.

Of concern to these embryo officers. Rivalry, of a friendly nature, exists between battalions. Esprit de corps among these men is high, and they are determined to carry out the imperative of their ship's name "bear down."

Although the phrase originally had no application to the Navy or the war, it always had a fighting connotation. Behind it there is a story of courage, and of devotion to a common cause.

Back in the middle twenties the most talked of and respected figure on the University of Arizona campus was a likeable young man whose name was "Buttons" Salmon. Buttons was student body president, and a star backfield man on the Wildcat football eleven, of which he was also captain. One Sunday afternoon, midway in his last football season, Buttons was seriously injured when his roadster overturned on the highway (U. S. No. 89) which runs from Florence to Tucson.

As he lay near death in a hospital bed, Buttons could think only of his team. What might be their reaction when he was gone from the lineup? They must carry on as though nothing had happened that was the one thing which Buttons knew as the end grew near. And in that last infinitesimal moment of life, Buttons Salmon admonished his teammates to "bear down." Then Buttons died, the words still on his lips.

Buttons Salmon was gone, but the magnanimous admonition from a brave fighting man to his buddies never will be forgotten so long

MARCH, 1943

manac. After supper we visit each other's tents and swap lies, or sit by the stove to read or write letters till bed time ought to be about 9 o'clock. And yet I suppose that somewhere in this favored land people are hustling and working and rushing around just like I used to see them in Chicago.

Chicago his friends there had not forgotten Frank Holme. Chicago artists held an exhibi-tion of paintings and drawings which Holme could not attend. So they made copies in miniature, framed them, and sent them to Phoenix on a special train with William Randolph Hearst and his congressional party. They were presented to Holme in the old opera house at Phoenix. "What could I say?" Holme wrote to his wife. "Carnegie with all his money could not have had such an exhibit as they sent me."

Holme's desire for companionship led him often to the office of the Arizona Republican in Phoenix where he made friends of all the newspapermen including the late "Uncle Billy" Spear; and his desire to be doing as much as possible led to overwork. In the summer of to develop that strenuosity of which Teddy speaks. We get up reluctantly about 8 a. m., breakfast, then loaf around the tents maybe take a short walk on the desert, more often stretch out on canvas cots and go to sleep in the sun; lunch at twelve and then we sure go to sleep for an hour or so, then sit up and swap lies or shoot craps or ask each other questions to be answered and proved by the 'World Al1904 Holme went to Denver to "take a shot." There he died in July.

Today in Phoenix the chicken house press-room and the tents have gone; the ranch itself has been subdivided to make space for a thriving city hardly an echo there now of that

road-song of the Bandar Log:

"Here we sit in a branchy row Thinking of beautiful things we know; Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, All complete in a minute or twoSomething noble and grand and good, Won by merely wishing we could."

PAGE THIRTY-NINE