Hasty Amends

The U.S. Navy is heading for a postwar manpower problem of unprecedented magnitude. To man the postwar fleet, it will need a force estimated by hopeful Navymen at some five times its greatest previous peacetime complement. The logical place to get the force is from the fleets' 2,862,971 war-trained Reserves, officers and men, who now comprise 84.5% of the entire Navy.

Yet partially because they are tired of war but also because almost nothing has been done to show them the advantages of becoming professionals, most Reservists are fed up, want only one thing from the Navy: to get out as soon as possible after the war. Keynoting their bitter feeling, one Reserve officer, a veteran of two years in the Pacific, wrote last week: "I wouldn't stay in the goddam Navy if I starved to death on the outside. I have met very few officers who don't share my sentiments. The man 30 or older who wants to stay in is a rare exception. If a man has ever held a responsible civilian job, all he wants is to get out. The younger men, who might otherwise have some thought of staying in, are convinced that the Reserves will get the undesirable assignments after the war. They see themselves holding down the Kwajaleins and Pelelius while the Regular Navy sails the ships and gets the good shore assignments. . . .

"Since the Navy's wartime policy of giving promotions has been anything but liberal or attractive, it looks to me as though they had better do something concrete about their postwar plans pretty soon if they expect to snare any sizable number of their present personnel for postwar duty."

The Navy, suddenly discovering that this feeling was typical, began a campaign to make amends for its bungled selling job. All Hands, official Bureau of Naval Personnel magazine, last week published a letter to all Reservists from square-shooting, popular Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal. The gist: the Navy would need perhaps 30,000 more Regular officers than it has now; it hopes to get them from the Reserves.

The details of what a transfer to the Regular Navy would mean in the way of a career, Forrestal frankly admitted, would depend on future legislation. All he could offer now were three generalized inducements: 1) transfers would be made in such, a manner as to "place all of you on an equal footing with U.S.N. officers of about the same age and of the same length of service in rank"; 2) Reservists who transfer would get the best naval education in the world; and 3) they would be promised "an equal opportunity in promotions and assignments."

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