Join the Navy & See Naples

In Naples, in the late weekday afternoon, a strange un-Neapolitan procession suddenly throbs to life. Hundreds of American cars, driven by buoyant, carefree American Navymen or their wives, begin their winding way through the ancient streets, far out to rented country villas or to the shiny new apartment buildings that crown the surrounding hills. Soon the flowered apartment terraces ring with the pleasant tinkle of ice cubes and buzz to the languid chitchat of the cocktail hour.

Another day of duty has come gently to a close for a big contingent of U.S. servicemen stationed in the Naples area. These forces have no arms, no combat equipment, no tactical function. From their balconies they sometimes see the visiting warships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet at their moorings in the broad, blue Bay of Naples. But Naples is not the Sixth Fleet's base. It is the home of NATO South, a paper command manned by a relative handful of officers and enlisted men whose presence has spawned a fabulous aggregation of 6,000 men, women and children, their dogs, cats, cars and TV sets--perhaps the world's most striking example of the peacetime American Way overseas, and certainly a posh assignment that burns in the salt-hardened souls of Navymen on all the ships at sea.

Sea to Land. It all began in 1951, when a few Navy ships dropped anchor in the lovely Bay of Naples. Object: to form the American headquarters for NATO South, which in wartime would command the allied fighting forces of southern Europe but in peacetime would have virtually nothing to do (since each NATO country exercises direct command of its own forces). Soon Navy wives and children also dropped anchor in Naples, began appearing on shipboard at mealtime. NATO South's skipper, Admiral Robert Bostwick Carney, decided that the families were rocking the boat, shifted his headquarters to dry land.

To provide necessary service facilities for personnel and their dependents, the Navy set up a modest housekeeping unit of about 45 officers and men. They too brought their wives, families and household pets with them. Modern technology being a complex thing, service facilities were broadened, more personnel were added to provide additional service facilities to service personnel in the other service facilities. Result: 1) more service facilities, 2) more personnel.

By last week NATO South command listed 692 U.S. officers and men, who were provided "logistic support" (carbon paper, groceries, Kleenex, cigarettes, household appliances, etc., etc.) by 2,103 military and 534 civilian aides in town, supporting a resounding total of 3,166 wives and children. What do they all do? Explained one Navyman: "All those people take in each other's washing."

"Washday" begins when the men of CSCN/CHSA* and lesser U.S. commands leave for work either in their own cars (2,487) or on any of the five Navy-run bus lines. Wives hustle the children off (on any of eight Navy-run school bus lines) to the world's largest Navy-operated dependents' school (1,000 pupils), then go around to shop in a cut-rate hangar-sized commissary (stocking electrical appliances, rock-'n'-roll records and quick-frozen Little Bo Pizzas shipped from the U.S.), or in any of the seven handy branch stores (total 1955 sales: $4,100,000). On the way home, they can stop for Scotch or bonded bourbon ($1.20 a fifth) at a Navy-run liquor store.

Sun to Slots. In compliance with a recent order that sternly took note of the need for proper relaxation and health (Instruction 1050-2, 18 May, 1956: "Personnel are encouraged to take an occasional morning or afternoon off"), the families disport themselves on dozens of tennis, badminton, basketball and handball courts, attend the movies (25-c-), soak up the sun at a private Mediterranean beach or at a new "rest and recreation" center (112-bed hotel, miniature golf, boating, roof garden, dancing). They are treated (no charge) at an ultramodern Navy hospital. For the ambitious (only 90), there are Navy-supplied Italian-language lessons; for stay-at-homes, TV (stateside sets are converted for Italian reception and maintained by a full-time crew of four).

When Naples bores, families take excursion trips to Capri or ten-day, low-cost sightseeing trips aboard Navy transports (Athens, Istanbul, Izmir, Alexandria and Tripoli: $26 apiece). For the social-minded, the officers' club offers pleasant surroundings, inexpensive drinks, slot machines (circumventing U.S. rules against gambling by welcoming allied comrades and designating the slot-machine areas as the "NATO rooms"). Naples, says the specially prepared Navy handbook for armed forces personnel, "can be a very rewarding experience."

Brass Thoughts. Accordingly, the saddest man in Naples is the one with orders home. Says one: "The Italians say, 'See Naples and die.' For a bachelor American, believe me, it's true." Added another rueful officer, who pays two housemaids a total of $50 a month: "My wife won't be worth shooting when she gets home." The re-enlistment rate at Naples has understandably soared to 60% (v. 30% throughout the Navy).

Last week the prospects for more re-enlistments were as solid as brass. "You got to think big," said one imaginative Navyman whose job is big-thinking. Some of the thoughts: a new nine-hole golf course, another resort hotel, enlargement of the dependents' school, new high school, newspaper, modernistic shopping center with new commissary, clothing store, other shops, perhaps an automotive center (to save time-consuming trips to West Germany for spare parts). Naturally, such expanded services will require additional personnel. Naples is no ship--there is plenty of room.

*The abbreviation for COMSUBCOMNELM/ COMHEDSUPPACT, or, to wit, in full style, Commander, Subordinate Command, U.S. Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, Commander, Headquarters Support Activities.

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