US Naval Reserve Midshipmens School - Side Boy Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 48 text:

LIEUT. MORTIMER BERKOWITZ, JR., USNR Inxtructor Afloat Westchester Country Cluh Rye, New York LIEUT. JOHN F. CARRUTI-IERS, USNR Inxtructor Afloat I0l5 Prospect Roulcvurtl Pasadena, Culilorniu LIEUT. CMDR. ARTHUR R. COOKE, USNR Instructor Afloat 7 Surrey Road Summit, New Jersey LIEUT. JOHN B. FLYNN, USNR Instructor Afloat Washington Park Washington, North Carolina LIEUT. fjul FRED C. HESS, USNR Instructor Afloat 749 North 76th Street East St. Louis, Illinois LIEUT. fjgl JAMES F. O'CONNELL, USNR Instructor Afloat 215 East 197th Street New York, New York LIEUT. GEORGE F. PAGE, USNR Instructor Afloat 321 Melrose Avenue Kenilworth, Illinois Cl-IIEF BOATSWAIN WILLIAM J. SCI-IMITZ, USN Instructor Afloat Colonial Village Newport, Rhode Island LIEUT. CMDR. ROBERT T. SINNOTT, USNR Instructor Afloat 7442 Bennett Avenue Chicago, Illinois 45

Page 47 text:

pe:-ations Afloat OinC Training Afloat Operations Ojicer LIEUTENANT COMMANDER LT. W. ROBERT HOWELL USNR W. H. HOLCOMBE, JR., USNR 181 Vicente Road 1557 Spring Hill Avenue Berkeley, California Mobile, Alabama A chance to practice and learn the practical end of seamanship was afforded the midshipmen under the supervision of the Operations Afloat Department. Com posed of 12 ofhcers, 80 enlisted men and a squadron of trim SC's, Operations Afloat afforded the middies a chance to play a little tag with Execution Rocks and the buoys nearby and to stand a few bridge watches. In general, it gave the glorified boots of USNRMS Fort Schuyler an opportunity to get acquainted with what lies ahead on the deep dark stretch beyond the continental limits of the USA. The f'Sound going voyages were arranged near the end of the term after the midshipman had a chance to run through the seamanship book from cover to cover learn blinker, semaphore, how to read Hag hoists and, last but not least, how to keep the good ship USS Skylark off the Great Captain Island. On board, classes were conducted in seamanship concerning tactical maneuvers and flag hoist signaling, navigation and instructions given in standing the bridge watch. During the week the SC's sailed as far as Greenwich, Connecticut, returning the same dayg but on the overnight trips the trim Sub Chasers ventured farther up the Sound, making their way past the gleaming lights of New London before they Corpen 180 and returned to their pier at the Schuyler seawall. The trip was usually without incident from the outside, except during the noon anchoring, at which time the ship and complement were considerably perturbed by the local belles of the harbor who frequently swam out to the SC's with RSVP's clenched in their teeth. It was the duty of the oflicers on board to show the middies how to use the wheel, navigational instruments, and how to conduct themselves on shipboard in general. It is to them that the majority of us owe all we know, or will know for some time to come, of the noble art of sailing the brimy deep. i 44

Page 49 text:

rdnance Department Head LIEUTENANT COMMANDER CECIL CLARK, USNR Route No. 1, Box 111146 Mill Valley, California From the Benjamin air rifle of childhood days, with its regular knife sight and copper coated BB's, to the sixteen inch bag gun with the built-up barrel, interrupted- screw breech-block and twin recoil cylinders of today, they hold no secrets to us. We have scrutinized cams on their eccentric maneuvers, followed the breech-block in its important cycle and have even rolled up our sleeves and rammed projeetiles into the yawning cavities of the Navy's mighty thundersticks. The work in ordnance was composed of both classroom work and MP work at the ordnance gun shed. The period included instruction on guns, mines, torpedoes, depth charges, and rockets, as well as instruction on surface and anti-aircraft fire, mechanics and operations of rangekeepers, computers, directors and stable elements. Thorough instruction by the ordnance staff clarified the operation of some of the Navy's most intricate equipment. The two dimensional sketches and diagrams of operating parts in the book were also simplified immensely by a little three dimensional observation in the gun sheds. The chance for the students to exhibit some of the old college try was also had as the delta X's and Y's of calculus days were encountered on the surface and AA problems. Here again some excellent instruction on the part of the ordnance staff' kept a greatrdeal of the miclshipmen out of the tall timber. For those who have the idea there is naught to fire control and gunnery but pointing the large barrel of a mammouth gun in the general direction and firing, talk to some of the midshipmen, who, in spite of the superhuman efforts by the instructors, found themselves on the well laden tree which bore throughout the term. 46