United States Naval Academy - Lucky Bag Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

Page 16 text:

11 L muu m fl iiii piflD In looking back this June Week all of us in the Class of 1 948 offer ourselves a silent, smiling congratulations before we enter Dahlgren Hall to throw our caps away for good. We realize in leaving the Academy, that our class saw many changes come to the standard curriculum of the Naval Academy. Of all these changes there was a super change scheduled on V-J Day that could have turned us all out of the Academy, so that Bancroft Hall would have changed overnight into an officers ' finishing school. The present Naval Academy system would have been annihilated. We know that this event did not occur, and although we sing I hope the hell you never get out to those we leave behind us we know that they and many classes will graduate from Annapolis as many classes before them have done. The reason that they will graduate is that the Holloway Plan by our present superintendent w ill give new staying power to the Naval Academy as we know it today. We, of course, all know of the Holloway plan. We went to Europe last summer with some of the new Holloway NROTC midshipmen. However, to conclude that this is the principle of the Holloway plan would be to make a big mistake. The essence of the plan is education of the embryo officers and the continuation of this education long after they have been com- missioned. The vision behind the plan is far reaching and complex, and the aim is good. Admiral Holloway surrounded by his staff. Comdr. R. S. Craighill, Secretary to the Academic Board; Mr. R. E. Heise, Chief Clerk to the Superintendent; Captain J. R. Wallace, Administrative Aid; Comdr. B. L. Gurnett, Flag Lieutenant; Comdr. J. J. Sutherland, Flag Secretary; Admiral Holloway. The plan consists of two fundamental points; First, ap- pointment of candidates and their subsequent education, training and preparation for a commission in the Navy or Marine Corps or an air component, and second, a well integrated training program designed for officers who have advanced beyond the probationary period and have held per- manent commissions for several years. The first point was agreed upon by Mr. Forrestal and Con- gress as being the best solution to the Navy ' s need for many temporary junior officers. Instead of having two Naval Acade- mies in order to graduate more officers a year, as are needed, or instead of sending all of the Navy ' s officer candidates to college for a couple of years and using the present Academy at Annapolis for the last two years of precommission training, a practical compromise was adopted. This compromise pro- vided that the number of midshipmen that the Academy cannot accommodate be selected by competition and sent to the NROTC college of their choice, provided that they can meet the college ' s entrance requirements. During their four year course these midshipmen will take such Naval subjects as fire control and damage control. Aviation candidates, selected in the same manner, are given two years of college and then Navy flight training. Upon graduation all NROTC midshipmen would be given probationary commissions. At the end of that Seated: John W. Rogers, Assistant to Secretary, Academic Board in charge of Admissions Section. Standing: Jesse M. Suit, Assistant to Head of Admissions Section. 12 m

Page 15 text:

• SWS ' :. -■S i i , f w • 1 J ' .jgax. «•£ ' ' ' J i V 3rj ; ,.j;J,jV-, ifl iar?.; n-iH( ,V;:. ■■■■■•. V

Page 17 text:

period they would be placed in an identical service status with their Naval Academy contemporaries. The service aptitude of each officer would decide his status as a career officer. The others will return to civilian life, as a ready reserve in the event of an emergency. As the Holloway Board optimistically said, These measures alone, will in time serve to eliminate intraservice friction and to insure an open minded, alert officers corps wherein each source of entry provides qualities of mutual emulation. The Marine Corps offers the Navy a sound pre- cedent. Their officers drawn from varied sources are unsur- passed in professional esprit. The plan does not end with graduation. It provides the professional officer with many varied post-graduate courses. They are made available to him at various times during his career at the time when the subject will do him, and the Navy, the most good. This, along with the assurance of a steady promotion by virtue of the recent promotion bill, gives the professional officer opportunities that he has never before known. We will remember Admiral Holloway, and his administra- tion of the Naval Academy as a pleasing personal experience. The great good his planning will do for the professional officer will seem even more great to us, having served with Admiral Holloway. We will remember him for the battalion receptions held in the superintendent ' s quarters and the cheering Good night. Gentlemen after each Friday lecture. We will carry away from the Academy a greater store of liberal knowl- edge because of these Friday night lectures. Throughout our Naval careers we will feel his influence. IPIIIIIII Rear A(Jmiral ](xmt$ Lemuel Holloway, Jr., U.S.N- , iwis horn at Fort Smith, Arkansas on 20 June, 1898. (TItat morning, some miles to southeast of Fort Smith, the USS IOWA arrived on station off Santiago Harhor. In less than a fortnight she was to take a leading part in the Battle of Santiago. 46 years later the new infant ivas to command another IOWA in action. ) At 17, young Holloway ivas anointed to the fiaval Academy, from Texas. He graduated into the exj nding Nflvy of 1918, and, in 106 days, found himself a lieutenant (j.g. ) and navigator of a destroyer. After the war, he was assigned as a member of the Government Commission to Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In 1924, as a lieutenant, he returned to the Academy as an instructor in the Department of Ordnance and Gunnery. (He was to remember his own promotion schedule years later, when working out a new officer personnel procurement, training, and promotion flan. ) Instruc- tor duty id dividends; on the West Virginia he received departmental commendations for gunnery efficiency. Much of the long 30 ' s was spent on staff duty; including the position of aide and flag lieutenant to the President, Naval War College. Pearl Harbor found Commander Holloway acting as Chief of Staff, Atlantic Fleet. As ComDesRon 10, he participated in the North African landings. 1 944 found Captain Hollou ay and the IOWA off Luzon and Japan. 13