Training Of Our Youthful Bluejackets.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 21, 1912:
Some of the Tests that Are Applied to Applicants for Service in the Navy.
    THE bold sailormen, they say, is nowadays too young — adolescent, immature, soft in brain and brawn, milky of nerve, yellow of heart — not the kind to put in a fight or stay there if once in. That is, now and then a ship's doctor sees it that way. The doctor's job, you know, puts him next to the worst. He isn't there to handle many good men — only the defectives. He deals interminably with men who are sick, and it is not strange that sometimes they should get on his nerve — that he should be somewhat infected in his own estimate of the sailorman, by and large.
    Dr. George Augustus Lung, Fleet Surgeon of the great Atlantic Fleet, twenty-one battleships strong, to say nothing of cruisers and scouts, is the last to call attention sanely and scientifically to the fact that the enlisted men of our navy may too truthfully be called boys. He says the average age of the enlisted men of the service is under 25, and while youth has alertness and is the material for training, it has the disadvantage of lightness in weight, immaturity of mind, lack of power to endure hardships or exposure, and the doubt lies against them that in time of stress their physical and mental powers might not co-ordinate — which means that when the next great battle comes they would not be equal to the awful ordeal and fight with the courage that should come of their long, hard training.
    Dr. Lung has a splendid record, and his views go far with many of his profession and with naval authorities. He was with Sampson at Santiago, went on the Peking relief expedition, has been highly commended by his superiors, and has a long career behind his opinion. Secretary Meyer has not yet taken up Dr. Lung's report, which has brought this criticism of the youth of the bluejacket again to the front. It will no doubt be the subject of discussion for some time, and possibly naval boards will be asked to go over the matter and long reports will be written, and perhaps some new rule as to age requirements will be adopted.
    But, after all, the question whether the ideal fighting man should be 25 years old or 30 or any other more mature age will not be settled. The supreme test is the only arbiter of that problem. If the average age, weight, mentality, physique, height, strength, and character of the men of Togo's fleet could be compared with the same averages of the enlisted personnel of Rogestvensky's ill-fated fleet there might be a standard for an estimate of our own bluejackets.
    By the test report of the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation it appears there are 47,612 enlisted men in our navy. Of this number 34,634 were serving under their first enlistment. 8,055 under their second, 2.704 under their third, 931 under their fourth, 538 under their fifth, 328 under their sixth, 186 under their seventh, 147 under their eighth, 80 under their ninth, and 9 under heir tenth enlistment.
    The whole number serving under re-enlistment was 12,978, about one-fourth of the enlisted personnel of the navy. The enlistment period in the navy is four years or for minority and minors may be enlisted at the age of 17. The whole number of enlisted men serving during minority was 6,243. There were 15,724 enlisted during the year out of 70,458  applicants for enlistment. The numbers indicate the severity of the process of selection. For physical reasons 37,746 were rejected; for mental and moral reasons 21,747 were rejected. Out of the large number examined there were only 347 accepted where disqualifications were waived.
    In the physical tests the minors get the worst of it, if anything. No underweight or underheight is tolerated. A minor must be 62 inches tall at 17 and must weigh at least 110 pounds. At 18 he must be 64 inches tall and weigh 115 pounds. He is tried out on test of bone, muscle, and nerve. Every possible defect of mind or body is looked for, and if found the man is rejected.
    The test goes even further than mere physical and mental examination. Naval surgeons at recruiting stations are exceedingly fearsome about "dummies," perverts, insanely inclined or imbecile types of men. They go into the family history of the applicant, ask him about his father and mother, his sisters and brothers. If there is an insane mother or an alcoholic father, there is a doubt against the man at once. The questions go back into the man's personal history, and he is required to tell what he knows of his diseases of childhood, how he went through the measles or scarlet fever or some like malady. The way the case affected him tells much to the acute surgeon keen for temperamental phenomena.
    All this care is taken because every experienced officer knows just what it means to pass a man who has some one of the defects mentioned. The man may be sent to the training school and get the best possible instruction, but he will turn out to be a defective. He will be the sort that is forever careless in his performance of his duties.
    If he becomes a gunner he will absent-mindedly light a cigarette when he is handling high explosives in a turret. If he is a yeoman he will spell badly and cast up a column of figures always with errors in his work. On shore, he will get drunk probably.
    On ship he is always being called before the mast, always being court-martialed. He sleeps on post, goes to the doctor for fancied sickness, misunderstands orders, exasperates officers and demoralizes his shipmates. It is to keep such men out that the recruiting surgeons are forever alert when they are examining recruits.
    Even the looks of the man are taken into account, his expression, his habit with his eyes, his manner of carrying himself, his personal appearance, his cleanliness. If he is sullen, if he is incurably awkward, if he is unbalanced in some one faculty, he is rejected. He is not the kind that will finally stand the supreme test in battle. The surgeon always has that battle before his mind.
    The man goes through a mental test; that is, as to his education, it is true, but the more important test is as to his mental qualities. Can he remember an order? Is he observing? Will he be quick? Can he reason? What is his judgment? Does he show a strong sense of right and wrong? How does he answer questions — reasonably or flippantly? Is he superstitious? Has he ever been wronged and is he afraid of anything? If he is left-handed, or blushes, stutters, resents a question as if in anger — these things count against him.
    And all this is to get the man who can stand the final test sometime somewhere. And after the man is picked then he is to get a training that is the equivalent of a good education. For this there are three training schools — one at Newport, R. I., one at Norfolk, Va., and one at Yerba Buena, Cal., and in addition there are the seamen gunners schools at Washington and Newport, the electrical schools at Mare Island and New York, the yeoman training at Newport and Yerba Buena, and the school for machinists' mates at Norfolk.
    And all the time the best instructors to be found in the service as they train these young men are keeping in mind the one purpose — to make them fit for the one great test of courage when the time comes.
    "They start with nominal amount of pay. It is all that the young man or boy can expect and probably in most cases more than he can command in any other place. It is a compensation that the Government could not expect to offer to older men with any hope of getting them into the service. For, after all, it must be remembered that it is a competitive matter this getting men to enlist. They are not going to go into the navy if they can do better as they look at things. The navy invites them because there is good clothes, good food, a good home, training and development, with a life that is full of adventure and a chance to learn and know the world, its peoples, and civilizations.
    The reason there are young men or boys in our navy is because we nave found by experience that the apprentice system is a good one. The boy can be molded, developed and trained to be a far more  efficient sailor than can the mature man. Old officers bear witness to the fact that as men grow older they begin to think more of their personal safety than when they are young. The unhesitating courage that springs at the command is looked for in the young man. With the young the spirit of emulation, the love of the good opinion of others, according to the observation of experienced commanders, go far to make brave men In the army, the young applicant for enlistment is barred if he has a wife. This is not a bar in the navy, but as a rule the young men who go into the navy are single. Officers believe that this counts for efficiency and bravery.
    "Apart from the scientific view," said "an old navy medical officer, commenting on Dr. Lung's startling report, "it has been the fact in all ages that young men were the keener to take risks to venture, to perform perilous duties. Now if to youth it is possible to add training strictly in the line of performance on shipboard it seems to me no great matter whether our men are twenty-five or twenty-two.
    "The average age of the men who fought in the civil war was twenty-two years. The average age in the navy at the time of the Spanish war was, I believe, twenty-six. A few years ago Dr. Beyer, in some of his researches in connection with a study of tuberculosis, got some averages of age in one division of the Atlantic Fleet, and I think he found that it was twenty-five years.
    "There are no statistics for the entire service so far as I know. The tendency, I know, is to use young fellows because they are adaptable, ambitious, and the results have been uniformly good." The whole purpose is to train these young recruits so that they may ultimately behave normally under abnormal conditions. We want them to have the character to stand up under the awful conditions of war.
    "The next great naval battle, when it comes, will not last more than twenty minutes or half an hour. The men in the turret must be able to obey commands under the terrible conditions of noise, the impact of great shells striking their ship, the cries and groans of their wounded and dying shipmates. They must be quick to do what they have been trained to do so many times before under other conditions, they must not think of themselves a moment.
    "The old man is inclined to be introverted — to have a thought for himself. He cannot obey two masters — himself and the word of command. The whole life of the bluejacket is preparation for the half an hour battle that may never come, but if it does come must justify all that the Government has done to make him a man of supreme courage.
    "I went around the world with the battleship fleet and I saw our enlisted men under all sorts of conditions. I found them always fine fellows. They are a clean, honest, ambitious lot of men. When we were at Auckland, we went ashore, and I went into a place to get some post cards to send to my friends, and I could hardly get in there were so many men there all intent on sending some remembrance to their kin and friends at home.
    "Their conversation was that of observing, high-minded young men out in the world, and glad to see and learn all they might of another land and people.
    "I happened to be on the hospital ship Relief when she went through that fearful hurricane. The ship was  flretrap, and seven times got afire. But the men never quailed. The engines broke down, the steering apparatus broke, and we drifted at the mercy of the storm, but not a man failed to do his duty.
    "We had the sixty hospital stewards on board out for fire drill twice a day, and those men worked up to their waists in water under the most fearful conditions and never once faltered. When you see men doing their duty like that you must have respect for the kind of material and the kind of training that make our navy strong and efficient.
    "I am not ready to think we err on the side of too youthful men in the navy. What we want is to get the most service from the men we train while they are at their best physically and mentally. I do not believe that the men we accept are too small, too light in weight, or deficient in strength. The recruiting surgeon looks out for all that. Certainly the records made in recent years in battle practice in marksmanship, in cruising, and in manoeuvres would not seem to justify the criticism.
    "We are not carrying any very large number of old men in the service. Only 43 men applied for retirement last year. And our men are almost entirely Americans. There were last year 42,752 native-born Americans in the navy, and only 3050 naturalized citizens. Of the enlisted men not native Americans 1,042 were Filipinos. More than 98 per cent. were citizens of the United States.
    "More than 6,000 men were honorably discharged last year to make use in civil life of the trade or the training they had acquired the service. In case of war, there would be large proportion of this number available for emergency service. The younger the man begins his life in the navy the longer is the period of his availability.
    "The general interest in athletics in our navy shows that our men are fit physically and mentally. They have the strength and the skill, the quickness in decisions to excel in athletics, and the interest in baseball, football, swimming, running, and other sports is an indication that they are not so puny as their youth may seem to make them appear on paper to be.
    "I know that we are all discussing this whole matter of courage in battle in an academic way. It is natural that we should. But remember that there are scores of brave men continually at work on the problem of making a strong and efficient  navy. The bravery of these men is shown in a thousand ways that do not appeal much to the love of the spectacular.
    "The medical man who toils night after night on some phenomena that appeals to him as promising a discovery of great good to the service and to mankind is doing his part. The young ensign who takes up his task of command, the non-commissioned officer who prides himself on making his men do their work in the best possible manner, the humblest enlisted man who is attentive to orders, keeps his mind on his duty, and springs to his work at the first sound of command — all are doing their part. And it is in the perfection of all the parts that the perfection of the whole is procured.
    "If young men can do their duty well and give the best years of their life to the country, they are worth what their training costs. The older men might he more tractable, less gay, and with a smaller percentage of defectives and 'dummies,' but the responsiveness of youth to the test of courage is too well known to be subject to doubt."