[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
THE NAVAL MILITIA
Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, New York is one of only two States
that has successfully bolstered its National Guard forces with a naval
militia. I ask that the first installment of a two-part series
describing the history, function, and advantages of the Naval Militia
recently published in the Naval Review Association magazine be included
in the Record.
The article follows:
The Naval Militia--Part I. Heritage of the Naval Reserve
(By Comdr. Walter J. Johanson, USNR/NYNM and Comdr. William A. Murphy,
USNR/NYNM)
Editor's Note: This is the first of two articles on the
Naval Militia. The second article, entitled, ``Mission For
The Naval Reserve,'' will be published in the October edition
of NRA NEWS.
The Naval Militia in states which have it on their statute
books and functioning, consists of those members of the Naval
and Marine Corps Reserve who live, work, or drill in the
state and who opt to affiliate in its Organized Militia, in
accordance with Title 10, US Code. At present, only Alaska
and New York have functioning Naval Militia organizations
which conform to Federal standards. In the past, many more
states had a Naval Militia; in the future, perhaps many more
will.
In 1991, RADM Joseph Peck, New York Naval Militia (NYNM),
now President Emeritus of the Naval Militia Association,
reinstituted the policy of promulgating the Naval Militia
message to the several States. This effort has had several
positive results. The Marine Corps Reserve Officers
Association passed a resolution at its 1993 annual convention
urging all States to establish a Naval Militia. A similar
resolution was passed by the Militia Association of New York,
which includes Army and Air National Guard as well as Naval
and Marine Corps Reserve members.
genesis
The Naval Militia came into existence late in the
Nineteenth Century because there was awareness of a need for
a federally-controlled naval reserve, but Congress did not
pass the necessary legislation until 1915. For a quarter of a
century the States attempted to fill the void in a manner
which also augmented the Militia of the States.
The United States Navy, which had been the world's largest
during the Civil War, reverted to peacetime insignificance
after 1865. Starting in the early 1880's, Congress authorized
a building program. It became apparent that appropriations
for man-power, though, did not keep pace with the number of
billets required afloat. the Navy believed a naval reserve
could eliminate the shortfall.
In February 1887, Senator Washington C. Whitthorne (D-
Tenn.), a former Confederate general, introduced legislation
(S. 3320) to establish a United States Naval Reserve.
Although a combination of active officers, the Secretary of
the Navy, the Naval institute, and concerned civilians
supported legislation to establish a naval reserve, many more
were not convinced of its necessity. The Congress was unable
to take action, and this led the States to take the
initiative.
James Russell Soley, a Massachusetts resident and a former
Navy officer who had participated in a study of European
reserve systems, discovered that the governor, in a
continuation of colonial-era practice, was designated the
``Captain-General, Commander-in Chief, and Admiral of the
land and sea forces of the State.'' He urged the state to use
that power to establish a Naval Militia, and the legislature
passed an act to that effect on 17 May 1888. Nearly a year
later, on 29 April 1889, Rhode Island passed enabling
legislation to establish a naval battalion of the State
Militia; the same day, Pennsylvania did likewise. New York
followed on 14 June 1889 by establishing three battalions of
Naval Reserve Artillery and a Naval Reserve Torpedo Corps.
California, North Carolina, Texas, and Maryland followed in
1891. South Carolina added a naval militia the next year.
The Naval Militia, in addition to developing as a reserve
for the Navy, was an incipient reserve for the Marine Corps
as well. Starting in 1893, the New York Naval Militia
included the 1st Marine Corps Reserve Company. Massachusetts
and Louisiana also included units of Marines in their Naval
Militia organizations.
WAR IN 1898 AND AFTER
When, in April 1898, diplomatic relations with Spain were
ruptured, there was no overall concept for the wartime
employment of the Naval Militia, let alone a detailed
mobilization plan. Furthermore, there was no formal
contractual relationship between individual members of the
Naval Militia and the Navy. Unit activation was impossible;
each member had to be processed on his own, with the result
that the unit cohesion which had developed for as much as ten
years was threatened with being broken up.
USS YOSEMITE, all of whose 300 crew members came from the
Michigan State Naval Brigade, fought off Spanish forces at
the entrance to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship was assigned
to a task force which at the time the war ended, was
preparing for operations against the coast of Spain. The Navy
began the Spanish-American War with 12,500 men and ended it
with 24,123. Of the increase, 3,832 came from the Naval
Militia. Results were uneven but, as demonstrated by
YOSEMITE, there was considerable potential for a well-
trained, well-organized, adequately-funded reserve force.
Almost immediately after the war, the Navy pointed to its
wartime experience and requested establishment of a naval
reserve under its control to consist of personnel with prior
service in the Navy or Marine Corps. Support in Congress was
minimal, however, and after several attempts to enact a Naval
Reserve failed, the Navy had to be content with improvements
on the margins.
In 1911, the Naval Militia included about 7,400 officers
and men in units in 20 States and the District of Columbia.
That year, problems of manning the fleet became acute and the
Navy developed plans to fully man its newer ships, while
placing others in a reserve status. The latter ships were to
be manned by members of the Naval Militia upon mobilization.
The Navy came to depend upon personnel of the Naval Militia
for peacetime, or contributory, support activity in the years
before World War I. Personnel shortages afloat forced the
Navy to resort to relieving them by different expedients. In
some instances, active duty personnel in shore stations were
ordered to sea to man critical billets, and their positions
ashore were manned temporarily by Naval Militia personnel. In
1912, in order to sufficiently man ships at a major naval
review in New York, the Secretary of the Navy sanctioned an
interesting process that was used to gain the services of
some 1,000 Naval Militia personnel. They were enlisted on
standard four-year contracts but were discharged at the
conclusion of the events.
In February 1914, Congress passed the legislation to give
the Secretary of the Navy authority over the Naval Militia.
Before it could be put into practice, however, it was
overtaken by events: the early events of the European War led
Congress to overcome a quarter century of reluctance and
establish the United States Naval Reserve.
naval militia and naval reserve
Establishment of the Naval Reserve in 1915 did not
immediately render the Naval Militia obsolete nor cause it to
be abandoned. Indeed, the Navy was never more dependent upon
the Naval Militia just before this country became involved in
World War I.
As the Naval Reserve was first established, it was little
more than a data base of prior-service personnel who
indicated their availability for reactivation in event of
war. As of November, 1915, only 176 men had affiliated with
the Naval Reserve.
The approach of war led Congress to strengthen the Naval
Reserve. An Act of August 29, 1916 established National Naval
Volunteer as a category of Naval Reserve membership. Intended
for members of the Naval Militia, National Naval Volunteers
were to consist of personnel whose naval skills were found by
the Navy to meet its standards and who agreed to be available
for mobilization.
between the wars
Congress was unwilling to fund the infrastructure needs of
the Naval Reserve, and the previous capital assets acquired
by the Naval Militia over twenty-five years were critical:
subsequent analysis indicated that, in the period between the
wars, where the Naval Reserve was able to exist alongside the
Naval Militia as a result of dual membership, it was far more
effective than where there was no Naval Militia.
By 1936, however, the Naval Militia was declining. Although
19 states carried Naval Militia organizations on their
statute books, only ten maintained them as functioning
organizations: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and
Wisconsin. Nevertheless, for every four dollars that the
Federal Government allocated to the Naval Reserve, the states
spent one dollar on the Naval Militia.
AFTER WORLD WAR II
James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy from 1944 until he
became first Secretary of Defense in 1947, was a firm
supporter of the Naval Reserve. Forrestal ensured that
funding of the Naval Reserve was sufficient for its needs.
This reduced the Navy's need for the Naval Militia. Of the
original States with a Naval Militia, only New York has kept
the Naval Militia as an operating organization (in accordance
with Title 10, U.S. Code), but it was joined later by Alaska.
THE FUTURE
In view of severely declining budgets for the active
component, the Navy has come to see the Naval Reserve as a
potentially-valuable resource which can be put to use in its
day-to-day activity. Overall ``Naval Reserve Policy'' is
spelled out in SECNAV instruction 1000.37 of October 1992,
where ``Peacetime (Contributory) Support'' allows the Navy to
be able to access members of its reserve component whose
skills--both military and civilian--can add value by
supplementing the skills of active component personnel or
where skills for a given task are nonexistent in the active
component.
Naval Militia organizations, originating a century ago to
defend the vulnerable coasts of seaboard states, have the
potential to contribute to the defense of vulnerable budgets
of state governments which must often respond to
unanticipated demands. As the Naval Reserve originated as a
data base of personnel who could be used by the Navy as
needed but which could be maintained by the Navy at little
cost in peacetime, so that Naval Militia could rise again in
the form of a data base of personnel, maintained at little
cost, but containing skilled personnel available when needed
as part of the Organized Militia of the States as provided in
Title 10, U.S. Code.
Both writers are Life Members of the Naval Reserve
Association, and officers of the New York Naval Militia and
of the Analysis and Strategy Department of NR Naval War
College Support Unit 0119, which supports the Advanced
Concepts Department of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies
at the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. CDR
Murphy is also President of the ENS James F. Burke, Jr.
(Westchester County, New York) Chapter of the Naval Reserve
Association. CDR Johnson is the Public Affairs Officer of the
Naval War College Support Unit; he is the author of several
articles on military and security issues and is researching a
book on the reformation of the US military from Vietnam to
the Gulf War.
Historical research data for this paper was originally
prepared for Center for Naval Warfare Studies, US Naval War
College, Naval Reserve Paper No. 1: U.S. Naval Reserve: The
First 75 years, (Newport, RI: Naval War College, 1992).
Marine Corps Reserve material is from Reserve Officers of
Public Affairs Unit 4-1, The Marine Corps Reserve: A History,
(Washington, DC: Division of Reserve, Headquarters, U.S.
Marine Corps, 1966).
Chapter 659, Naval Militia, Sections 7851 through 7854.
State Naval Militia Organizations
Massachusetts......................................................1891
California.........................................................1891
New York...........................................................1891
Rhode Island.......................................................1891
Texas..............................................................1891
South Carolina.....................................................1892
Maryland...........................................................1892
Illinois...........................................................1893
Pennsylvania.......................................................1893
Connecticut........................................................1894
Michigan...........................................................1894
Georgia............................................................1895
New Jersey.........................................................1895
Louisiana..........................................................1896
Ohio...............................................................1897
Virginia...........................................................1899
District of Columbia...............................................1899
Oregon.............................................................1899
Florida............................................................1900
Maine..............................................................1900
Minnesota..........................................................1904
Missiouri..........................................................1912
Washington.........................................................1912
Wisconsin..........................................................1912
1955.........................................................
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