[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.........................................................

                          ____________________