Military Personnel to Study Minority Group Cultures
(Charles Mount in the Chicago Tribune, 3 March 1971)
An in-depth study program[*] of black and Chicano (Mexican-American) cultures will be made mandatory for all military personnel in each branch of Service.
Personnel from “. . . the lowest recruit to generals and admirals will be required to attend the program, designed to improve race relations in the Armed Forces . . .” a Defense Department official said. The program is another attempt to increase the re-enlistment rate as the Defense Department moves toward all-volunteer Armed Forces.
The program will include black and Chicano history, anthropology, sociology, and cultural aspects over which tensions have risen in the past, the spokesman said.
It will go into effect between 1 May and 1 June and will focus on the black and Chicano culture because these groups are the two biggest in the Armed Forces, the spokesman said.
The Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force all contributed ideas to higher Defense Department officials who developed the system.
One of those contributing ideas was Chief Petty Officer Barry Stoddard, chief instructor at a permanent race relations seminar at Great Lakes. The seminar is mandatory for the 2,000 instructors in the boot camp and service schools, shore patrolmen, civilian security police, and personnel in charge of the barracks.
The five-day seminar has been scheduled every two weeks since it was put into effect last September by Rear Admiral Draper L. Kauffman, U. S. Navy, Ninth Naval District commandant. The base was the scene of racial tension last summer.
Admiral Kauffman, recognized by the Pentagon as a progressive admiral in the field of race relations, also has helped establish equal treatment councils throughout the base. The councils are biracial and range from low-ranking enlisted men to officers.
Admiral Kauffman said:
The biggest problem is education. You can’t solve attitude problems by directive. We started our seminars with the people who can do us the most harm—the shore patrol and security police—and the people who can help us most—the instructors.
Drug Abuse Problem In Navy Growing At Alarming Rate
(Washington Star, 18 March 1971)
Navy Secretary John H. Chafee says drug abuse in the Navy and Marine Corps is out of control and racial tension is growing “at an alarming rate.”
“I would be less than candid were I to imply that we have the [drug] problem fully under control,” Chafee said in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He said at least 11,700 men were directly implicated with narcotics in the Navy and Marines in 1970. The Navy discharged 5,000 men and the Marines released 1,700. Another 3,000 sailors were warned and 2,000 were punished either by military or civilian authorities.
Fifteen Midshipmen Will Train In Foreign Ships This Summer
(Baltimore News-American, 1 February 1971)
For the first time, 15 Naval Academy midshipmen will take their regular summer cruise with the three-year-old NATO standing fleet, and another 24 will go to sea on the ships of 17 foreign countries.
The five-ship NATO fleet—two from The Netherlands and one each from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway—this year has an American commodore for the first time, making it possible for three midshipmen to go on exercises with each ship this summer.
While most midshipmen will continue to take their seven-week summer cruises with either the Atlantic or Pacific Fleets of the U. S. Navy, another 24 were selected to sail in naval vessels from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, West Germany, Britain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and New Zealand.
The midshipmen who will sail only on foreign surface ships, must be able to understand the language of the country with whose navy they will sail. An equal number of foreign student naval officer candidates will sail on American ships.
Navy Signs Contract For More VTOL Fighters
(Washington Star, 14 March 1971)
The U. S. Navy has issued a $54-million contract to the British aviation ministry for Harrier vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet fighters for the Marine Corps.
The Harrier, produced by Britain’s Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Ltd., is the only plane built in a foreign country for the U. S. Armed Forces.
The Marine Corps bought 12 in 1970, and has asked the Congress for funds to buy 18 more this year in building towards a planned fleet of 114 Harriers.
U. S. Navy Proceeding Quickly With Vietnamization Program
(Philadelphia Inquirer, 14 March 1971)
Depending on how you look at it, the U. S. Navy in Vietnam is about 85 per cent Vietnamized—or the South Vietnamese Navy is nearly 60 per cent Americanized.
Either way, the percentages are going up. More and more U. S. naval craft and bases are being turned over to the South Vietnamese. The Navy appears to be moving faster than the Army and the Air Force in putting things in Vietnamese hands.
The U. S. Navy turned over the 1,582-ton Camp, a destroyer-escort radar picket ship, at Pearl Harbor on 13 February. The vessel, reconditioned with sophisticated electronics equipment and 3-inch guns, was made Saigon’s flagship and renamed Tran Hung Dao in honor of the Vietnamese military commander who defeated the Chinese in the 13th century.
The U. S. Navy began its Vietnamization in November 1968 in a transfer program called Operation AcToV (accelerated turnover to the Vietnamese).
By far the biggest transfer was that of 650 small boats of the “brown water navy” operating in the rivers and canals of the vast Mekong Delta. This transfer was completed at the end of last December. In addition, about 110 harbor defense and minesweeping craft, 40 supply vessels, and nine large ships of the destroyer class have been transferred.
The total of about 810 vessels of all types comprises 85 per cent of the 950 craft to be in South Vietnamese hands when the AcToV program is completed by the middle of next year. The 810 craft also represent 56 per cent of the present South Vietnamese Navy of 1,400 vessels, due to grow to 1,600 by mid-1972.
These are of all types, ranging from the original Vietnamese combat junks to the American radar picket destroyer- escorts. They include minesweeping launches, harbor tugs, river “Swift” boats, inshore patrol craft, armored troop carriers, personnel landing craft, utility landing craft, river patrol boats, and tank landing ships.
The U. S. Navy’s “in-country” strength was 37,500 men in January 1969. It is now 16,100. Simultaneously, the U. S. offshore Navy has dropped from 35,700 men to 19,000.
South Vietnamese Navy Will Train Cambodians
(Joseph Fried in the New York News, 29 December 1970)
South Vietnam for the first time will train Cambodian seamen in South Vietnam, in an effort to bolster the small hard-pressed Cambodian Navy, it was learned.
A South Vietnamese military spokesman confirmed that an initial contingent of 150 Cambodian sailors will arrive here shortly to undergo advanced training in naval operations. South Vietnam provided basic training for 10,000 Cambodian Army recruits, but this move marks the first time Navy personnel will have undergone instruction here.
Admiral Says Suez Reopening Would Give Russians Advantage
(Baltimore Sun, 24 February 1971)
Reopening the Suez Canal would provide “. . . an enormous strategical advantage . . .” to the Soviet Mediterranean fleet Admiral Horacio Rivero, U. S. Navy, said in an interview published in Germany.
Admiral Rivero, commander of allied forces in southern Europe, told the newspaper, Frankfurter Rundschau, that reopening the waterway from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean would be of no direct benefit for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“But for the Soviets it would be an enormous strategical advantage. They could quickly get into the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean with their units. And of course, they could quickly get forces back from there . . .” the admiral said.
He added that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Mediterranean fleet was not strengthened during the past year except during the Jordanian crisis.
He said Soviet average strength in the Mediterranean remained relatively constant during the past year.
U. S. To Return Sangley Point To the Philippine Government
(Chicago Tribune, 11 December 1970)
The United States has announced the turnover to the Philippines soon of the U. S. Naval Station at Sangley Point.
U. S. Ambassador Henry A. Byroade said in a note delivered to the Philippine Foreign Office that the 341-acre naval station on a peninsula in Manila Bay will be turned over in seven to nine months.
More than 1,000 of the 1,573 U. S. military personnel, two antisubmarine aircraft squadrons, and the staff of the commander of the U. S. naval forces in the Philippines will be moved to the Subic Bay-Cubi Point U. S. Navy complex, 90 miles northwest of Manila.
Bayh To Propose Changes In Military Justice Code
(The New York Times, 8 March 1971)
Senator Birch Bayh (Dem., Ind.), said that he would introduce a bill revising the Code of Military Justice to eliminate the influence of a commanding officer in a court-martial and to give greater procedural protections to defendants. “The main objective of the bill is to eliminate completely the problem of command influence,” Bayh said in a speech written for Senate delivery. “The bill would establish an independent courts-martial command composed of four divisions: defense, prosecution, judicial, and administration. This command would be responsible only to the judge advocate general, thereby removing defense and prosecuting attorneys from the control of the accused’s commanding officer,” Senator Bayh said.
The bill would also enlarge the Court of Military Appeals from three to nine judges.
British Defense Budget Down Slightly From Last Year
(Aviation Week & Space Technology, 22 February 1971)
The British defense budget for 1971-1972 was set at $6.1 billion, a slight decrease under last year, and based on 5.5 per cent of the gross national product.
The budget reflects a cutback in the procurement and research and development forecast last November by Lord Carrington, British defense minister. Research and development spending in 1971-1972 will total $634.6 million, of which $230 million will be for aircraft and $117 million for missiles.
The research program includes funding for improvements to the Rolls-Royce/Bristol Pegasus vectored thrust engine for the Harrier vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) strike fighter and for a new sea trial on board the aircraft carrier Ark Royal starting in July to further develop maritime vertical/short take-off and landing (V/STOL) tactics.
The Royal Air Force is still studying jet trainer submissions made by Hawker Siddeley Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation, but Lord Carrington said the ministry has not ruled out the possibility of replacing Gnat trainers with the Franco-German Alphajet trainer.
The R.A.F. is currently converting Avro Shackletons to an airborne early warning role to replace Fairey Gannett turboprop ASW aircraft now being phased out. This conversion indicates that the ministry has dropped plans of an off-the-shelf buy of Grumman S-2E Trackers, or for developing a new all-British ASW airplane.
Collision Accounts Differ In British And Soviet Reports
(La Revue Maritime, January 1971)
The collision between the Soviet “Kotlin” missile destroyer 365 and the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal on 9 November 1970 off Crete produced conflicting reports.
According to the Russian newspaper Red Star, the aircraft carrier was at fault:
The two ships were on parallel course at a distance of three nautical miles. The Ark Royal was traveling at 14 to 15 knots without the “Kotlin,” being in a position on the starboard side of the carrier, noting that preparations for launching aircraft were in progress. The Ark Royal increased speed to 20 knots and turned hard right without giving the usual signal required by international rules of the road. The commanding officer of the “Kotlin” maintained his course, expecting the carrier to respect his right of way. It was not until four minutes before collision that the Ark Royal turned on her supplementary lights of a carrier conducting flight operations.
On seeing these lights, the Soviet commander immediately took measures to avoid collision, but by reason of the serious violations of rules of the road by the British carrier, which had placed the destroyer in a difficult situation, the destroyer’s efforts were not entirely successful. The stem of the Ark Royal hit the after port side of the destroyer. It is to be noted that the carrier and not the destroyer made the impact and to the rear of that vessel. . . .”
The British version is different. At Malta, the commanding officer of the Ark Royal reported to the inquiry commission as follows:
. . . it should have been apparent to the Soviets that the carrier was conducting night flying operations; the additional lights were on and the first Phantom had taken off “like a ball of fire” overflying the destroyer situated to the right of the Ark Royal. When the Soviet vessel was no more than a nautical mile from the carrier, I signaled: “You are in dangerous zone” and stopped launching of the next Phantom. I followed the movements of the destroyer and noted that it was turning slowly. I then ordered “half speed astern,” and then "full astern,” and the engines had been turning full speed astern two full minutes when the collision occurred. By then I had likewise turned left and reduced speed from 18 knots to 3 to 4 knots . . .”
For the official British authorities, everything seems to indicate that but for the prompt action of the carrier’s commanding officer, the destroyer would have been cut in two and sunk. The damage to the destroyer was not great, but two crew members fell in the water and were not found.
Federal German Navy To Get 20 New Fast Patrol Boats
(Marine-Rundschau, November 1970)
The defense committee of the German Bundestag has voted to provide 20 fast patrol boats for the Navy as per the plan of the Bundesminister. The new units, designated by the class number S-148, will replace the 140/141 class (Jaguar and Seeadler) beginning in 1973. The older ships have been in service since 1957.
Another ten fast boats are to be replaced by new construction of the 143 class, and ten units of the 142 class (Zobel) are being modernized with new weaponry, so that the complement of 40 fast patrol boats will be maintained.
The new craft of the 148 type have been ordered from Amiot in France. They are of the same type as the French La Combattante II-class vessels, and will be equipped with the MM-38 missile system, a development of the German-French Kormoran missile. The propulsion plant, as well as significant steel parts will be delivered from the Bundesrepublik.
Greece Buys Destroyer Frank Knox From Navy
(San Pedro News-Pilot, 4 February 1971)
The veteran destroyer USS Frank Knox (DD-742) has a new name and a new flag, but the Greek ambassador says “. . . she will sail with U. S. ships in the cause of peace.”
Basil G. Vitsaxis, Ambassador of Greece to the United States accepted the 2,500-ton vessel in behalf of his government from Rear Admiral Douglas Pate, U. S. Navy, commander of the Pacific Fleet Cruiser-Destroyer Force.
“This ship now bears the name of Themistocles, one of the most distinguished men of antiquity,” Vitsaxis said after the American crew filed off and the Greek colors were run up the mast.
Admiral Pate said the ship, which was commissioned in 1944, has been almost totally rebuilt since 1965, when she ran aground on a reef off Hong Kong. “With all that reconstruction,” he noted, “. . . she is in much better condition than many of her contemporaries.”
The Greek government paid the United States $229,500 for the ship.
Six Frigates, Two Submarines Are Contracted For By Brazil
(La Revue Maritime, January 1971)
The Brazilian Navy has signed a contract with the Vosper Thorneycroft firm for the construction of six 3,000-ton MK-10 type frigates. Four of these will be built in Great Britain, while the other two will be constructed in Rio de Janeiro with the help of British industry.
These ships will be named as follows Niteroi, Imperatriz, Isabel, Campista, Defensora, and Constituicao.
In addition to the six frigates, two submarines—Humaita and Tamoid—of the 1,600-ton Oberon class will be ordered from England.
Four minesweepers of the Schutz type are under construction in the Abeking & Rasmussen yards of the Federal German Republic. These are the same as the 30 presently in service in the Bundesmarine. The 200-ton vessels will have a speed of 24.5 knots, carry one or two 40-mm. anti-aircraft guns, and have a crew of 36 men. They will be named Aratu, Anhatomorin, Atalaia, and Aracatuba.
When these ships are commissioned, other ships will be placed in reserve, notably five former American destroyer escorts and four 1,800-ton destroyers of the Amazonas-class laid down in 1940, but which did not join the fleet until 1949 to 1951.
Italian Navy Awards Contract For Prototype Hydrofoil Boat
(The Boeing Company News Release, January 1971)
The Italian Navy has ordered the prototype of a new type of hydrofoil which can maintain high speed even in rough water. Called “Alinavi,” the boat features fully submerged foils. A contract has been awarded to Advanced Marine Systems—Alinavi S.p.A.
The new craft, designed by Alinavi for operations in the Mediterranean, is an improved version of the Tucumcari hydrofoil gunboat. Designed and built by Boeing, the Tucumcari has been in service with the U. S. Navy since 1968, and is the fastest heavy-weather craft in the world.
The Alinavi craft will displace about 59 tons, be about 72 feet long, and about 23 feet wide. She will have a maximum speed of 50 knots, and will be able to maintain cruising speed of more than 40 knots in rough water conditions of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, where wave heights of three-to-ten feet are common. It will be armed with ship-to-ship missiles and with an automatic antiaircraft cannon, both of which will be controlled by an advanced fire-control system.
The craft will have a waterjet propulsion system for foilborne operations at high speeds, consisting of a Rolls Royce Proteus gas turbine of 4,500 h.p. driving the waterjet pump. Hullborne propulsion will use a diesel engine and retractable propeller unit.
The craft will be built at the Italian firm, Oto Melara’s plant in La Spezia, with delivery to the Italian Navy scheduled in 1973.
U. S. Fishing Catches Increase While World Total Goes Down
(The Galveston Daily News, 2 March 1971)
World fishing,* which has more than tripled since 1945, dropped by 2 per cent in 1969, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. However, the U. S. catch for the year increased from 2,441,900 tons to 2,495,400 tons, bringing this country from sixth to fifth place in the list of catches by countries.
The increase caused the United States to trade places with Norway in the listing, with Norway’s catch decreasing from 2,804,100 to 2,481,000. Other top countries were Peru, first; Japan, second; the U.S.S.R., third; mainland China, fourth; and the Republic of South Africa, seventh.
The world-wide decrease is expected to be temporary, with the 1970 catch expected to be higher than ever. The 1969 decrease was attributed to low catches during the first part of the 1969-1970 season in Peru.
* See J. H. Johnson, “Trends in World and Domestic Fisheries." U. S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, pp. 25-35, this issue.
Seamanship In English Channel Concerns Maritime Officials
(Joseph Collins in The New York Times, 8 March 1971)
British ship officers and maritime officials are distressed about the standards of seamanship in the narrow, busy English Channel.* They charge that, especially among flag-of-convenience vessels, standards are dangerously lax.
In seven weeks, three freighters and 53 lives were lost in accidents in the Channel. There have been several near-accidents. According to officials, ships are ignoring warning lights and buoys and navigating with out-of-date charts. Collisions in the Channel average one a month.
The stranding on 2 March 1971 in the Channel of a Liberian-registered tanker has become a public issue and the government is to be questioned about it in the House of Commons. The tanker, the 26,626-ton Trinity Navigator, was carrying 32,000 tons of crude oil when she went aground off Berry Head in Tor Bay, Devon.
But it was not only the oil pollution hazard that shocked the public and made the grounding a major story in the British press. It was also the report of a British pilot who refloated the ship under her own power.
He said that the captain, a Chinese, spoke and understood little English, that the tanker’s radar was not in working order, that she carried no very high frequency radio for ship-to-shore signals, and that when the ship had been approaching shallow water she paid no heed to signal-light messages from the shore: “You are standing into danger.” The ship suffered no damage and no oil was spilled.
* See J. H. Beattie, “Safer, Saner Seaways,” U. S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, December 1970, pp. 37-45.
Officials of the Board of Trade and of Trinity House, the principal British pilotage and lighthouse authority, said that the government was taking the initiative in proposing a new set of international standards of seamanship and crew training. These proposals have been circulated through the International Labor Office in Geneva and the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization. But the Trinity House spokesman, a former navigator, said it was not much use getting new standards and equipment when the present ones were ignored.
Officials of the U.K. Pilots Association said the owners and masters of ships sailing under flags-of-convenience—Honduras, Liberia, and Panama—were largely to blame for the danger in the Channel. In their opinion, the northern European nations followed the sea rules.
John Prescott, Labor member of Parliament, is to ask John Davies, Secretary of Trade, for information on the grounding of the tanker and on the foundering of the 2,000-ton Greek freighter Niki off Folkestone on 6 March 1971 with the probable loss of 23 lives. The Niki struck wreckage in the Channel although it was marked by buoys and a lightship. The ship hit one of the two wrecks that sank in two days in January—one foundering on the wreckage of the other. The government has already ordered an inquiry into the January disaster.
The following from a British first officer of the merchant service appeared in the Daily Express, a national newspaper:
We found a Greek freighter of about 12,000 tons bearing down on us and making no attempt to change course.
We were virtually on a collision course when we saw to our horror the only living thing on the bridge was a large black dog.
The dog was barking furiously. Suddenly a hatch opened and a man in what looked like a boiler suit came up and steered the vessel clear.
We reckoned the dog had been trained to bark at the approach of another vessel. We were shaken and absolutely appalled.
Japan Continues To Lead Shipbuilding; U. S. 12th
(Jim Holman in The Galveston Daily News, 9 February 1971)
Quarterly figures from Lloyd’s Register of Shipping show that world shipbuilding continued to set records during the last part of 1970, with 1,955 ships totaling 21.5 million tons gross under construction.
This was 132,751 tons more than the previous quarter’s record figure and four million more than at the same time last year. The figures do not include new construction in Communist China and Russia, for which details are not available.
The leading nation, as usual, was Japan, with 349 ships of a total 6,470,800 tons gross under construction. Japan also has 650 vessels of 22,886,426 tons on order but not begun.
Total order book figure, including the ships on order but not commended, is 78,503,994 tons gross.
Of the 13 leading shipbuilding countries, eight showed increases in total orders during the quarter; while five, including the United States, noted lower totals.
Lloyd’s says domestic building programs, together with a surge of export orders, particularly for United Kingdom registration, are responsible for the Japanese order book increase, and further notes that gross tonnage launched in Japan in 1970 topped 10 million tons. Sweden, the next leading country, had 1,732,000 tons gross.
The United States, 12th among the leading shipbuilding nations, tallied a total order book of 90 vessels of 1,684,055 tons gross, compared to 105 and 1,733,992 on 30 September 1970. The United States ranks behind Japan, Sweden, West Germany, Spain, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Italy, The Netherlands, and Yugoslavia. Poland is in 13th place.
Of the ships building or on order, 48.3 per cent are tankers and 33.5 per cent are bulk carriers.
Tanker Fleet Drops To Sixth In World Tonnage Standings
(The Galveston Daily News, 19 March 1971)
For the first time in the history of modern shipping the U. S. tanker fleet has dropped from the ranks of the top five in the world in total tonnage, according to figures released by Davies & Newman, Ltd., British ship brokers.
The American flag tanker fleet totals some 7.5 million deadweight tons, putting it in sixth place in the world, the company said, noting that only six months ago the United States was holding down fifth place.
Leading the United States are Liberia with 42.1 million tons, the United Kingdom with 22.5 million, Norway with 20.3 million, Japan with 18.2 million, and Greece, which six months ago trailed the United States by 400,000 tons, with 7.9 million deadweight tons.
According to the company’s figures, the U. S. flag fleet’s drop from the top five can be traced to the fact that in the last years in the U. S. fleet has grown by only 700,000 tons, while those Liberia and the United Kingdom have increased by 22 million and eight million tons respectively.
In that period, the U. S. fleet has gradually dropped from its fourth place rating in 1963 to the present sixth place with no apparent end in sight, the figures indicate.
[*] See A. Greenberg and C. H. McKeown, “Discrimination? A Minority Review,” U. S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, this issue, pp. 104-106.