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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

"Magic Carpet" Press Release

NAVY DEPARTMENT
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS AND RADIO
OCTOBER 17, 1945

SECRETARY OF THE NAVY EXPLAINS NAVY DAY DEPLOYMENT OF COMBATANT SHIPS

Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal today released a letter which he has written, in reply to queries from members of the Congress and others, explaining the Navy Day deployment of combatant vessels and pointing out that those returning have capacity loads totaling about 50,000 passengers headed for separation centers.

The text of Secretary Forrestal's letter follows:

"I have your letter of October 12 asking me to see that ships which can be used to transport Army and Navy men from long service overseas are not used and tied up in any celebrations on Navy Day, October 27.

"You have my assurance that no Navy ship which could transport men will be held in port merely to celebrate Navy Day.

"A number of Navy warships are returning to the United States at this time, as you know. They are bringing their own crews, many of them are men eligible for release from service. In a sense, the fighting fleet is bringing itself home for demobilization.

"It is doing more than that. Each warship is bringing back as passengers as many high-point service men as it can handle. Incidentally, fighting ships--battleships, cruisers, etc.--are inherently inefficient transports but they are taking aboard as many men as they can. The carrier Ticonderoga, for example, is bringing back 2,240 passengers, the battleship Wisconsin 1,411 and the cruiser Vicksburg 876.

"Obviously, therefore, the return of warships between now and Navy Day is accelerating demobilization--not hindering it.

"Once these warships are home--I assure you again--the Navy will not hold them in port merely to celebrate Navy Day. Many vessels will be in port that day for three very good reasons.

"First, several vessels are to be laid up because, with the demobilization of the Navy's high-point men, we will not have enough crews to man them. For example, I am told, that on many ships now homeward bound up to 80 per cent of the crews have enough points for discharge. I am sure you would not suggest that these men who have served at sea long enough to earn their release should be denied that release in order to ferry home other men who have served ashore.

"Second, some of the warships will remain in port until Navy Day because this trip is their first return to the United States in many months and their crews, if not being released, are entitled to leave at home. For example, the destroyer Charles Ausburne will arrive here in Washington about October 20. She has not been in the United States for two and a quarter) years--since June, 1943. She has earned a Presidential Unit Citation which has never been awarded to her, I am sure all hands will agree that her officers and men should not be sent to sea again the next morning but should be allowed to visit their homes.

"Third, some warships, which will continue to bring men home, will be in port for conversion and overhaul--installation of berths and messing facilities, for example--before entering transport duty.

"You will concur, I know, that these three reasons--permanent lay-up, granting of earned leave to crews and conversion for transport work--are adequate grounds for a ship being in port.

"In the next eleven months three quarters of a million men will come home from the Pacific on fighting ships of the Navy, exclusive of the hundreds of thousands who will come on Navy transports. I assure you that Navy Day is not impeding that homecoming.

"Since you say that you have received 'many complaints' on this point, I am making this letter public. As President Truman has said, this Navy Day Is an occasion when the American people can pay tribute to the four million men who fought In the Navy and also can see ships and planes of the great Fleet which their own work and money built. I would not have such an event marred by an erroneous belief that it is slowing down demobilization. Therefore, I hope everyone will understand that no vessel which could carry men is being held in port merely to celebrate Navy Day."


28 Nov 2006