Chapter XI

District Security Officer

 

In a letter of 13 October 1941 the Chief of Naval Operations directed that a captain or senior commander titled District Security Officer be detailed to the headquarters staff of each District Commandant.1 The same letter set forth the functions of the office. On 11 December 1941 the District War Plans Officer of the Eighth Naval District was assigned additional duty as the District Security Officer. Since the staff of the War Plans Office was already functioning well he devoted most of his time to setting up an efficient operating organization in the District Security Office. In March 1942, when another officer was assigned to the billet on a full-time basis, the office was well staffed and was performing the services that it had been established to perform.

The duties of the District Security Officer were to inspect, supervise, and coordinate all internal security matters within the district. In the beginning he was responsible for the internal security of ports, harbors, and merchant shipping, with the Captain of the Port under him as the head of this subdivision. In order to make harbor security adequate, the District Commandant requested of the Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard, additional Assistant Captains of the Port, a large increase in the number of patrol boats, and more coastal lookouts.2 When a survey

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indicated that a reorganization of harbor security forces was expedient in the accomplishment of necessary improvements, the District Commandant recommended to the Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard, the appointment of a new Captain of the Port for the district and designated a Coast Guard Officer whom he considered qualified.3 The recommended change was made. On 9 March 1942 the designated officer reported for duty on the staff of the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, as District Captain of the Port Officer. Under his supervision conditions improved rapidly. However, as a result of a directive of the Secretary of the Navy on the administration of the Coast Guard under the Navy, which stated, among other things, that the responsibility for harbor security lay with the Coast Guard,4 the Captain of the Port was detached from the staff of the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, on 16 April 1942 and placed under the supervision of the District Coast Guard Officer. After that the relationship between the District Security Officer and the Captain of the Port was one merely of liaison.

When the District Security Office was established, it incorporated into its organization the Passive Defense Office, which had been functioning independently since August 1941, and the plant protection section of security, which had been functioning under the District Intelligence Office since June 1941. Among the most important functions of the District Security Office was the conducting of security surveys and inspections of Naval shore activities and private commercial plants

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of importance to Naval procurement for the purpose of advising the Secretary of the Navy, the Bureaus, the Commandant, and the cognizant Commanding Officers as to the adequacy of measures previously adopted for security against sabotage, espionage, fire, robbery - any incident except open attack which might disrupt its normal operation and efficiency. Close attention was given to such matters as the selection of employees, the alarm systems, traffic control, and the security of public utilities.

Liaison was maintained with the Army, Regional Boards of the Office of Civilian Defense, and other national, state, and municipal passive defense agencies. Mobile units giving instruction in chemical warfare defense were sent around the district to Naval establishments and commercial plants. Aerial photographs were taken of various activities in an effort to discover how camouflage might be effectively used as a means of security. Recommendations were made in regard to painting buildings so that they would blend with the landscape, and a few recommendations were made in regard to the location of buildings to be constructed. Instructions were given in damage control. Generally key men at activities were trained and then were assigned to instruct other personnel at the activities. Checks were made to see that all Naval activities had taken the proper measures for conforming with blackout regulations.

At one time the District Security Office had approximately eighty commercial plants on its inspection list. The list of plants changed monthly, with certain plants being added and others taken off. As

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the Army assumed the responsibility of inspecting most commercial plants, the Navy was able to reduce its inspecting staff.5 But the Army never took over all the plants; the Navy continued to Inspect four or five in the district producing for the Navy. The security of the ship yards remained of vital interest to the Navy. At one time, between October 1942 and April 1943, the civilian guards in commercial plants were brought into the U. S. Coast Guard (temporary) so that when they were on duty they wore military uniforms. During those months they were under the military command of Naval officers appointed by the Commandant.

In November 1943 the Chief of Naval Operations ordered a reduction of fifty percent in the number of personnel engaged in security duties in the districts, the reason being that the war had now entered into the offensive stage and the manpower employed in non-essential defensive measures was badly needed in the reorientation of thought and effort against the enemy.6 Passive defense measures had been frozen the month before, and a substantial reduction was currently being effected in the security program for privately operated facilities and in the protective inspection services provided by the War and Navy Departments.7 Most of the larger Naval activities had efficient security organizations of their own, and the security inspections by the district office could now be limited to essential visits to shore activities which required outside technical assistance. The number

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of officer personnel of the district office was reduced from 18 in November 1942, when it was at its peak, to four in February 1944; it was further reduced to three in December of that year. In September 1944 the District Security Officer was given collateral duty as District Shore Petrol Officer.

Besides the reduced program of Inspection that it carried on until the end of the war, the District Security Office maintained a rigid scrutiny of fire hazards at district Naval activities with the aid of technical experts provided from time to time by the Superintending Civil Engineer, Area IV. From the beginning the District Security Office was responsible for the preparation and issuance of Identification Cards to Naval personnel in the district. At first this entailed many visits to district activities, but as the activities developed their own facilities, only an occasional visit was necessary. The District Security Officer was responsible for the security of that part of the Federal Building occupied by District headquarters, for the headquarters sentries and escorts, and for the maintenance of the Headquarters Information Office for visitors.

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FOOTNOTES

1. CNO ltr. Ser. 512330, dtd. 13 Oct. 1941.
2. ComEight ltr. to ComdtUSCG, Ser. 740, dtd. 21 Jan. 1942.
3. ComEight ltr. to ComdtUSCG, Ser. 1696, dtd. 10 Feb. 1942.
4. SecNav ltr. 0pl3C-jc,ET14/A-3-l(420330), dtd. 30 Mar. 1942; and see CominCh, U.S.Flt., and CNO ltr., Ser. 1636, dtd. 13 June 1942.
5. SecNav ltr. Ser. 189502, dtd. 1 Apr. 1942.
6. CNO conf. ltr. Ser. 0234430, dtd. 12 Nov. 1943.
7. VCNO conf. ltr. Ser. 0203830, dtd. 5 Oct. 1943, and CNO conf. ltr. Ser. 020330, dtd. 5 Nov. 1943.

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