Chapter II

Historical Development

 

Before the first World War the Eighth Naval District was hardly more than a "paper" district.1 Created by General Order No. 128 on 7 Nay 1903, it was a strip of coastline, coterminous with the Eighth Light House District, along the Gulf of Mexico extending from Tampa, Florida, to the Rio Grande, with district headquarters at Pensacola. It was established solely for local defense, with none of the administrative and logistics functions that accrued during the first war with Germany.

In the slender file of documents on the Eighth Naval District during the period from 1903 to 1917, there is a "Report on Naval Defenses of the Gulf" submitted to the Secretary of the Navy on 15 May 1903 by Rear Admiral W. C. Wise, USN, Commandant, U.S. Gulf Naval District (Commandant's Office, Navy Yard, Pensacola, Florida). This report indicates clearly the purely military function of the district at that time.

Admiral Wise asserted that, assuming an enemy's fleet had reached the West Indies in good condition, the proper defense of any objective in the Gulf would be at the entrance to the Gulf. Putting up an

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effective defense "would require the concentration of the battleships at Tortugas (as nearly the central location as the state of operations will permit), with observing vessels in the straits of Florida, to the southward and eastward of Key West, and others in the Yucatan Channel to the westward of Cape San Antonio, these observing vessels, or videttes, to be connected with the main body by a line of signaling ships." Admiral Wise expressed the view that "for the general Naval defense of the Gulf District, a section of five (5) modern monitors, with a section of torpedo boats, would place the district in position to resist any aggression from a hostile force." (Monitors, which were designed almost exclusively for coastal defense, were heavily armored vessels with very low freeboard, and with heavy guns mounted in one or more revolving turrets; they sacrificed speed and coal capacity to steadiness as gun platforms and to thickness of armor.)

The Commandant reported on a number of other pertinent matters. He gave hydrographic data on the district ports, specifying those in which vessels could seek shelter against the enemy. The channels leading to what he considered the three most important ports in the district - Pensacola, New Orleans, and Galveston - were so narrow that they could easily be obstructed. Galveston, however, offered but little shelter, since the deep water was so close to the entrance that the enemy, though blocked outside, would have no difficulty in dropping shells on the shipping inside. Tampa, Mobile, and Sabine Pass could also serve as havens to vessels of more than twenty-one foot draft, while there were many places where smaller vessels could take refuge.

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Supplies could be obtained at any of the ports. Pocahontas coal was kept in stock at Tortugas, Key West, and Pensacola, but in time of war, when expense was not to be considered, coal could be obtained from any point where there was a railway. The district communication facilities were very poor. There were few tugs that could be used for harbor defense work. There were only eight Life-Saving Stations on the Gulf coast, located as follows:

These Stations, according to the Commandant, "could not be utilized to any great extent, owing to the superior situation of Light Houses, in close proximity to each Station." There were twenty-six lighthouses and two lightships along the district coastline. The lighthouses would be used as signal stations.

The Naval Militia, except for the organization at New Orleans, amounted to nothing. There were three Artillery Districts in the Gulf:

The Commandant concluded "I believe It would be advisable if the Army would establish one General District of the Gulf, corresponding to the Naval District, with a senior military officer in command of the three districts, to work in cooperation and supervision with the Naval Commandant, so that a hearty cooperation for the defense could be established."

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Just how much was done toward improving the local defense of the district during the next few years is not known, but apparently the development of the district remained almost wholly in the realm of discussion until just before World War I. In 1903 and 1904 the Commandant submitted to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation lists of steamers in the district that were "available for use as transports, colliers, scouts, tugs, etc., in time of war."2 On 8 November 1905 the Secretary of the Navy sent the Commandant a memorandum on the subject of cooperation with the Army in the preparation of plans for submarine defenses. He stressed the importance of this matter in connection with safe navigation, and said that the Inspector of the Eighth Light House District had been directed to report to the Commandant, when required, for the purpose of affording information and assistance in the performance of this duty.

Pursuant to a resolution of the Joint Board, adopted 1 July 1907, the Navy Department approved "the temporary assignment of vessels of the Lighthouse Establishment when they have been turned over to the Navy Department as contemplated by existing war plans, to the various Artillery District Commanders for temporary duty in laying out the harbor defense mine fields."3

There was further liaison between Army and Navy authorities in the Eighth Naval District in 1910 as a result of an arrangement of the Navy Department and War Department that all Artillery District Commanders

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were authorized to furnish to Commandants of corresponding Naval Districts the following information:

  1. Area covered by guns of the District.
  2. Area covered by search lights.
  3. Area to be covered by patrol or lookouts of the Army.
  4. Places where telegraphic or telephonic communication may be had with Artillery District and other Commanders.4

The Eighth Naval District files contain such reports from the Artillery District Commanders of Mobile and New Orleans.5

The Navy Department's concern over improving the potential operational organization of the Naval Districts is shown in the "Memorandum of Instructions for Commandants of Naval Districts" which was forwarded to the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, on 11 January 1910.6 This document referred to the considerable amount of data which had been obtained on the hydrographic, topographic, and maritime features of the various districts, but expressed the belief that the district system as a whole could not be placed in effective operation promptly. As a period of operational training was contemplated for that year, a complete plan or station bill showing the defense organization in detail was called for:

This plan will show the vessels which will be immediately available on declaration of hostilities for duty as harbor patrol, district scouts, and coastal defense; the pilots available for use at the different ports, the location

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selected for coast patrol stations, the means of communication which would be used at each, the number of torpedo boats and submarines estimated as necessary, the material necessary for properly equipping the patrol stations, and the means which would be adopted for manning the vessels and stations.

The Navy Department would modify the plans of all the districts so as to bring them into conformity and to determine the assignment of torpedo boats and submarines. The plans would then be returned to the District Commandants to be put into effect. The Naval Militia, which would be depended on for the majority of this district work, would be trained on vessels assigned for that purpose. Another letter from the Secretary of the Navy to the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, on 16 June 1910, said that the Bureau of Ordnance was developing "a cage frame for discharging torpedoes which can be placed on ordinary Motor boats of from 50 to 100 feet length." The Commandant was requested to include in his station bill a list of all motor boats in the district suitable to be fitted out with this equipment, as the plan was to supply the districts with the frames and the necessary torpedoes to realize an adequate system of defense.

So far as is known, the proposed plan of defense was not put into effect in the Eighth Naval District. The Navy Yard, Pensacola, was officially closed from 1911 to 1914; "while the physical equipment was left more or less intact, no Navy operation took place during that period."7 The Naval Station, New Orleans, which had also been in existence before the district was established, was likewise closed in 1911 and remained closed until 1914.

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With the outbreak of war in Europe, developments began which made the Eighth Naval District a very different kind of organization from that originally planned. Local defense forces commenced operation, training facilities were developed, and a district staff came into being. There were other developments which pointed toward the far greater enlargement of district activities and functions to come during the second World War.

 

Operational Organization During The First World War

As for the operational organization during World War I, the Eighth Naval District was divided into three sections:

  1. Pensacola - extending from Tampa, Florida, to Mobile, Alabama.
  2. New Orleans - extending from Mobile, Alabama, to Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana.
  3. Galveston - extending from Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, to the Rio Grande.

Each section was a separate command. At the beginning of the war the Commandant assigned the Chief of Staff additional duty as the Commander of Naval Forces and Commander of the Second Section. He assigned the Commandant of the Aeronautic Station, Pensacola, additional duty as Commander of the First Section. This assignment was made "for the purpose of facilitating cooperation of defense and unity of action at the Important harbor of Pensacola." It brought up a slight problem, however, in that Captain F. M. Bennett, USN, Commandant of the Aeronautic Station, Pensacola, outranked the Commander of the Naval Forces. The Commandant, Eighth Naval District, discussed this point in a letter of 22 November 1917 to the Commandant of the Aeronautic station, Pensacola:

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It is in no sense intended thereby to place you as junior in authority to the Commander of the Naval Forces. Captain C. L. Poor, N.N.V., who is, of course, your junior in lineal rank, and it is not believed that any embarrassment will result from this situation as any orders relative to the disposition of the force in the First Section would be issued only by the Commandant and transmitted by the Commander of Naval Forces in his capacity as representative of the Commandant, and would be "by direction."

At such times as the Commander of the Naval Force is on duty afloat in the First Section carrying out the orders of the Commandant, it is clearly understood that he reports to you as Senior Officer Present, and when not acting under orders of the Joint Superior, the Commandant, obtains his orders and instructions from you in regard to the vessels in your Section.

On Rear Admiral Benjamin Tappan's becoming Commandant, Eighth Naval District, this command relationship was simplified by his assuming collateral duty as Commander, Naval Forces, and Commander, Second Section.

When the United States entered the war, the forces afloat of the Eighth Naval District consisted of four Navy craft (three gunboats and one torpedo boat), two Coast Guard craft, and two Light House tenders. The eight vessels were distributed as follows:

Six months later the Commandant observed that, "Owing to the lack of boats in this district, the plans as laid out have never been effected."8

In March 1916 the district had 15 patrol boats. When the war ended, the number had increased to 33; there were 15 SP's, 9 SC's, 4 minesweepers, 3 Coast Guard craft, 1 Light House tender, and 1 torpedo boat. The

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total number of officers aboard these vessels was sixty, with all the Naval officers except one of the Reserve Forces.9 Operating bases for the vessels were Pensacola, Florida; Galveston, Texas; and Burrwood, Louisiana.

In the Brief of the New Orleans Committee on the Naval Station, published in 1916, the Naval Station was said to be "situated upon the impregnable, unsalted arm of the Impenetrable Gulf." During the first World War the enemy did not penetrate the Gulf. One wonders, however, whether the author of the quoted phrase lived until the spring of 1942, when German U-boats sank Allied merchant ships just off the Mississippi Delta.

 

Shore Force

In the development of the shore forces during World War I, the major centers were Pensacola, New Orleans, and Gulfport.

Between the activation of the air station in Pensacola in 1914 And the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, there was a good deal of experimentation at that base in the training of aviators. "Practically without exception, the early aviators of the Navy received their training here."10 During the war the facilities were expanded, new methods of training were instituted, and the number of trainees was greatly increased. During the fiscal year of the war ending 1 July 1919, the construction work started and completed involved an expenditure of

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approximately two million dollars.

As compared with the peacetime complement of 208 enlisted personnel in April 1917, there were approximately 3,575 enlisted personnel at the station on 1 July 1918 and 5,559 when the Armistice was signed. At the beginning of the fiscal year 1918, the expansion of the seaplane school to six advanced training squadrons was well under way. In August the gunnery, bombing, and navigation schools were established. Since all personnel reporting for flight training were already qualified to fly alone, the program was concerned entirely with aerial warfare training, with the exception of the attention given to big boats (H-16 flying), which type was not available at elementary training stations. The airship school functioned on a smaller basis. The number of commissioned and warrant officers attached to the air station for the months indicated below gives an idea of the extent of the training of officers there at the end of the war:

July 1918 280
August 290
September 382
October 396
November 403
December 745
January 1919 598
June 197

During the fiscal year ending 1 July 1919, a total of 1,485 student officers completed their courses of training and received provisional appointment as ensign, class five, U. S. Naval Reserve Force.11 The hazards

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that accompanied flight training in those days are indicated in the crash data compiled for the calendar year 1918: from the 57,990 hours spent in the air by machines and pilots of the air station, 148 crashes resulted, 48 being complete wrecks, with 19 casualties entailed.

After its reopening in January 1915, the Naval Station, New Orleans, resumed its ship repair work. The moat notable of its facilities for such work was the floating dry dock YFD-2, which had been at the station since 1901; this dock would raise a ship of 15,000 tons. In February 1917 the Naval Station was employing some 400 men on repairs to the smaller war vessels and other Government craft operating in adjacent and local waters, including commercial vessels too heavy for the private docks."12 Though statistics are not available on the amount of ship repair work done during the first World War, there was of course much more activity then than there had been during peacetime. Four harbor tugs and eight or ten subchasers were built at the Naval Station during the war, and the German tanker GUTHEIL was converted and rechristened the SARAH THOMPSON.13 According to the roster for 1 November 1917, there were seventeen officers in the Industrial Department of the Naval Station at that time.

Logistic support was provided through the establishment of a Receiving Ship and a Supply Department. Medical facilities included a

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Naval Hospital of about three hundred beds, with capacity for expansion to about five hundred beds. There was also a Naval Dispensary.

The Naval facilities for training in Gulfport and Pensacola accommodated a good many more men than the facilities in New Orleans. According to an Eighth Naval District "Schedule of Training Activities" dated 25 April 1918, the sea quarters and barracks at the Navy Yard, New Orleans, would accommodate 500 men; in summer 500 more could be accommodated in tents. Armed Guard training and general training for recruits were offered. The Training Camp at West End Park in New Orleans had a capacity of 150 men, with an authorized additional 150. This activity gave general training in boats and small arms. The Naval Air Station, Pensacola, with its expanding facilities, was listed at that time as having a capacity of 2,300 in the summer and 1,500 in the winter, for flight training and training of aviation mechanics of all classes.

The Naval Training Camp, Gulfport, which was said to be 99 percent complete on 25 March 1916, was shown on the same schedule as being able to accommodate 2,200 trainees. Rear Admiral A. Reynolds, USN (Ret), in command of the activity, had twenty-six officers on his staff at the end of the war.14

There were three Naval Hospitals in the district, located at the Naval Station, New Orleans; the Naval Air Station, Pensacola; and the Naval Training Camp, Gulfport. There were also dispensaries at these activities. On 1 November 1918 twenty officers of the medical corps

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were on the staff of the hospital in New Orleans, eleven at the hospital in Gulfport, and eleven in Pensacola. The greatest crisis that the doctors had to face was the very severe influenza epidemic which took so many lives throughout the nation.

The communication facilities of the district were doubled during the war. Before the war there were only three radio stations, in Pensacola, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Point Isabel, Texas.15 On 1 January 1918 there were eight Naval radio stations in the district, located as follows:

There were several other Naval activities in the district during the war. There were Section Bases in Galveston and Burrwood. In addition to the Routing Officer at district headquarters, there were Routing Officers in Pensacola, Mobile, Port Arthur, and Galveston. Four officers had duty in the office of the cable censor in Galveston, and two officers had duty in the office of the postal censor in San Antonio. The Mobilization Inspector, Southern Division, was listed in rosters before November 1918 as the District Enrolling Officer. A Branch Hydrographic Office was located in New Orleans, and a Coast Inspector in Mobile. A district

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organization chart dated 20 October 1918 shows a Naval Air Station, Galveston, as "building"; the project was abandoned when the war ended. A very small amount of shipbuilding was done in the district.

 

District Staff

The district headquarters staff as such developed very slowly. At the beginning of the war Commodore V. S. Nelson, USN (Ret.), served as Commandant, Naval Station, New Orleans, and Commandant, Eighth Naval District. There is an "Organization Chart, Eighth Naval District", dated 20 September 1917, which shows that the staff of the Naval Station and the district headquarters staff were closely interwoven,16 but a roster of officers for the Eighth Naval District for 1 November 1917 throws such light on the matter as to indicate that the district headquarters staff had really hardly evolved [as] an entity at that time. This roster has no section on the administration of the district. In the section on the administration of the Naval Station, Commodore Nelson is listed as "Commandant, Naval Station, New Orleans," but no mention is made of his collateral duty as Commandant, Eighth Naval District. Captain C.L. Poor, N.N.V., appears next on the roster as "Commander, Sea Forces, Eighth Naval District"; someone later added in pencil by his name, "Chief of Staff." The District Commandant's Aid, whose name appears next, had a rather imposing number of duties, listed in the following orders "Aid to Commandant, Naval Station, New Orleans; Aid to Commandant, Eighth Naval District; Member, Eighth District Section, Joint Merchant

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Vessel Board; Commanding Officer, Receiving Ship, Naval Station; Deck Court Officer." In addition to the Captain of the Yard, one other officer was shown under administration - a Coast Guard lieutenant whose title was "Aid for Coast Guard Information."

Under the medical department Surgeon Robert E. Stoops, USN, was designated as "Senior Medical Officer, Naval Station, New Orleans, and Medical Aid, Eighth Naval District." There was also a surgeon of the U. S. Public Health Service who served as "Sanitary Inspector and Adviser, Eighth Naval District." Heading the district communication service was an ensign with the title "Communication Superintendent, Eighth Naval District." The Naval Station had a Supply Officer, a Public Works Officer, and various other officers, but if they had additional duty in a district staff capacity, such is not indicated on the roster.

Among other rosters available, the next in point of time, for 1 March 1918, listed the following officers on the administrative staff of the district:

A Rear Admiral (Ret.) is also included in this section on General Court Martial duty.

In October 1918 Rear Admiral Benjamin Tappan, USN (Ret.), relieved Commodore Nelson as Commandant. (The civilian who then served as Chief

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Clerk of the Supply Department at the Naval Station has said that he did not know there was a District Commandant before Admiral Tappan.) The roster for 1 November shows that by the time the war ended the district staff had developed into a fair-sized organization. This development of the staff was due in large part to General Order No. 372, of 28 February 1918, which made of the district, instead of a purely military organization, an organization with activities divided into four groups - "military, industrial, supply, and transportation." The Commandant was to have full military control over all activities, but chiefly coordinative control over them in other respects. The Eighth Naval District staff in November included the following:

Some divisions had several officers. There we're twelve in the District Communication Superintendent's office, five in the office of the Aid for Information, three in the office of the Medical Aid, and three in the office of the District Construction and Engineer Officer.

During the war the offices of the Commandant and most of his staff were at the Naval Station in the Administration Building (Building 6).

On 30 November 1918, the Commandant and his staff moved into the Navy

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Building, One Canal Street - a two-story frame building which had just been completed. When the Navy began cutting expenses a few months later, however, the headquarters staff moved back to the Naval Station, and the New Orleans Dock Board took over the Navy Building, One Canal Street.

 

1919 to 1933

Shortly after the war was over and demobilization was under way, the Eighth Naval District began to suffer reductions according to the Navy Department's plan of contraction and economy. As the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation Informed the Commandant in January 1919, the Bureau was "able to furnish only a very few officers for Naval Districts."17 The same was true in regard to enlisted men. The complement of enlisted personnel for the district in September 1919 indicates the reduced state of district activities at that time:

  Regulars Reserves Marines Grand
Total
District Headquarters 4 0 0 4
Naval Station, New Orleans 12 1 108 121
Receiving Ship, New Orleans 348 48 0 396
Naval Hospital, New Orleans 34 3 0 37
Naval Training Camp, Gulfport 426 35 0 461
Naval Air Station, Pensacola 232 24 76 332
Naval Air Station, Galveston 1 0 0 1
Radio Station, Point Isabel 6 3 22 31
Material Inspection, Ft. Worth 0 0 0 0
Recruiting Stations 137 6 0 143
Afloat in District 22 33 0 55
TOTALS 1,222 153 206 1,581

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In December 1919 the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, who was also Commanding Officer, Naval Station, New Orleans, submitted to the Bureau of Navigation a list of six officers "under the Commandant," four of whom were assigned to the following staff billets:

And he listed six officers as performing the following district duties in addition to their regular assignments at the Naval Station, New Orleans:

In 1919 there was a reorganization of the Naval Air Station, Pensacola. As the appropriations were relatively small until 1935, there was less activity at the station, though Annapolis men went there to learn to fly. In April 1920 the West End Training Camp, New Orleans, vas released to the city. At the end of that year the district had only three patrol boats - two SC's and one SP. On 5 May 1921 the Gulfport Training Camp was decommissioned. On 27 July of the same year General Order No. 63 ordered the closing of the Naval Station, New Orleans, which was to remain under the command of the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, with a Marine guard. In September the Naval Hospital, New Orleans, was transferred to the U. S. Public Health Service. One new

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activity, however, which now developed in the district was the U. S. Helium Production Plant, Fort Worth, where three Naval officers had duty, as Officer-in-Charge, Engineer Officer, and Supply and Disbursing Officer. The communications system on 1 February 1922 included radio stations at Point Isabel, Galveston, Port Arthur, New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola. There were radio compass stations at Burrwood, Grand Isle, and Pass a L'Outre, all in Louisiana.

In 1920 there had been one important change in the district on paper. General Order No. 519, dated 10 March, extended the Eighth Naval District into the Interior so that it included all the territory it now includes. This change was made in order "to facilitate the organization and administration of the Naval Reserve Force."

In the early 1920's Captain G. P. Cooper, USN, Rear Admiral H. F. Bryan, USN, Rear Admiral T. P. Magruder, USN, and Rear Admiral S. E. W. Kittelle, USN, successively served the district in the double capacity of District Commandant and Commanding Officer, Naval Station, New Orleans. When Admiral Kittelle was detached on 12 September 1924, Captain James J. Raby, USN, Commandant, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, was assigned additional duty as Commandant, Eighth Naval District. He left administration of routine district affairs, however, in the hands of the Commanding Officer, Naval Station, New Orleans - Lieutenant Commander J. V. Van da Carr, USN - who acted as "Assistant Commandant"; matters of major importance were referred to the Commandant.

The roster of officers in the Eighth Naval District for 30 June 1921 shows that district activity had reached such a low ebb that most

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of the staff hold several billets. Commander H. A. McClure, USN, who was then Assistant Commandant, heads the list of ten officers at the Naval Station, New Orleans, whose duties are given here (the last two were Marine officers):

Commandant, Naval Station, New Orleans;
Captain of Yard; President, General Court-Martial;
Senior Member, Local Joint Merchant Vessel Board.
Information Officer; Member, General Court-Martial;
Member, Summary Court-Martial; Member, Local Joint Merchant Vessel Board; Aide for Personnel; Aide for Organizing and Training Naval Reservists.
District Communication Superintendent;
Radio Material Officer; Member, General Court-Martial; Member, Local Joint Merchant Vessel Board; Surveying Officer; Morale Officer.
Recruiting and Organizing Naval Reserve Force;
Commanding Officer, USS EAGLE 36.
District Public Works Officer.
Supply and Disbursing Officer, Eighth Naval District and Naval Station, New Orleans.
Medical Aide to Commandant, Eighth Naval District;
Senior Medical Officer, Naval Station, New Orleans; Member, General Court-Martial; Member, Summary Court-Martial.
Pay and Disbursing, Eighth Naval District and Naval Station, New Orleans.
Member, General Court-Martial;
Senior Member, Summary Court-Martial.
Judge Advocate, General Court-Martial.

In Pensacola at that time there were 111 officers, including the Commandant and his Aide, all officers on duty at the Naval Air Station, and all officers under instruction. Three officers were on duty at the Helium Plant in Fort Worth, and one was Officer-in-Charge of the Branch Hydrographic Office in Galveston, with additional duty in Inspection and Instruction of the Naval Reserve Unit. There were two officers in each of the five Navy Recruiting Stations in the district, located in New Orleans, Dallas, Birmingham, Little Rock, and Nashville. In each of

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the first three cities named, one officer had additional duty instructing the Naval Reserve Unit. One Marine Corps officer was stationed at the Marine Corps Recruiting Station in Houston.

The Commandant, Naval Air station, Pensacola, continued to have additional duty as Commandant, Eighth Naval District, until July 1930.

Officers who held the command during this period were Rear Admiral Frank B. Upham, USN, Rear Admiral James J. Raby, USN, and Rear Admiral Albert W. Marshall, USN. On 11 September 1929, when Rear Admiral Marshall was Commandant, an Organization and Routine Manual, Eighth Naval District, was printed; this manual had been submitted by Commander R. E. Casaidy, USN, Assistant Commandant (also Commandant, Naval Station, New Orleans) and approved by the Commandant. According to the manual, the mission of the district was to:

Activities within the Eighth Naval District were listed in the manual.

Headquarters, Naval Station, New Orleans, Louisiana Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida
Naval Station, New Orleans, Louisiana (Inactive industrially)
Naval Hospital, Pensacola, Florida
Radio Stations; Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida;
Naval Station, New Orleans, Louisiana; Brownsville, Texas.
Radio Compass Stations; Port Eads, Louisiana; Galveston, Texas.
Joint Merchant Vessel Board, District Headquarters, Recruiting Stations, Southern Recruiting Division, were also listed.

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There were six main stations, in Birmingham, Dallas, Houston, Little Rock, Nashville, and New Orleans, and forty-one sub-stations, in various cities of the district.

At that time the district staff officers were as follows:

Commandant
Assistant Commandant and Morale Officer
District War Plans Officer and District Intelligence Officer
District Communication Officer and Radio Material Officer
District Personnel Officer
District Public Works Officer
District Supply and Disbursing Officer
District Medical Officer
Legal Aide and District Marine Officer

As before, most of these officers had several additional duties.

In July 1930 Rear Admiral T. P. Magruder, USN, who had held the office in the early nineteen-twenties, relieved Rear Admiral Marshall as Commandant, Eighth Naval District. This brought the command back to New Orleans, where Admiral Magruder was also Commandant, Naval Operating Base (formerly designated Naval Station). He was relieved of duty in these billets in November 1951 by Rear Admiral H. H. Christy, USN.

On 30 June 1933 Rear Admiral James J. Raby, USN, Commandant, Sixth and Seventh Naval Districts, and also Commandant of the Charleston Navy Yard, was given additional duty as Commandant, Eighth Naval District, which office he had held twice before. The Eighth Naval District Headquarters on that date were officially transferred to Charleston, South Carolina, and the Naval Operating Base, New Orleans, was closed. The district headquarters were to remain in Charleston for the next seven and a half years.

In January 1934 however, a problem in command was created by the

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accidental death of the Commandant, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Navel Districts, since the commanding officer of the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, was senior to the Chief of Staff, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Naval Districts. An agreement was reached whereby the Chief of Staff served as Acting Commandant, Sixth and Seventh Naval Districts, and handled routine matters of the Eighth Naval District "by direction", sanding copies of correspondence on Eighth Naval District affairs to the commanding officer of the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, who served as Acting Commandant, Eighth Naval District, until a new Commandant was appointed.18

 

1940 to 1945

The organization in effect for administering the affairs of the Eighth Naval District just before the reopening of district headquarters in New Orleans on 15 December 1940 is discussed in the next chapter, "District Headquarters and Staff", which also tells of the development of the staff from that time until V-J Day. As the Commandant, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Naval Districts pointed out to the Chief of Naval Operations in October 1940, the reestablishment of separate headquarters for the Eighth Naval District within the district was desirable both because the volume of work for the district was continually growing, and because at "the beginning of mobilization or more acute national emergency" the district should be in a position to function immediately.19

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In the late 1930's renewed interest had been manifested in the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, as a training center; and construction had begun on another large air training base in Corpus Christi. With the setting up of district headquarters in New Orleans, other shore facilities were developed. The Naval Station, New Orleans, was reopened as a supply depot and receiving station. (The large floating dry dock, YFD-2, was moved to Seattle in 1940.) The Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, was commissioned in 1941, as were the Naval Reserve Aviation Bases in New Orleans and Dallas. Planning for local defense led to the establishment of five Section Bases, all of which were commissioned in December 1941:

Sabine Pass, Texas
Burrwood, Louisiana
Corpus Christi, Texas
Mobile, Alabama
Galveston, Texas

Considering the fact that the Navy Department had placed the Eighth Naval District in a secondary category, because of conditions in other areas, the development of the district during the first year of its functioning as a separate organization was remarkable. The excellent work, under the circumstances, done by the Commandant and his staff was commented on in a report to the Chief of Naval Operations by the Inspection Board for Naval Districts, which visited the district in March 1942 to obtain material on the district's readiness for war.

The expansion of the district during 1941, however, was small compared with that which followed Pearl Harbor. Logistic problems, which at times seemed insurmountable, had to be solved; there was a great

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lack of both civilian and Naval personnel, and of local defense forces with which to carry out the well-developed war plans. Not only was private industry able to claim the experienced civilian personnel from the labor market, but also, by means of high wages, it lured from the Navy many employees carefully trained. Not until the summer of 1942, when Civil Service pay rate was increased, could an adequate civilian staff be assembled.

A major comment of the Inspection Board for Naval Districts in its report on the Eighth Naval District was on the extensive lack of officers, especially experienced officers and officers of high rank. At the time of the report, the board stated that there was an urgent and immediate need for officers. This was true both at district headquarters and at all the establishments of the district. No establishment, not even one of the local defense ships, had a full complement. Enlisted men, too, were lacking.

The expansion of the Local Defense Forces of the Eighth Naval District in 1942, together with their functioning as a component part of the Gulf Sea Frontier Forces, is related in the chapter on "Operational Organization."

This year, which began with a paucity of men and material at existing activities, ended with a total number of activities in the district far more numerous. The office of Industrial Manager, Eighth Naval District, was established in May, to provide for the outfitting and repair of vessels for the fleet. The Industrial Manager was furnished with a Naval Industrial Command, in which he could effect much of the

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work, by the establishment of a Section Base at the Naval Station, New Orleans.20

An Armed Guard Center, for the training and supply of Armed Guard crews, was set up at the Naval Station in March, and in October another was moved from Chicago to Gulfport, Mississippi. (At Gulfport an Advanced Base Depot and a Receiving Barracks for Seabees had already been established.)21 Receiving Stations, providing men for new construction ships and for shore-based activities were established at the following places:

Orange, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Chickasaw, Alabama
Pascagoula, Mississippi

Also commissioned in 1942 were the following large activities:

Naval Ammunition Depot, McAlester, Okla. July
Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans, La. July
Naval Air Technical Training Center, Norman, Okla. July
Naval Air Technical Training Center, Memphis, Tenn. August
Commissioning Detail, Orange, Tex. October
Naval Hospital, Norman, Okla. October
Naval Ammunition Depot, New Orleans, La. December

These activities, plus many smaller ones, greatly increased the need for trained personnel, and the supply of such personnel was not sufficient to keep pace with the expansion. The end of the year found the trained personnel shortage not as severe as at the beginning, but it still existed. In 1943 the shortage was finally eliminated.

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In 1943 two more Naval Hospitals, U. S. Naval Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, commissioned in January, and U. S. Naval Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, commissioned in June, were added to the three already in the district. Commissioning details were established at New Orleans, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; and Chickasaw, Alabama. And in the spring of the year, lighter-than-air stations were completed at Houma, Louisiana, and Hitchcock, Texas.

The activities commissioned in 1943 were established because of the logistic and operational problems created by the course of the war and the prior establishment of other activities: the lighter-than-air stations provided anti-submarine patrols; the commissioning details were needed to provide trained men for the many ships constructed here; and the expansion in the number of hospitals was required because of the increase of personnel in the district. The V-12 schools, set up throughout the country in 1943, were a measure designed to solve the problem of procuring trained officers. In this district 27 colleges and universities had one or more units.

By 1944 expansion had slackened and the problems of effecting consolidation and coordination of the district activities were paramount. Accordingly, the commissioning details of the district were in January gathered into one command, Commissioning Details, USN, Gulf Area; the Advanced Base Depot Receiving Barracks at Gulfport were disestablished and the Naval Training Center, combining all the schools located there, was established; the activities at the Naval Station, New Orleans, were reorganized and the Naval Repair Base established in August. The

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operation of Air Bases of the district were consolidated under one command, U. S. Naval Air Bases, Eighth Naval District; all the auxiliary fields and other air activities in and around Pensacola and Corpus Christi were organized into the United States Naval Air Training Base, Corpus Christi, and the United States Naval Air Training Base, Pensacola. This was done in August 1944.

Expansion and construction did not cease during the year. In February two Amphibious Training Bases were established, at Galveston, and Panama City, Florida (the base at Panama City absorbed the former Section Base which was disestablished). A Naval Magazine, Theodore, Alabama, was commissioned in April as an adjunct of the Naval Ammunition Depot, New Orleans. The U. S. Naval Training and Distribution Center, Camp Wallace, Texas, was established; the facilities of a former Army camp were acquired for this activity, which, however, was disestablished at the end of the year. The largest project of the year was the construction of a Naval Ordnance Plant for manufacture of rockets at Camden, Arkansas, begun in the fall of the year.

While these new activities were being completed, two were being disestablished: the Choctaw unit of Mobile Section Base, which was taken over by the Coast Guard in January, and the Armed Guard Center, Gulfport, Mississippi, disestablished in December.

Between January 1945 end the end of the year all receiving stations except the ones at Galveston and New Orleans were disestablished. The Galveston Receiving Station took over the facilities of the Frontier Base which was disestablished in July. Also disestablished during that

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period was the U. S. Naval Amphibious Training Base, St. Andrews Bay, Panama City, Florida (June).

One new activity was added, a day before V-J Day: the U. S. Naval Hospital, Houston.

During the years 1940-1945, accordingly, an enormous and rapid expansion, and a slower consolidation of activities was carried out by the Navy Department in this district: an expansion that was notably-successful. The contrast between the state of the Eighth Naval District on 15 August 1945, and in 1903 need not even be mentioned. In 1903 the district was an idea; in 1945, it was a great and sprawling, but integrated, organization, with thousands of personnel aboard.

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FOOTNOTES

1. For a survey of the origin and growth of the naval districts, see The Development of the Naval Districts, 1903-1945 (Navy Department, Office of Naval History).
2. ComEight to Chief BuNav, No. 571-ND, dtd. 17 May 1904.
3. SecNav Conf. ltr. to ComEight, G.B. No. 402, dtd. 8 Mar. 1911.
4. SecNav ltr. to ComEight, No. 24514-18, G.B. No. 402, dtd. 29 Sep. 1910.
5. Those letters are dated 22 Oct. 1910 and 20 Nov. 1910 respectively.
6. Enclosure to SecNav ltr. to ComEight, G.B. 402, No. 24514-4, dtd. 11 Jan. 1910.
7. History of NATB, Pensacola, Fla.
8. ComEight ltr. to Comdt. Aeronautic Station, Pensacola, dtd. 22 Nov. 1917.
9. 8ND Roster, 1 Nov. 1918.
10. History of NATB, Pensacola, Fla.
11. End. to BuNav Ltr. to ComEight, N6-HBS-SO/4026-342, dtd. 4 Dec. 1918, and U. S. Naval Air station, Pensacola, Fla., Airmail report for fiscal year ending 1 July 1919, UL-L3, dtd. 19 Jul. 1919.
12. Brief of the New Orleans Committee on Naval Station and Naval Base Submitted to the Helm Commission on Navy Yards and Naval Stations, New Orleans, 24 Oct. 1916, as Revised and Amplified, 13 Feb. 1917.
13. These statistics on shipbuilding were provided by two men who were civilian employees at the Naval Station, New Orleans, during the first World War.
14. 8ND Roster of Officers for 1 Nov. 1918.
15. Dist. Commun. Supt. ltr. to ComEight, dtd. 25 Aug, 1921. Outline chart of Naval Districts for Naval Communications and Enrollment in the Naval Reserve Force.
16. See Appendix P.
17. Chief BuNav ltr. to ComEight, N-313-LM/1657-228, dtd. 20 Jan. 1919.
18. On this and other matters for the period between June 1933 to December 1940, see the History of the Sixth Naval District.
19. Com6,7,8 to CNO, Ser. A3-l/ND6,7,8/(80-Uwp-Pt), dtd. 18 Oct.
20. See Appendix A
21. See Appendix B

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