Chapter III

District Headquarters and Staff

 

Just prior to the reopening of the Eighth Naval District Headquarters in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 15 December 1940, the Commandant, Sixth Naval District, served also as the Commandant of the Seventh and Eighth Naval Districts. He and his staff, in Charleston, South Carolina, managed the affairs of the Eighth Naval District with the assistance of certain officers located in the district. There was an Assistant Commandant, Eighth Naval District, in New Orleans, who handled local affairs, and who, as collateral duty, was Commanding Officer, U. S. Naval Station, New Orleans, then in caretaker status. There were also in New Orleans the District Intelligence Officer and the District Port Director. The Communications Officer, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, had additional duty as District Communications Officer and Commanding Officer, Outlying Naval Radio Stations, Eighth Naval District. The Public Works Officer of the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, was also District Public Works Officer. There were an Assistant District Material Officer in Galveston and an Assistant District Communications Officer in New Orleans.

The increasing volume of work in the Eighth Naval District in 1940, together with the difficulty of handling business by mail, telephone, and despatch from Charleston, made it feasible to establish the district separately, with a Commandant and all the necessary Naval and civilian staff, and with the headquarters located, for fairly obvious reasons, in

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New Orleans. The Commandant, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Naval Districts, presented forceful argument for the recommended change in his letter of 18 October 1940 to the Chief of Naval Operations.

For the difficult task of reactivating the Eighth Naval District, the Navy Department selected Captain Thaddeus A. Thomson, USN. Captain Thomson had had wide and varied experience in the Navy. A native of Texas, he was appointed to the Naval Academy from that state in 1903. After graduation he had duty on the USS MINNESOTA, USS SOUTH DAKOTA, and USS DOLPHIN, among other vessels. In 1912-1914 he was Aide on the staff of Rear Admiral Frank E. Beatty, Commander Battleship Division, Atlantic Fleet. In 1915 he was on duty at the Naval Gun Factory, Navy Yard, Washington, D. C.

During World War I he commanded the USS BAINBRIDGE in European theaters and served on the staff of Admiral Sims as Aide for Mining Operations, Ordnance, and Gunnery. He was awarded the Navy Cross with the citation:

For exceptionally distinguished service during the World War in the line of his profession in command of the USS BAINBRIDGE in making the trip of 11,000 miles from Manila, P. I., to Gibraltar, under very unfavorable weather conditions, the Southwest Monsoon being then at its height, and arriving in the Mediterranean with his vessel in readiness for immediate participation in the operation against enemy submarines in the War Zone. Later he served with distinction as Aide for Ordnance on the staff of the Commander, U. S. Naval Forces in European Waters.

He was Gunnery Officer on the USS OKLAHOMA in 1919, and after completing the Naval War College course, he had duty as Commander of a Destroyer Division until 1921, when he was assigned as Assistant Naval Attache to the American Embassy, London, England, with additional duty

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in Paris and Rome and the Hague, and also as a member of the Anglo-American Joint Arbitration Board, London, England.

He was in command of the USS HATFIELD in 1924, and the USS DOYEN in 1925 and for three years was on duty at the Naval Academy. He was Executive Officer of the USS ARIZONA from 1929 until 1931, when he was transferred to the Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island. After two years in command of the USS RELIEF, he became Naval Attache to the American Embassy, Rome, Italy, in 1936-1938. He was assigned duty in connection with the fitting out of the USS WICHITA in November 1938, and assumed command when she was commissioned on 16 February 1939; he was detached in December 1940, having served during part of that period as Commander, Caribbean Neutrality Patrol.

On 15 December 1940 he assumed duties in New Orleans as Acting Commandant and Chief of Staff, Eighth Naval District. At that time officers had reported to fill the following billets on the Headquarters staff:

A day later an officer reported in New Orleans as District Public Works Officer.

From the time that the district was reactivated until Captain Thomson was relieved as Acting Commandant and Chief of Staff in April

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1942, he held a conference at noon every day with staff division heads. At these conferences, from twenty minutes to an hour long, district problems were discussed and action was coordinated. The conferences played a rather important part in the development of district organization.

During 1941 a number of additions were made to the headquarters staff. In January the District Civilian Personnel Officer and the Aide to the Commandant were added. The Aide to the Commandant had additional duty as Legal Aide and Public Relations Officer. He was relieved of his duties as Public Relations Officer in May, when the District Public Relations Office was set up as an independent unit in accordance with a directive of the Chief of Naval Operations. By that time the officer who had held the three billets had also been relieved as Aide to the Commandant, but in addition to his duties as Legal Aide he had been given those of Selective Service Officer. A District Communications Officer, as well as a Registered Publications Issuing Officer, reported in New Orleans in May, relieving the Communications Officer at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola of his collateral duties as District Communications Officer. In May 1941 the District Supply, Accounting, and Disbursing Officer and Supervisory Cost Inspector was relieved of his duties as Disbursing Officer, when an officer reported on Bureau orders to take over that billet, and in October he was relieved of his duties as Supervisory Cost Inspector.

In May the Major General Commandant, U. S. Marine Corps, wrote to the Acting Commandant, Eighth Naval District, that the Chief of Naval

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Operations had directed the assignment of a District Marine Officer and a District Legal Officer, both of the Marine Corps, to the headquarters staff of each district.1 The duties of the District Marine Officer were to be collateral. The Acting Commandant, Eighth Naval District, requested a District Marine Officer at district headquarters;2 but since the assignment of a District Marine Officer solely for duty at district headquarters was not possible at the time, according to the Commandant, U. S. Marine Corps, the Commanding Officer of the Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, was assigned additional duty as District Marine Officer. He reported by letter for this duty on 3 July 1941. On orders from the Acting Commandant he reported at district headquarters for conferences in November 1941 and January 1942. A Marine officer meantime had reported at district headquarters, in August 1941, for duty as District Legal Officer; he retained this post until December, when he was relieved by the Naval Reserve Officer who had formerly served as Legal Aide.

The district staff security organization was initiated in 1941. In accordance with the chemical warfare program instituted by the Chief of Naval Operations, in May a Gas Defense Officer was appointed on the headquarters staff; in August this officer was redesignated the Passive Defense Officer, The Chief of Naval Operations in October directed the establishment of a District Security Office as a part of each district

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headquarters staff, and in December the District War Plane Officer was assigned additional duty as District Security Officer. Three months later, when he was relieved of this duty by an officer assigned on a full-tine basis, the District Security Office, into which the Passive Defense Office had been incorporated, was well organized. It was the security program that resulted in the addition to the District Commandant's staff, in March 1942, of the Coast Guard District Captain of the Port. He was detached a month later, however, when the Secretary of the Navy placed the responsibility for harbor security on the Coast Guard, and subsequently was under the supervision of the District Coast Guard Officer. The District Coast Guard Officer was directly under the Commandant, U. S. Coast Guard; the District Commandant exercised only military control over him.

During 1941 the headquarters staff steadily increased in size. The number of officers on board in April was 55, in August 72, and in December 130. To aid him in handling the rapidly multiplying details of his office, the Acting Commandant and Chief of Staff in September appointed an Assistant Chief of Staff. When the war began, the following officers were on the staff of the Acting Commandant and Chief of Staff:

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The District Security Office was established immediately after Pearl Harbor. During the following year the headquarters staff organization underwent comparatively few structural changes, though it continued to grow.

On 22 April 1942 Captain Thomson was relieved as Acting Commandant and Chief of Staff by Captain Frank T. Leighton, USN, A native of Pennsylvania. Captain Leighton was graduated from the Naval Academy in 1909. He then had duty aboard the USS CONNECTICUT, USS MONTANA, and USS ROE. He received further instruction at the Postgraduate Department, Naval Academy; at Columbia University; at the Westinghouse Electric and Machine Company, Pittsburgh; and at the Graduate School, Cornell University, where he completed the course in electrical engineering.

From March 1917 to May he was in command of the USS TINGEY, and then was placed in command of Squadron Three (Minesweepers), Fifth Naval District. He was ordered to Puget Sound, Washington, for duty in connection with fitting out the USS SAVANNAH and was on board as repair and engineer officer when she was commissioned. In January 1918 he was given temporary duty as commanding officer of the SAVANNAH and then as her executive and repair officer.

After several months' duty at Naval Headquarters, London, he reported

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for duty at Mare Island Navy Yard to fit out the USS CLAXTON and was in command for a year after she was commissioned. From November 1920 until March 1922 he was Assistant Naval Inspector of Machinery at the New York Shipbuilding Company, Camden, New Jersey. After assisting in fitting out the USS COLORADO at that plant, he served as engineer officer after she was commissioned, 30 August 1923; later he served as navigator on the COLORADO. He was Radio Material Officer, Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, from June 1926 to October 1929, and then was ordered to the USS SOWERS as commanding officer. After commanding the USS BUCHANAN from April 1930 to September 1931, he was on duty at the Naval Academy until June 1933. He completed the senior course at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, in May 1934. From 1 June 1934 to 4 April 1936 he was Commander, Destroyer Division five, and for the next year and a half he was on duty in the Office of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington, D. C. For two years, beginning December 1938, he was commanding officer of the USS LOUISVILLE, and then he had duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

After relieving Captain Thomson, Captain Leighton served as Acting Commandant and Chief of Staff, Eighth Naval District, only until 12 June 1942, on which date he became Commandant, Eighth Naval District, by order of the Bureau of Navigation. On 1 July he accepted appointment to the rank of Rear Admiral, to rank from 22 November 1941.

He was ordered by the Chief of Naval Personnel on 16 July 1942 to report by letter to the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, for duty as a Task Force Commander; this duty was in addition to his duty as District

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Commandant. After reporting by letter, he was ordered to report in Miami for a conference with the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, on 11 August 1942; this temporary duty completed, two days later he returned to district headquarters.

An important change was effected in the district headquarters staff in the spring of 1942 when the Navy Department established the Office of Industrial Manager. In a letter of 25 March 1942 the Secretary of the Navy directed that in each district in which there was no Navy Yard, an Office of Industrial Manager, USN, was thereby established which would assume the duties and responsibilities of the District Material Officer in that district for the conversion and repair of ships as previously designated. The Office of Industrial Manager was to bear the same relationship to the District Commandant and all other administrative units in the district as was prescribed in Article 1482 of Navy Regulations, 1920. In accordance with this directive the Office of Industrial Manager, USN, Eighth Naval District, was established on 1 May 1942, and the District Material Office was abolished. Unlike the District Material Officer, who had been directly under the Commandant, the Industrial Manager, who was a direct representative of the Bureau of Ships and the Bureau of Ordnance, had his own command. But the Industrial Manager served also, to a limited extent, as a member of the Commandant's staff. He acted as an adviser to the Commandant in his particular field and handled various matters for the Commandant, such as the Bureau of Ships budget for the district. He signed letters by direction of the Commandant. The housing of his officers in the Federal Building, where the district headquarters staff was located,

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made possible immediate contact with the Commandant and other staff members.

On 5 October 1942 the Commandant added to his staff a Fitting Out Officer, whose specific duty was overseeing the acceptance, commissioning, and fitting out of all new construction coming under the cognizance of the Commandant. Difficulties which arose as to the precise functions and relationship of this officer and the Industrial Manager led to the Issuance of a District Order on 23 May 1943, on their responsibilities in regard to fitting out, conversion, repair, and overhaul of Naval vessels.3 This order placed full responsibility on the Industrial Manager for processing ships through the period when they were made ready for sea. The District Fitting Out Officer was "charged with advising the Commandant as to the means of improving the effectiveness of the cooperation between Supervisors of Shipbuilding; Pre-Commissioning Details; the Industrial Manager; the Naval Station, New Orleans; and the various Bureaus insofar as matters pertaining to fitting out Naval vessels in the Eighth Naval District were concerned.

Other changes on the Commandant's staff in 1942 were made in the personnel branch. In February the Bureau removed Officer Procurement from under the cognizance of the Commandant and placed it directly under the Bureau. The Senior (later District) Shore Patrol Officer was added to the staff in August and the Insurance Officer in December. The Welfare and Recreation Officer, appointed on a part-time basis the year before, took up the duties on a full-time basis in April 1942.

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These three officers were under the District Personnel Officer. An Industrial Relations Officer was assigned to the Commandant's staff in March. Although the District Legal Officer had been supervising the Defense Savings campaign at district headquarters, it was not until September 1942 that the Bureau of Personnel ordered a District Coordinator, War Savings Bonds, to report to the Commandant for the purpose of supervising the program throughout the district.

A number, of important changes took place in the headquarters staff in 1943. The District Domestic Transportation Office was established in February, when the Transportation Branch was set up in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In the same month there was a reorganization of the District Civilian Personnel Division. With the purpose of effecting better coordination and administration, District Headquarters Order No. 1-43 established the following sections under the District Civilian Personnel Director: Civil Service, Labor Relations, Industrial Manpower, Vocational Training, and Selective Service. The District Labor Relations Office, however, was reestablished by the Secretary of the Navy as a headquarters department on 1 July 1943. It was not until May 1943 that an officer reported to the Commandant as Director of Training, but the organization of the Training Division had been under way since shortly after the Chief of Naval Personnel directed the establishment on 14 October 1942.

On account of ill health Roar Admiral Leighton on 18 March 1943 was detached from his duties as the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, and Task Force Commander under Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier. He died of

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this illness on 23 November 1943.

On his detachment Captain E. T. Oates, USN, the Chief of Staff, became Acting Commandant and Acting Task Force Commander under the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier. He was relieved three months later by Rear Admiral Andrew C. Bennett, USN, who on 14 June 1943 assumed duties as the Commandant, Eighth Naval District, and reported by letter to the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, for additional duty as Task Force Commander. On his way to New Orleans, he had spent 9 June in Miami on temporary duty under the Commander, Gulf Sea Frontier, on orders of the Bureau of Personnel.

Rear Admiral Bennett was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1908 from Portsmouth, Ohio. Between his graduation in 1912 and October 1914, he served on the battleships MICHIGAN and FLORIDA and the cruiser MONTANA. He had instruction in submarines on the submarine tender TONOPAH from November 1914 until March 1915, and served the major part of his sea duty in submarines after the completion of that course. During the World War he had command of the submarine L-11, based at Bantry Bay, Ireland. For his conspicuous success and valor as a submarine commander in that war, he was awarded the Navy Cross.

During the four years following his return to the United States in the fall of 1918, he fitted out and commanded the submarines R-24 and S-16. In September 1922 he reported as Aide on the Staff of Commander, Pacific Submarine Flotillas. He had a tour of shore duty in the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, from September 1923 until December 1925. He was assigned to duty in connection with fitting

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out the submarine tender HOLLAND in that yard, end joining her when she was commissioned on 1 June 1926, he served as her Engineer end Repair Officer until September 1927.

Rear Admiral Bennett had command of Submarine Division 18, Submarine Divisions, Battle Fleet, from September 1927 until June 1929. He had a tour of duty in the Division of Fleet Training, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, from August 1929 until June 1931, and served as Engineer Officer of the battleship TEXAS for two years thereafter. He was instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics at the Naval Academy from June 1933 until May 1936. He had command of submarines of the Asiatic Fleet from June 1936 until August 1938, and during his duty in China, when serving under Admiral H. E. Yarnell, he was in direct charge of the evacuation of civilians from Tsingtao when the Japanese invaded China in the summer of 1937.

He served in the Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, Washington, from October 1938 until July 1940, when he assumed command of the cruiser SAVANNAH. He had duty on the Staff, Commander in Chief, U. S. fleet, from June 1942 until January 1943. He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral as of 15 May 1942.

On special duty in the United Kingdom when the African campaign was planned, he was assigned the task of organizing and manning the Mediterranean ports of Oran, Arzew, and Mers El Kebir as supply centers for the Army. The U. S. Naval parties for these tasks sailed with the assault convoy and landed in Africa on 8 November 1942 with the American

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Army Forces. He was later awarded the Legion of Merit by the War Department with the following citation:

For exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services from September 1942 to January 1943. Having received orders to participate in the Oran landing operation only three weeks prior to the first scheduled sailing date of the assault convoy, Admiral Bennett with great initiative and energy, organized and trained an Advance Base, United States Naval Unit, for duty with the Center Task Force. Through unremitting effort and ingenuity his command was made ready, fully equipped, in the time allotted. Due to his foresight and planning salvage personnel and material were on hand immediately after the landing on 8 November 1942 for the extremely difficult task of clearing the ports of Oran, Mers El Kebir, and Arzew. Despite the difficulties he faced, particularly at the port of Oran, which had been badly sabotaged by the sinking of twenty-six ships, Admiral Bennett and his Naval Port Party, assisted by the Army, rapidly prepared all three ports to handle from two to three times their normal peacetime capacities.

He continued in command of these Mediterranean ports until February 1943, at which time he was assigned command of the Naval Operating Base, Iceland. After four months there he came to the Eighth Naval District to assume the duties of Commandant.

Among additions to the staff during the latter half of 1943, after Admiral Bennett's arrival, three were in the personnel branch: a Wave officer reported in August as District Director of Women's Reserve, a District Chaplain arrived in October, and a District Ship's Service Officer in December. In September the Commandant established the office of District Ordnance Officer, assigning the District Fitting Out Officer the duties of this billet as collateral duty. The District Ordnance Officer, besides being an adviser to the Commandant, was to direct the supply of ammunition and ordnance equipment to shore activities and ships not under the cognizance of the Industrial Manager or the District

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Port Director. The District Medical Officer's staff was augmented in October by the reporting of a captain of the Dental Corps as Assistant to the District Medical Officer; seven months later the Bureau of Personnel changed the title of this officer to District Dental Officer.

On 4 November 1943 the Vice Chief of Naval Operations notified the commandants of the continental Naval Districts of a conference to be held in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations for the purpose of discussing logistics services and the office of Assistant Commandant (Logistics). Pursuant to this conference, the office of Assistant Commandant (Logistics), Eighth Naval District, was established on 26 November.

The Eighth Naval District organization Chart dated 1 December 1945 shows the following officers to have been on the Commandant's staff at that time:

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During the two years since Pearl Harbor the headquarters staff had Increased in size from 130 officers to 276 in November 1942 and to 415 in November 1943. According to the Naval Manpower Survey, on 1 January 1944 there were at the Eighth Naval District headquarters a total of 1473 personnel - 433 officers, 536 enlisted personnel, and 454 civilian personnel. Having begun with office apace on only one floor of the federal Building, the headquarters staff now occupied nearly all the Federal Building and also had a small amount of space in other buildings.

In January 1944, when the Chief of Naval Operations consolidated the Eighth Naval District commissioning activities as recommended by the Commandant, the Commanding Officer, Commissioning Details, USN, Gulf Area, performed functions which gave him status as a member of the Commandant's staff. Since he now took over the duties of District Fitting Out Officer, that billet was abolished. The Naval Air Bases, Eighth Naval District, Command was established in September 1944 by authority of General Order No. 210. The Commander, Naval Air Bases, Eighth Naval District, was considered a staff member by virtue of his acting as advisor to the Commandant on all matters pertaining to aviation. Neither the Commander, Commissioning Details, USN, Gulf Area, nor the Commander,

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Naval Air Bases, Eighth Naval District, was located at the district headquarters, nor were their staffs numbered among headquarters personnel.

In April 1944 the Secretary of the Navy caused civilian personnel activities at district headquarters to be combined under a District Civilian Personnel Director. Since the Commandant had already brought these agencies together the year before under the District Civilian personnel Officer, the only real change involved was in bringing the Labor Relations Officer into the group again.

The Naval personnel branch was enlarged in 1944 by the Bureau's assignment to the staff of the Civil Readjustment Officer in April, the Prison Administration Officer in October, and the Passenger Transportation Officer in December. A Clothing Officer and a Mess Officer were added to the District Supply Officer's department during the first half of the year, and an Administrative Aide was added to the Commandant's administrative staff. In compliance with a Navy Department directive, a District Command Voting Supervisor was designated in August to handle for the Commandant all matters pertaining to servicemen's voting. In October, in accordance with the air/sea rescue plans of the Chief of Naval Operations, a Coast Guard Officer was made Air/Sea Rescue Officer under the supervision of the District Operations Officer.

In November 1944 the Vice Chief of Naval Operations directed the reorganization of the Naval personnel branch of district staffs. The reorganization was forthwith begun in the Eighth Naval District, and in February 1945 the Bureau assigned an officer to the staff as Assistant

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Chief of Staff for Personnel. Though at that time personnel had not been provided for every billet, the functional organization grouped the following officers under the Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel:

In March 1945 certain staff agencies concerned with the redistribution of Naval material were brought together in the establishment of the District Redistribution Office. At that time the number of officers on the headquarters staff had been reduced to 346.4

Just before the war ended, certain changes were made in the Supply and Accounts branch, and a District Historical Officer was added to the staff. On V-J Day the following officers were on the Commandants staff (the last three in a limited sense), not to mention numerous others who headed sections under the officers listed:

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During the course of the war a number of regular Naval officers who had been called back to active duty from retirement served as division heads at the Eighth Naval District headquarters. The following billets were occupied at least part of the time by such officers:

Reserve officers, of course, made up the great bulk of the staff, and they headed many divisions. Only regular officers, however, or retired officers recalled to active duty, were assigned to the following billets:

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The Commandant, Eighth Naval District, served, in accordance with Navy Regulations, as the direct representative of the Navy Department to the district. His functions in this capacity are discussed in the next chapter, "Administrative Relationships".

The Chief of Staff, ordered as such by the Navy Department, was the direct representative of the Commandant, and his orders were considered at emanating from the Commandant. In the absence of the Commandant for a period of less than twenty-four hours, he was represented by the Chief of Staff, who was authorized to carry out the established routine. Under the Commandant, the Chief of Staff had the following responsibilities:

  1. Supervised and coordinated all district activities
  2. Directed and coordinated the work of the Commandant's staff.
  3. Carried out details of command and administration in accordance with the Commandant's policies.
  4. Dealt particularly with questions of organization, policy, routine, discipline, and planning.
  5. Studied the district resources as they affected the Navy's needs, and considered the development of district activities and district forces.

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  1. Kept the Commandant advised of the military deficiency of district activities
  2. Supervised the preparation of war plans and had them kept up-to-date.
  3. Advised the Commandant of necessary action to insure the effectiveness of war plans and district development plans.
  4. Served as a member of the Local Joint Planning Committee

In addition to Captain Thomson and Admiral Leighton, the following officers filled this very important billet:

The successful functioning of the Commandant's staff was due in a large measure to the supervisory and coordinative services of these officers.

The Flag Secretary was responsible for the management of the Commandant's immediate office. He had charge of headquarters correspondence, including receiving, logging, routing and distribution, indexing, tracing of delinquent correspondence, mailing, mimeographing, printing, and filing. He was assisted in his duties by the Chief Clerk. The Aide to the Commandant had cognizance of and acted for the Commandant in matters pertaining to official visits, parades, salutes, and the like. Among other duties he assisted the Commandant in handling his personal correspondence, and he prepared and kept up-to-date a booklet of instructions for visiting Naval vessels in the New Orleans area.

The function of other officers on the Commandant's staff, many of the problems they encountered, and their considerable accomplishments is recorded in later chapters under the titles of division heads.

The names of all officers who served as division heads, together with the dates of their terms of office, are given in Appendix J.

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FOOTNOTES

1. Comdt., USMC ltr. to ComEight, 1515-95/AN-114-ebn, dtd. 29 May 1941.
2. ComEight ltr. to Comdt, USMC, P16-5/KW/00:TAT:sm, dtd. 10 Jun. 1941.
3. Dist. Order No. 6-43, dtd. 25 May 1943.
4. For monthly statistics on officer personnel of various departments during the last two years of the war, see Appendix I.

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