Appendix B

History of Naval Training Center, Gulfport, Mississippi

 

The United States Naval Training Center was established by the Secretary of the Navy on March 21, 1944.1 This, however, did not create a new activity, but recognized the need for a more appropriate name for an activity already comprising Armed Guard, Cooks and Bakers, Basic Engineering, Diesel, Elementary Electricity and Radio Materiel Schools, and later to include Electrician Mates, Quartermaster, Amphibious Firemen, Lookout-Recognition, and Laundry Schools. The order to establish Gunners Mates School was cancelled prior to the date set for contemplating commissioning. Advance Base Depot, Gulfport, continued as a separate activity, but under command of Commander Naval Training Center.

The site of the United States Naval Training Center and Advance Base Depot was recommended early in 1942 to the Judge Advocate General for acquisition by condemnation proceedings for the establishment of an Advance Base Depot. This original project included 911.5 acres immediately west and northwest of the city of Gulfport. To this area were added later 220 acres, making the entire area 1131.5 acres. Favorable action resulted in establishment of U. S. Advance Base Depot, Gulfport, on 2 June 1942.2 The activity thus created was intended to serve the Caribbean Area.

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The original function of the Advance Base Depot was to receive, prepare for export, and ship the various construction equipment, materials, and supplies for the use of Construction Battalions in the field, as directed by the Bureau of Yards and Docks. The Depot on 1 July 1944 was relieved of the responsibility of loading equipment and material aboard ships, and this function was taken over by the Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans, acting through the Naval Supply Depot Annex, West Pier, Gulfport, Mississippi. This change was made for the purpose of making available to the Naval Supply Depot, New Orleans, additional pier facilities and to utilize the full capacity of West Pier, Gulfport, for exporting Bureau of Supplies and Accounts and Bureau of Yards and Docks cargo.

The Advance Base Depot was constructed under a cost-plus-fixed fee contract, NOy-5528, by the M. T. Reed Construction Company, under the cognizance of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. Of the total of 1131.5 acres in the Training Center-Advance Base area, approximately 400 acres were occupied by the Advance Base Depot at the end of the war. Operation and maintenance of the depot was the responsibility of the contractor, who employed approximately 1450 civilian personnel on V-J Day. These operations were, from the beginning, under the cognizance of an officer-in-charge designated by the Bureau of Yards and Docks.

Most of the materials received, stored, and processed for export were initially procured by the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Washington, D. C., or by the Advance Base Division of that Bureau in Chicago.

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Approximately 30,000 tons of material were received each month, and the same tonnage shipped. The Depot shipped on directives from the Bureau of Yards and Docks or from certain of its subsidiary activities. It is considered noteworthy that the cost per ton of handling material at Advance Base Depot, Gulfport, was $15, approximately fifty percent of the cost at any other Advance Base Depot. Some of this exceptionally low cost can be attributed to the fact that stevedoring costs were borne by the Naval Supply Depot Annex, Gulfport, where overseas shipments from the Advance Base Depot were loaded.

The Advance Base Depot Receiving Barracks, Gulfport, was established on 13 November 1942.3 The original function was to receive, house, train, supply, and transfer to embarkation point and to overseas destinations Navy Construction Battalions and Construction Battalion Maintenance Units as directed by the Chief of Naval Personnel.

The Advance Base Depot Receiving Barracks was constructed under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, NOy-5528, by the M. T. Reed Construction Company under the cognizance of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. It consisted of about 700 acres and was built on land immediately adjacent to the Advance Base Depot. This activity was decommissioned on 21 March 1944 by the same authority which established the United States Naval Training Center, Gulfport, Mississippi. During the period of its existence at Gulfport, 44 Construction Battalions and 30 Construction Battalion Maintenance Units had been trained and sent onward by Advance Base Depot Receiving Barracks.

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In some cases, special training was ordered by the cognizant bureau in chemical warfare, demolition, and short wave communication. For chemical warfare tests, Cat Island, eight miles off the mainland, near Gulfport, as well as a tract of land near the Base, was utilized. For range firing the rifle range area in DeSoto National Forest was used. CBMU-1057 conducted a number of experiments while stationed at Gulfport.

The Armed Guard School, established 14 March 1942 at Chicago, Illinois, under command of Commander Milton R. Wortley, USNR, was ordered transferred to Advance Base Depot, Gulfport, Mississippi,4 but as a separate activity and in an area apart from the Advance Base Depot Receiving Barracks. As a consequence of this move, the Armed Guard School was able approximately to double its capacity. Commander M. R. Wortley, USNR, was relieved by Captain A. O. Rabideau as commanding officer. Increased facilities became available for training both Officers and enlisted personnel in gunnery practice with five-inch, as well as smaller caliber guns on ships based at Gulfport for this purpose. In 1943 the Armed Guard School formerly established at Boston was removed to Gulfport, greatly increasing the number of trainees. The capacity of this school was increased until May 1944, at which time 125 officers and 460 enlisted men were being trained each week.

In all, four ships for Armed Guard training were based at Gulfport under command of the Commanding Officer, Armed Guard School. They were:

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U.S.S. DOVER (IX 30)
U.S.C.G.C. MARITA
U.S.C.G.C. MONOMOY
U.S.S. LASH (PYc 31)

In addition, the USS OKISKO (YNT 10) and YCK 11 and YTL 613 were assigned at various times to Commander Naval Training Center, the first two in connection with servicing the training ships at Gulfport, and the last as a tug to aid in handling the increased shipping in the local harbor. Although the primary purpose of the vessels based at Gulfport vas to train the Armed Guard in gunnery afloat, three of them, the DOVER, MONOMOY, and MARITA also served as floating laboratories for the students in the Basic Engineering School.

The Armed Guard School was disestablished at Gulfport and ordered transferred to Shelton, Virginia.5 At the same time students, material, and the USCGC MONOMOY were ordered to Shelton. The vessel was to be used in transporting the material and equipment. The Cooks and Bakers School, which had come to Gulfport when the Armed Guard School moved from Chicago, remained at Gulfport.

Early in 1944 the mission of the Advance Base Depot Receiving Barracks to receive, train, and process construction battalions and maintenance units for overseas bases had been completed, and its activities were ordered terminated. Receiving Barracks facilities were now to be made available as rapidly as possible for the new training schools which were to be transferred to Gulfport.

In February 1944 Elementary Electricity and Radio Material, Basic

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Engineering, and Diesel Schools ware ordered transferred to Gulfport.6 It was to make greater use of space assigned to the Receiving Barracks and to house trainees and administrative activities of the schools that the Barracks was ordered discontinued. In April, Electrician Mate and Quartermaster Schools were transferred,7 and in the following November, an Amphibious Fireman School was established.8 A Gunners Hate a School was ordered opened at the Naval Training Center,9 but prior to the date set for opening training, the order was cancelled.10 The Recognition School, transferred from Columbus, Ohio, to the Naval Training Center11 was the last important unit added to the group of schools at Gulfport. In recognition of the increased number of activities at Naval Training Center, Gulfport, on June 17, 1945, the official designation of Commanding Officer was changed to Commander.12

On 15 May 1945, the following schools were disestablished:13

Cooks and Bakers Amphibious Fireman
Basic Engineering Electricians Mates

At the same time the input of trainees for Quartermasters School and Radiomans School was reduced. Only the Elementary Electricity and Radio Material School was left at its original capacity. Lookout-Recognition

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School became the new designation of the former Recognition School, end its Input of officers in training was approximately doubled. The Diesel School was disestablished 28 July 1945.14

Termination of activities in Europe and the consequent concentration of our Navy in the Pacific may be assigned as a reason for reduction of training facilities at Naval Training Center, Gulfport.

Since histories of each type of training school established by the Navy Department will be prepared in detail by a selected activity, no effort is made in this report to discuss individual training programs of the schools at Gulfport. Special comment, however, is considered appropriate for the development of a training device at Basic Engineering School. This has been christened the "USS SIEVE" and consists of mockups of below deck compartments in a vessel where battle damage conditions can be simulated and trainees presented with problems which they might face if their ship is damaged in battle.

A letter written by Captain J. W. Moore, (ChC), USN, after a visit to the Elementary Electricity and Radio Material School and printed in the Bureau of Naval Personnel Training Bulletin is quoted as of interest on the work of that school:

(From a letter to Captain D. L. Madeira, USN, Director of Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel.)

". . . June 6th and 7th, 1945, I visited the USNTC at Gulfport, Miss., to see my son, who is in training there in the radar division of the EE & RM Schools.

"As the boy was apparently doing all right scholastically and otherwise, my only motive in going to Gulfport was to see

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him personally and to encourage him to further effort to do well.

"Everything about the Gulfport establishment was so much better than the high expectations I had had about it. I wish to say that the least I can do to show appreciation of the way they are getting results for the Service, is to speak of my satisfaction to you. Of course, I am speaking chiefly from the point of view of the father of one of the students at Gulfport, but in a broader sense, from the point of view of us who are in the Pacific Theatre of War it is a very reassuring thing to discover the excellence in training for Fleet Service that the Schools at Gulfport represent. I am sure that Fleet Admiral Nimitz, on whose Staff I am, will be happy to hear something of the good work being done at Gulfport, and I shall certainly tell him about the Training Center at Gulfport, when I return to Headquarters this week.

"I left Gulfport not only very happy over the status of my son but also delighted to know the needs of the Navy were being so ably met as they are at our Training Center at Gulfport.

Yours respectfully,
/s/  J. W. Moore
Captain, ChC, USN
Fleet Chaplain
Staff Commander in Chief
U.S. Pacific Fleet and Ocean Areas."

The Shore Patrol based in Gulfport covered an area along the Mississippi Sound from west of Bay St. Louis on the West, to Ocean Springs on the East, a distance of thirty-five miles and approximately eight miles inland. Thus 280 square miles were patrolled. Three motor vehicles equipped with short wave transmitters and receivers permitted the patrols to keep in touch with headquarters on the beach front in Gulfport.

The Chaplain's Department at the Naval Training Center was most active. Every enlisted man ordered to the Base was required to complete a form stating his religious preference, and a letter was forwarded to his wife or parents, giving assurance that his spiritual welfare was not negated. This evoked most favorable correspondence from the recipients

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of the Chaplains' letters. At the war's end, eighteen regularly scheduled religious services were conducted each week by the Chaplains at this activity. These included Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish. As compared with the year 1944, 1945 showed a considerable increase in baptisms and conversions as a result of the activity of the Chaplains attached to the Naval Training Center. By V-J Day there had been 845 Protestant baptisms and 6 Roman Catholic. For the year before, the figures were 21 Protestant and 15 Roman Catholic. The Base Chapel was equipped with an electric organ and carillon, a gift of the officers and men stationed at the Naval Training Center.

The Public Information Officer and the Senior Chaplain cooperated in a weekly half hour broadcast from the Base Chapel over radio station WGCM, Gulfport, and a recorded program of sacred and secular music by the choir aired over WDSU, New Orleans.

It is believed that a maximum of efficiency resulted from the type of organization at Naval Training Center, Gulfport. This permitted each of the training activities to carry out its particular mission unhampered by the innumerable problems of overall administration. On the other hand, the concentration of problems of supply, personnel, public works, medical care, disbursing, etc., in a central organization which served the needs of all activities permitted a fluidity in assignment of personnel available and an economy of personnel that otherwise would have been unattainable.

Facilities available at the Naval Training Center, Gulfport, could have provided housing, recreation, and medical attention for approximately 14,000 men. The Bachelor Officers' Quarters on the Base could

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accommodate 550 officers and the Dispensary had provision for 539 beds. Messing arrangements were entirely adequate for the maximum number indicated above. In December 1943, however, 565 officers and 17,369 men were attached to the base.

The transportation facilities in and out of the city of Gulfport provided train service to the North, East, and West. The Port, where the Navy leased the West Pier, was used for ships drawing twenty-five feet of water. On the grounds of the Naval Training Center and Advance Base Depot were more than ten miles of rail facilities connecting with the Illinois Central and Louisville and Nashville in Gulfport. Although approximately eight miles of this trackage served the Advance Base Depot storage area, the remaining two and one-half miles provided ample space for entraining and detraining personnel.

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N.T.C. BUILDINGS NO. BLDGS. SQ. FT.
Administrative Buildings 7 11,732
Recognition 1 12,160
Barracks
B-1-A 19 12,216
B-1-B 17 11,890
Bakery 1 7,319
Brig
Old 1 1,660
New 1 3,421
Chapel 1 7,719
Cooks Quarters 7 11,500
Chief Petty Officers Club 1 2,880
Dispensary 1 118,223
Fire Station 1 6,140
Garages 1 2,172
2 2,630
Gate House 3 637
Laundry 1 14,896
Mark I Trainer Buildings 1 1,433
1 1,633
Mess Halls 7 11,500
Officers Mess Hall 1 6,400
Nurses Quarters 1 10,597
O.P.D. 1 2,048
Recreation Buildings    
Hall #1 1 9,558
Hall #2 1 11,260
Officers 1 26,068
Quonset Huts 2 4,000
(Corpsmen) 1 3,940
School Buildings 1 1,738
Ship's Service 1 3,920
1 2,100
1 4,940
Shops 3 2,172
16 2,630
Storehouses 12 13,169
Swimming Pool 1 4,800
Training Film Buildings 3 4,032
Waves Barracks
#1 1 7,656
#2 1 23,783
Corpsmen 1 5,982
Quonsets (Barracks & Classrooms) 41 960
Commissary 1 4,000
  1 43,137

Total Buildings

541  

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FOOTNOTES

1. OP13C-jc, Ser. 82013, SO 2 17 80, dtd. Mar, 1944.
2. OP13C-jc, Ser. NO 122913, SO 524 390, dtd. 2 Jun. 1942.
3. SecNav Ltr. SO 11131055, dtd. 13 Nov. 1942.
4. OP13C-jc Ser. 166813, SO 117, dtd. 10 Oct. 1942.
5. Pers-423a-rf, NC 116, dtd. 20 Dec. 1944, and OP 13-1D-mms, Ser. 4819l3, dtd. 21 Dec. 1944.
6. Pers-421b-es, NC(623) (P), dtd. 2 Feb. 1944.
Pers-421f-es, NC(605) (P), dtd. 9 Feb. 1944.
Pers-421f-es, dtd. 10 Feb. 1944.
7. Pers-421f-es, dtd. 22 Apr. 1944.
8. Pers-4125-mjh, dtd. 18 Nov. 1944.
9. Pers-4215-mjh,NC (695) (P), dtd. 23 Nov. 1944.
10. Pers-4215-mjh,NC (695) (P), dtd. 22 Dec. 1944.
11. Pers-4237-den,NC 160, dtd. 8 Dec. 1944.
12. Pers-31-DBK-6, dtd. 17 Jun. 1944.
13. Pers-4125-mjj, dtd. 15 May 1945.
14. Pers-4215-mjj, dtd. 15 May 1945.

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