Shore Duty

(March 1968)  The Cruise aboard Forrestal to the Mediterranean was coming to an end.  In Ready 3 Cdr John Huber and and I were suited up and ready man up for an afternoon sortie.  We had just received the call for "pilots man your planes" over the ready room intercoms.  Just then, a personnelman from the Addmin deprtment come down.  He had something for me.  This was unusual, because my attention was focussed on getting ready for the flight, not a good time time for handling paperwork.  He handed me a copy of a Navy message:  I had orders.  I would soon be leaving the squadron.

The career of a naval officer typically involced periods of "sea duty" aboard ship or overseas stations, and "shore duty" back on the US.  I hadn't realized it but I was due to rotate to shore duty.

I was somewhat familiar with the post, however:  NAS Pensacola, where of course I received my initial flight training.  My duty station was to be a staff instructor at the Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS).  Physically, I would be located in the building directly across the street from Battalion 3, my home during my initial training.

There was a lot of personal  things to arrange.  Nancy was stil in the Air Force, and located cross country in California.  This would be the first time we set up housekeeping on a more or less permanent basis. 

AOCS had a half dozen or so academic courses:  Naval Orientation, Pre-Navigation and Seamanship, Aerodynamics, Naval Leadership, and Naval History and World Affairs.  Given my background, I expected to be assigned to the Navigation course, but the director decided it would be better have a patrol plane navigator in the post, more experienced in long range navigation.  I was assigned to Naval Hisotory, about which I knew very little.

First, "Charm School" or Aviation Instructor Training  School"- AITS.  This month long school prepped us for the classroom.  There was a heavy focus on preparing and giving sample lectures.  The course was quite good, but there is nothing that can really prepare you for your first day in the classroom.

In terms of course content, the principal reference we used was Seapower by Potter and Nimitz (yes, that Nimitz).  Designed as a college-level textbook, it was comprehensive by a little on the dry side.  I would find that other reading would be necessary to bring in the little side details to add interest to the lectures.  One example was Dawn Like Thunder, treating the US wars against the Barbary States in the early years of the US.  World War II was obviously a focus of the course.  For that, we used the magesterial History of US Naval Operations in World War II, in 15 volumes.  The author, Samual Eliot Morrison, was a well known professor of History at Harvard when the war began.  He contacted Roosevelt ad asked to be given the opportunity to observe operations first hand.  He was given a staff commission (as a Commander) and during the course of the war he wa assigned to various ships and theatres of operations. 

I spent two years teaching Naval History.  As time went on, I gradually become more knowledgeable about the subject through my reading.   My interest in naval history and history in general continued well after my tour.  I broadened my perspective to include non-naval histories.  In class, I believe we covered Cival War naval operations in a lecture or less (out of sixteen total).  A dicussion of the war in general,  the blockade, and some single ship engagements, and that was about it.  Later, I was introduced to Shelby Foote's majestic "The Civil War" and realized how much was left out.  I tried to rectify this over the years, but my interest in modern naval history was still my prime interest..  An abbreviated list of readings over the past few years is shown below.