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A Navy Second to None: The History of U.S. Naval Training in World War I (Contributions in Military Studies)

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Besch's book on the pre- World War I Navy is first and foremost a study on military preparedness. It is also a story of the various people and characters of the time period. For example Josephus Daniels, Secretary of Navy, was viewed by some as an incompetent anti-war pacifist. By others he was looked at as the great builder, educator, and democratizer who created the modern Navy, as we know today. The book also uses the various memoirs, diaries, letters to emphasize the vital roles played in Naval preparedness by lesser figures such as captains, minor admirals and district commandants. The text also analyzes the Naval Preparedness Act of 1916 and its shortsightedness. The Act increased the number of ships from 340 to 497. This was a 46 percent increase but nothing was done to address either the recruitive or training of men to staff these ships. Besch also examines the basic nature of the planning and execution of the training and educational activities that the Navy had undertook in 1917-1918. In 1912 there were 3094 officers and 47,515 enlisted men. At war's end there were 32,474 officers and 49,730 enlisted men that had been trained. Last the book effectively examines the "Old War" traits of training, or the well to do commissions and the wealthy making major donations or donating their yachts for Naval use. For example, William Wrigley, the chewing gum magnet, donated airplanes and equipment to form the first aviation school at Great Lakes, IL. He also funded the entire operation for a two-year period. In addition, the new weapon systems of submarine warfare and aircraft brought a whole new dimension of training to serve the new weaponry.

Pre-war methods or approaches to learning centered around an apprentice master approach to education. Training was carried on at a leisurely pace with small classes learning from an experienced senior officer. The need to build a highly trained technical force created a need for new approaches to education on training. Eventually, a professionally designed curriculum applied to distribute education system delivered an accelerated format to adult students.

Michael Besch draws on a variety of sources to paint a coherent picture of pre-war World War I Naval preparedness. He uses a great deal of primary source material, which gives great validity to his work. The book should be very useful to serious students of World War I. It is a scholarly work on both adult education and Naval training.

Joe Skvarenina has published five histories on a variety of topics. He teaches creative writing to adult learners and writes a monthly local history column in an Indiana newspaper.