Army & Navy - NAVY: Production Boss

Few bureaucrats can tie such a Gordian knot of red tape as the gold-braided bigwigs of the U.S. Navy. Last week a rawboned, scrannel-necked Texan was busy cutting through those knots with a vengeance. As new production boss of the Navy, Vice Admiral Samuel Murray Robinson had the tremendous job of getting material for the U.S. Fleet's gigantic warship and airplane program. He had no time for bureaucratic nonsense.

Sam Robinson's job was strictly a post-Pearl Harbor development. For 80-odd years the Navy's tiers of bureaus—Bureau of Ordnance, Bureau of Supplies and...

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