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>Of commodores, the rank re-created by Congress in April 1943, the Navy has 23, including one EDO, six aviators. Commodores, who wear one star like the Army's brigadier generals, command small task forces; one is serving on Lord Louis Mountbatten's staff; one is commandant of the Naval Operations Base in Londonderry, Northern Ireland; one is chief of the Moroccan Sea Frontier. Youngest of the commodores—and youngest flag officer in the Navy—is Thomas Selby Combs, 45, commander of Navy Aircraft in the Southwest Pacific.*Advancement. Rules of seniority have controlled advancement in the Navy, but before the war a board of selection winnowed out those men the Navy deemed best qualified for promotion. Under pressure of war, the Navy had to give up its winnowing, promote men on their records and wartime performance. Without much regard for seniority, captains have been boosted rapidly to temporary flag rank as new flag officers were needed.
King stipulated, however, that no officer could be promoted to flag rank unless he had commanded a major fleet unit (battleship, carrier, heavy cruiser). Oddest working of this variable rule: Charles E. Rosendahl had to command a cruiser (and won the Navy Cross in battle) before he was deemed fit to be a rear admiral and commander of all the Navy's airships.
Annapolis Trained. All of the flag officers who rule the waves—with one thin exception—are Annapolis trained, † That exception is Rear Admiral Albert B. Ran dall, ex-skipper of the Leviathan. No com bat commander, he is a member of the Merchant Marine Reserve and comman dant of the U.S. Maritime Service in the War Shipping Administration.
Only among the 36 rear admirals in the staff corps are there other non-Annapolis men. Outstanding among these is Ben Moreell, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, who came to the Navy from a municipal job during the last war and jumped the grade of captain when he was made Bureau Chief. To Ben Moreell belongs much credit for the gigantic job of building the Navy's worldwide bases. Other typical non-Annapolis staff corps admirals: Ross T. Mclntire, Chief of the Bu reau of Medicine and Surgery; William B.
Young, Chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts.
Rigid Rule. In the lower ranks of line officers (ensigns through commanders) there are plenty of civilians. A ratio of three or four reservists to one regular is the usual thing in the wardrooms of the Navy's fast-growing fleet. Reservists with special talents — engineers, lawyers, construction men, even recreation men — have also won good shore-based jobs.
But the commands of all-important ships (destroyers, all cruisers, carriers and battleships) the Navy has reserved for its regulars. The Navy still holds hard to its old school tie. By word and deed it follows a rigid rule: regulars are not only the best naval officers; they are the only ones yet eligible for the important seagoing com mands.
*The Army's youngest general officer: 34.
† West Pointers among Army line generals: 45%.