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Show Navy Promises Bright Future "Opportunity isn't knocking it's breaking the door down!" is the way Chief Boatswain's Mate U. 11. Smith, Recruiter in charge of Ihe Provo Navy Recruiting Station put It. It seemed to your .lUHiumg reporter that Chief Smith was a little incredulous himself of what he had been reading in a sheaf of papers he had on his desk. "I've never seen unj thing like it in my 17 years' sirviee. Why, this old Navy of ours is going to be big over lOO.OiiO men four times what we had six months ago. Listen to this list of ships we're going to have: -)5 battleships we have 15 now and 10 building; till cruisers, we have 37 at present; 20 aircraft earr.ers, we now have ti; ItiO submarines, sub-marines, we have 102 of these; i and 3.';1 destroyers, compared with li!7 we have at the present tune, which of course doesn't include in-clude the 50 we just transferred to Britain. We're acquiring doens of ships from the merchant marine to be converted into transports, trans-ports, tinders, and mini-sweeps. Ami as for the 'shoreline' Navy-were Navy-were going to open new ship-ards ship-ards m Philadelphia and Chester Pa., Los Angeles and Oakland, California, Beaumont, Texas, Birmingham, Ala., Tampa, Fla., and Wilmington, Del. Yes we're going to have quite a Navy bigger big-ger m a few years than the N'avu s of any two countries in the world." What about 'opportunity knocking', knock-ing', your reporter wanted to know. "Well just this," responded Chief Smith, a smile lightening his good humored face. "It took me lii years to get where I am in the Navy today. I figure it will take a youngster coming in the lLy now Just about half that length of time. You see, advance-:n. advance-:n. e.t will be faster agreat deal faster the v. ay the Navy's expanding. ex-panding. There'll be no slumps in the promotional system no waiting wait-ing for long periods of time fur certain ratings to 'open up', as 1 had to do a few years ago. Now--iays. a man should make Chief Petty Officer in about 8 years. And that, my frien I," concluded Chief Smith, the old sea dug 'he's iue for retirement t i the Fleet Naval Reserve soon at the ripe old age of 3:i.) "is ;;e;::rg ahead .n this man's Navy'" |