U.S. Navy Recruitment Poster,
Lithograph, 96×63 cm. 1910-1920.
Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division, Washington DC.
Although much of my focus has been on those who served in the United States Army during WWI, there were other branches of the armed services equally involved, including the marine corps and the navy. The Sextant, a web site maintained by the Naval History and Heritage Command states that starting in 1916, “the United States began a gigantic six-year program of naval expansion … from 1916 to 1922, the Navy added 10 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 287 destroyers and 88 submarines to the fleet…”
Once WWI was declared in the U.S., it became a necessity to set up camps to train those would would soon staff these ships for the United States Navy, and the Portsmouth Navy Yard Camp was among these. In addition, several of the above mentioned ships and submarines were built at the Portsmouth Navy yard. That topic will involve a great deal of research, and so for now I will just list the primary U.S. Naval Schools and their locations, as found in the Nashua Telegraph newspaper of Wednesday September 18, 1918 page 5. Continue reading
