178 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



Senator Murphy. No questions. Thank you very much. 



Senator Pell. Thank you very much. 



Dr. Galler. Thank you. 



Senator Pell. Our final witness today is Rear Admiral Waters, the 

 oceanographer of the Navy, and I would like to thank Admiral 

 Waters particularly for beino; kind enough to come up here today 

 on short notice as opposed to tomorrow. 



Admiral Waters, I hope you will proceed as you will, and let us 

 know your views on this bill and its application to the Navy and your 

 own thinking. 



Please proceed. 



STATEMENT OF REAR ADM. ODALE D. WATERS, JR., OCEANOG- 

 RAPHER OE THE NAVY, U.S. NAVAL OOEANOGRAPHIC OFFICE, 

 WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Admiral Waters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Because of my 

 change in schedule, it may be that copies of my statement have not 

 arrived yet. 



I have accepted your kind invitation, sir, to appear this morning 

 with a great deal of personal pleasure. 



Because of my present assignment in the billet of the Oceanographer 

 of the Navy, I have a continuing interest in the subject matter in- 

 volved in these hearings. At present I have held this position for a 

 period of only 8 months. Last fall the term "oceanography,'' I must 

 admit, was somewhat poorly defined in my own mind, although I had 

 been associated with the sea for many years. The overall field ap- 

 peared to hold interest for both young and old, military and civilian 

 alike. Man}^ highly trained and qualified j^ersonnel were drawn into 

 governmental ranks under the terminology of "oceanographer." In 

 the intervening months I have come to realize that by far the greatest 

 numbers of persons working in this field, both within my own office 

 as well as other Government agencies, are not oceanographers in 

 terms of academic background but in terms of on-the-job training in 

 the Office as well as at sea. Recruiting problems are great and the 

 Oceanographic Office has no greater drawing power than any other 

 agency involved with the hiring of qualified personnel in this field. 

 At last count we are still averaging from 50 to 70 persons short of our 

 requirements in this category. 



Young people apply for work and then must be trained after accept- 

 ance. The end result is a relatively long period of training before 

 we can allow these people to go to sea on surveys. Everyone asso- 

 ciated with oceanography today feels the impact of the acute person- 

 nel shortages involved. This same holds true for many other fields, 

 but I doubt they can also claim the general lack of university-type 

 training which exists for the young man or woman about to enter this 

 limb of scientific endeavor. These shortages are felt throughout the 

 entire oceanographic world but at present appear to be most acute in 

 the disciplines of physical and chemical oceanography. The govern- 

 mental, industrial, and academic communities are all clamoring for 

 additional personnel to fill the gap. 



The oceanographer of the Navy is the curriculum adviser for all 

 naval officer personnel enrolled in academic oceanographic study 



