At the same time, some thought must be given to the possibilities 

 of interdisciplinary offerings, further combining meteorology and 

 oceanography, or acoustics and oceanography, for example,, 



Now one last point. It •was pointed out earlier in this paper that 

 the Navy will benefit by identifying billets in ships and aircraft 

 squadrons for the subspecialist in oceanography. Let's look at the 

 history of this problem. 



In October 1966 the Oceanographer of the Navy submitted a list 

 of billets to the Commanders-in-Chief, U. S. Atlantic and Pacific 

 Fleets, which appeared to be appropriate for P-coding and asked for 

 concurrence or nonconcurrence. The response of both Commanders- 

 in-Chief in January 1967, based on comments from Type, Fleet and 

 other Commanders, said in effect that Fleet requirements can be 

 fulfilled in most cases by P-coding key billets within staffs and wider 

 use of oceanographic S-coding. S-coded billets are those filled by 

 officers who have gained their expertise through experience rather 

 than through formal graduate education. The Commander-in-Chief, 

 U. S, Atlantic Fleet^said that the requirement for understanding of 

 the naval warfare environment does not constitute valid justification 

 for P-code billets in oceanography or hydrography because oceano- 

 graphic operational services are provided to ships, staffs and aircraft 

 squadrons by meteorological units. 



Although I recognize the practical problems involved at that time, 

 I do not agree at all with this reasoning. Expertise in staffs, and 

 superb environmental support from meteorological units, will be 

 useful only to the extent that some one in the ship, submarine or 

 ASW aircraft squadron is interested and well enough educated to apply 

 these services intelligently in operating the ASW weapon systems. 

 Use of S-coded officers also is no solution. A recent analysis by the 

 Career Planning Board of the Bureau of Naval Personnel has shown 

 that there are practically no billets to which an officer can be sent to 

 gain the experience needed for obtaining an S-code, As a result, no 

 reliance can be placed on this source of talent in the future. 



There -was some sympathy for the Oceanographer 's proposal 

 among a few commands, but some practical problems killed it. No 

 destroyer, submarine or aircraft force commander was willing to 

 say that graduate education in oceanography /hydrography was essential 

 for duty in the proposed billets in ships and ASW aircraft. To do so 

 would exclude many fine officers from these billets, who had not had 

 graduate education, and would set up very restrictive detailing prac- 

 tices. There were those, such as Commander Cruiser-Destroyer 

 Force, Atlantic Fleet, w^ho agreed that oceanography might be 

 included as a very desirable qualification to be considered in assigning 

 officers to these billets. 



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