OCEANOGRAPHIC EDUCATION OF THE NAVAL OFFICER 



Rear Admiral Robert W. McNitt, U. S. Navy 

 Superintendent, Naval Postgraduate School 



ABSTRACT 



The undergraduate education of candidates for a commission 

 in the line of the Regular Navy does not provide for instruction 

 in oceanography either in the required curriculum of the NROTC, 

 or in the core curriculum at the Naval Academy, although majors 

 in oceanography and ocean engineering are available. This is 

 acceptable if the functional service schools treat environmental 

 support adequately, and if we have a subspecialist in oceanography 

 aboard certain fleet units such as each destroyer type ship, sub- 

 marine, and ASW aircraft squadron, and the staffs which support 

 them. A suggestion is offered that the Oceanographer of the Navy's 

 proposal of October 1966 concerning P-coding of fleet billets be 

 reconsidered by the Commanders-in-Chief, U„ S„ Atlantic and 

 Pacific Fleets, in light of the revision of OPNAV Instruction 1211. 6B 

 which now^ permits P-coding billets for which it is highly desirable to 

 have incumbents with graduate education. 



Graduate education in oceanography in the Navy today treats 

 specialists and subspecialists alike, both at the Naval Postgraduate 

 School and in the civilian universities. Some ideas to revise the 

 curriculum to accommodate the different requirements of these two 

 categories of officers are discussed. 



