Command at Sea is the ultimate goal of all Surface Warfare Officers. There are many ways to achieve Command. I chose one of the more unusual methods.

The Executive Officer, the number two man on the ship, had done his time in Destroyers as a Division Officer, a Department Officer and now as XO. He was getting to be a senior Lieutenant Commander and should be getting his own ship as his next job at sea. This would be the logical progression, his experiences serving on ships have lead him to this point. To insure his success he would take the Command at Sea Qualification Examination.

This exam is only taken with the approval of the Commanding Officer the ship and the Commanding Officer of the Squadron (a group of ships with a similar mission) to which the ship belongs. The exam consists of three days of written testing administered by the Ship’s Captain and a practical demonstration of ship handling skills to be supervised by the Squadron Commander.

Since I was number three on the ship and had become good friends with the XO he invited me to study with him to prepare for the test. By bouncing ideas off each other he figured he would be more likely to remember things he would otherwise have forgotten. As a reward for my help he would ask the Captain to consider my taking the exam. Based upon the Captains approval, and subject to passing the written portion of the test the Squadron Commander agreed to conduct the Ship Handling portion.

The XO and I spent every spare moment of the next couple of weeks trying to review all we had learned about shipboard operations over our combined careers. We covered propulsion, repair and damage control from engineering. We covered deck/ structural maintenance, armament and fire control, SONAR and anti-submarine warfare from weapons. We covered the supply department from spare parts to toilet paper storage. We covered the operations department from radar to radio.

Then we got into paperwork that eventually covered every department again (double meaning intended).

We covered everything from daily reports including the ships log to bearing temperatures and weather conditions to fuel and water reports. We covered the periodic reports from ammunition requests to machinery failure. We even did our best to review even the rarer reports such as inspection reports and requests for modification to the ship or her equipment.

We then attacked the operational aspects from steaming independently to screening a task force from submarine, surface and air threats. We reviewed procedures for gunfire missions on land, air and sea targets, for tracking and attacking a submarine using various weapons available to us.

Then it was on to personnel, manning levels, watch – quarter – station bill assignments, training and moral procedures, security, and medical options available to us. We then review the Universal Code of Military Justice to remind ourselves of the responsibilities and authority of a ship’s captain.

Exhausted, we felt confident that we had thoroughly covered the administrative duties and responsibilities of the Captain. All we could do now is take the test and wait for the results. We told our Captain that we were ready and he told the Commodore (Squadron Commander), who had custody of the testing materials.

The written portion of the test allowed us up to three days to complete it. The initial unit was a mixture of multiple choice and short answer questions. It pretty well covered all of the material that we had prepared for. I felt that we had done a good job in our preparation. Of course the XO and I were on our own for the test so I didn’t know how it was going for him. I took time out only for food and personal needs and finished the first unit on the first of the allowed days.

On day two I received the second and final unit of the exam. For this portion of the test I was the Captain of a Destroyer in a unit of four ships which had been assigned to leave our home port of Norfolk and sail to Rota Spain to begin a Mediterranean Deployment. I was to prepare the ship for deployment, make all the required reports, and plan the transit.

We were given the schedule of Soviet Spy Satellites and the disposition of major Soviet units that we might come across during the course of our transit. I was supposed to make transit plans that would minimize our exposure to such resources.

This was a real challenge, which was a very good test of our overall understanding of major shipboard activities. The Captain’s job is not to do any of these things, but he must understand every aspect and insure that it is done on time. This part of the test took me a whole day and a half. It was tiring, but at the same time exciting to try to figure out all of the things that must be covered.

I had to insure that the ship was properly armed and supplied, make the reports to higher authority that showed them that the ship was ready, get permission to leave the port, rendezvous with the other ships, minimize the possibility of detection by the Soviets, schedule a refueling stop in the Azores, and arrange for berthing in Rota.

When we were both done, we wished each other luck, and remarked on how good it was that we had prepared thoroughly. Other than a few, did you remember this, type questions there really wasn’t much to discuss. It was done and all we could do was wait for the results.

When, after a couple of weeks, the Captain called us to his cabin individually, things couldn’t have been worse. I had passed and the XO had not. Yes, it was good for me in that I had passed a very high hurdle, very early in my career, but my boss, who had talked me into taking the test had not. In addition to the complications of working together there was the practical portion of the exam yet to come.

Arrangements were made for the Commodore to embark for a weeklong trip to Taiwan, which would give him a good chance to observe my ship handling with very little change to the ship’s schedule. In fact, the only variations would be an extra anchoring and a mooring to a buoy. The anchoring would be done before going to our assigned berth in Taiwan and the mooring to a buoy would be done upon our return to our homeport in Japan. I would be evaluated on departing Yokosuka that involved unmooring and backing out of a berth and around a larger ship, then departing Tokyo Wan (Tokyo Bay). Tokyo Wan is one of the more heavily trafficked waterways in the world. Departing Yokosuka was relatively easy compared to re entering. I would be evaluated on that when we returned. The complication added to the return is crossing traffic which is leaving Tokyo to get to Yokoauka.

The XO would take a week of leave instead of making the trip. It was a little uncomfortable even so, the crew in general would only know that the Commodore was on board for the trip to Taiwan. All the officers knew what was going on. The bridge sea detail personnel, and the deck crew would find it odd that I was doing all of the ship handling during each operation. While I did a lot of the more tricky operations, it was not normal for me to do every operation on a trip. Most of the crew would be perplexed by the extra maneuver in each port but would most likely chalk it up as those mean officers just trying to cut into their liberty time. Normally, we would refuel in Taiwan, but this time we would refuel at sea. That would not normally raise an eyebrow unless someone noticed that I was conning the ship, by this time it was unusual for me to be doing a routine refueling.

Everything went well and When we finally got home the Commodore called me over and said I had done a nice job and that I could expect a letter from the Commander Naval Surface Force, U. S. Pacific Fleet before too long

I had proved that I had the knowledge and skills to handle the job of commanding a Destroyer as a Lieutenant. Senior Lieutenant Commanders or junior Commanders command the normally non-missile Destroyers. As a Lieutenant I could command patrol boats or any number of other small boats, but it would be years before I could be entrusted with a ship and crew of that size. My next promotion would be to Lieutenant Commander and that would be coming soon. That, however, would not be enough.

A letter that rather nicely describes what it means to be called CAPTAIN accompanied the letter of qualification. It hangs in the same frame as the qualification letter on the wall behind me. It is so well done I will quote it here.

Command At Sea

"Only a seaman realizes to what great extent an entire ship

reflects the personality and ability of one individual, her

Commanding Officer. To a landsman this is not understandable

and sometimes it is even difficult for us to comprehend, but it is

so!

A ship at sea is a different world in herself and in consideration

of the protracted and distant operations of the fleet units the Navy

must place great power, responsibility, and trust in the hands of

those leaders chosen for command.

In each ship there is one man who, in the hour of emergency or

peril at sea can turn to no other man. There is one who alone

is ultimately responsible for the safe navigation, engineering

performance, accurate gunfire and morale of his ship. He is the

Commanding Officer. He is the ship!

This is the most difficult and demanding assignment in the Navy.

There is not an instant during his tour as Commanding Officer

that he can escape the grasp of command responsibility. His

privileges in view of his obligations are almost ludicrously small;

nevertheless this is the spur which has given the Navy its

great leaders.

It is a duty which most richly deserves the highest, time-honored

title of the seafaring words ……CAPTAIN"

Alas it was not to be. I was supposed to spend at least another year in Japan, but the situation with my Executive Officer would become difficult for him. It was decided that my time would be better used in a time bank until I was marginally old enough to take command of a new ship. My undiagnosed Multiple Sclerosis was beginning to cause me minor problems so I was sent back to the U.S. to be the Assistant Professor of Naval Science at the Virginia Military Institute.