[Illustration: _From a photograph copyright by International Film
Service_. CAPTAIN'S INSPECTION AT NAVAL TRAINING STATION, NEWPORT, R.I.]
Under these conditions the work of the Navy Commission was particularly
timely and important, and that of Mr. Camp was of conspicuous value
through the physical training and mental stimulus which it provided for
patriotic, yet half homesick young Americans, from whom not only
material comfort and luxury, but entertainment of all kinds, including
recreational sport, had been taken.
Mr. Camp defined the scope of the Athletic Department of the Commission
as follows, in taking up his duties:
"Our problem is to provide athletics for the men in order to duplicate
as nearly as possible the home environment, produce physical fitness
with high vitality, and in this we feel that we shall have the most
generous and whole-souled co-operation from the Y.M.C.A., the Knights of
Columbus, the War Camp Community Service, and all the agencies that are
established in and about the camps."
Launching the movement to "duplicate home conditions" in recreational
sport, Mr. Camp appointed athletic directors in the largest districts
during the fall, and in every one the programme of seasonal sport was
carried out, comparable in extent and quality with that which every
enlisted man in the stations would have enjoyed as participant or
spectator in his native city or town, school or college, had he not
entered military service.
The athletic directors who were chosen were, in every case, experienced
organizers of all-round sports, and several of them were former college
coaches or star athletes.
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