As the militia seemed to offer
the only means of producing a trained reserve, steps were at once taken
to put it on a sound basis, and on February 16, 1914, a real Naval
Militia under Federal control was created, provision being made for its
organization and training in peace, as well as its utilization in war.
As with all organized militia, the Naval Militia, even with the law of
1914, could not, under the Constitution, be called into service as such
except for limited duties, such as to repel invasion. It could not be
used outside the territorial limits of the United States. It is evident,
then, that with such restrictions militia could hardly meet the
requirements of the navy in a foreign war, and to overcome this
difficulty the "National Naval Volunteers" were created in August, 1916.
Under this act members of Naval Militia organizations were authorized to
volunteer for "any emergency," of which emergency the President was to
be the judge. Other laws included the same measure, provided for a
reserve force, for the automatic increase of officer personnel in each
corps to correspond with increases in enlisted men, and for the Naval
Flying Corps, special engineering officers, and the Naval Dental and
Dental Reserve Corps. It also provided for taking over the lighthouse
and other departmental divisions by the navy in time of war. Briefly,
then, on July 1, 1917, three months after the declaration of war, the
number of officers had increased to 8,038--4,694 regulars, 3,344
reserves--and the number of enlisted men to 171,133--128,666 regulars,
32,379 reserves, 10,088 National Naval Volunteers.
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