Maybe, Later?

COMMAND

The proposal to merge the Army & Navy under one Cabinet officer looked for a while like a live question last week, even in the face of a united Navy front against such heresy. Brass hats paraded before a Congressional committee to testify.

The Army favored the idea. The Army even had a neat chart showing how it could be done: a Secretary for the Armed Forces, Under Secretaries for Army, Navy and Air, a Director of Common Supplies. The Army did not expect to make these drastic changes until after the war, but it did want to start the ball rolling.

Navy witnesses, to a man, stood to their battle stations: the middle of the war was no time to make such a change. In fact, they said, harmony in the top commands was so smooth that the Navy did not want to risk rocking the boat even by talking about it. As for postwar unification, the Navy's answer was a discreet "Well, maybe. . . ."

The Navy, as no other department, runs itself. (Admirals have their own ways of keelhauling Navy Secretaries who cross their bows.) The Navy looked with doubt and suspicion at the Army's neat chart. Despite reassurances, the Navy also feared that a separate air force might mean the end of the Navy's air arm.

From an almost forgotten quarter came a loud, firm "no." It was the voice of the Marines, who fear that unification would end the identity of their proud Corps. Said Lieut. General A. A. Vandegrift, Commandant: "We can envision no gain ... in any reorganization which would discard a tradition and an esprit. . . which have become inspiring parts of the heritage of our people."

At week's end the Congressional committee solemnly prepared to retire and think. By this week it was certain that the merger plan would be put on ice. The subject was officially closed until after the war.

*Marine euphemism for the Marine-tabooed "morale."

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