First Naval Indoctrination School Graduates 500 Men

Sanders Theatre, site of many Harvard Commencements, witnessed a new kind of ceremony Friday afternoon as 600 members of the first Naval Indoctrination course to be completed here took leave of Harvard and started on their way to further training and to active duty.

The officers heard Rear Admiral Wilson Brown, Jr., Commandant of the First Naval District and leader of last spring's attack on the Gilbert Island, call for quick, decisive action throughout their future service. Red tape, hide-bound tradition, he said, must be sacrificed to efficiency when a crisis brings a clash between the two.

The ceremony, which was broadcast locally over Station WBDH, began with an interview with Cmdr. C. A. Macgowan, Commanding Officer, in which he spoke of the purpose and work of the School. Tdhen the band from the Naval Receiving Station pounded into "Anchors Aweigh," and the graduates marched in.

Dressed in gleaming whites and wearing full insignia of rank, the 500 men were an impressive sight as they filed the banked rows of wooden benches. Then Rear Admiral Brown, a new kind of commencement speaker, spoke to this new kind of graduating class.

Remarking first on the immense expansion of the United States Navy in the past few months, Admiral Wilson told of the amazement expressed once by a French officer at the Navy's ability to absorb 400 graduates of Annapolis each year. "Think what he would say now," the Admiral remarked, pointing out that here were 600 officers, only part of an enormous program, being rushed to duty.

Finished with preliminary indoctrination, the men will now received advanced training, Admiral Brown said.