Faith of My Fathers Read Online Free PDF Page B

commissions at all.
    In his third year at Annapolis, he failed his annual physical. In a report to the Academy Superintendent, the examining medical officer rejected him for further service “on account of defective hearing.” The superintendent responded by noting the “great need of officers at the present time, and the fact that this Midshipman has nearly completed his course at the Naval Academy at great expense to the Government,” and recommended to the Surgeon General that “this physical disability be waived until the physical examination, prior to graduation, next year.” The Surgeon General approved the waiver.
    Whether or not his hearing recovered by the time he graduated is unknown. I can find no record of his last physical examination at the Academy. I can only assume that if the hearing defect persisted the following year, the examining physician overlooked it. In his quarterly fitness report of June 30, 1906, all that is noted on the single line describing the midshipman’s health is “very good.”
    My grandfather’s undistinguished record at the Academy did not affect his subsequent career in the Navy. In those days, an Academy graduate was not immediately commissioned an ensign, but was required to serve for two years as a “passed midshipman.” Following graduation, he saw action on the Asiatic Station in the Philippines, serving first on the battleship
Ohio
and then on the cruiser
Baltimore.
    He caught the approving eye of his first commanding officer, Captain L. G. Logan, skipper of the
Ohio,
who filed laudatory quarterly fitness reports, remarking that “Midshipman McCain is a promising officer, and I commend him for favorable consideration of the Academic Board.” Six months later, a more skeptical CO, Commander J.M. Helms, skipper of the
Baltimore,
reserved judgment about the young officer, noting, “I have not been acquainted with this officer long enough to know much about him.”
    By his next fitness report, my grandfather had apparently run afoul of his new skipper, who had by that time become acquainted enough with him to fault him as “not up to the average standard of midshipmen” and to advise that he “not be ordered to any ship as a regular watch officer until qualified.”
    While giving him mostly good marks for handling the various duties of a junior officer, Commander Helms apparently found my grandfather’s discipline wanting. He noted that he had suspended him “from duty for three days for neglect of duty.” While standing as the officer of the watch, he had allowed officers who had attended a party in the navy yard to return to ship and continue to “get drunk.” The next quarter, Commander Helms again reported that my grandfather was “not up to the average standard of midshipmen.”
    Shortly thereafter, my grandfather was spared further reproaches from the disapproving Commander Helms. He was ordered to serve on the destroyer
Chauncey,
where he was highly regarded by his new commanding officer. Six months later, he reported for duty as executive officer to the great Chester Nimitz, then a young ensign, on a gunboat captured from the Spanish, the USS
Panay,
and had, by all accounts, the time of his life sailing around the southern islands of the Philippine archipelago.
    Their mission allowed them to sail virtually wherever they pleased, call on whatever ports they chose, showing the flag, in essence, to the Filipinos at a time when the United States feared a Japanese challenge for control of the Philippines. The
Panay
was less than a hundred feet long and had a crew of thirty, handpicked by Nimitz. They cruised an immense expanse of the archipelago, putting in for fresh water and supplies at various ports, arbitrating minor disputes among the locals, and generally enjoying the exotic adventure that had come their way so early in life. Both Nimitz and my grandfather remembered the