United States. Navy -- History -- World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations, American
We are hunting hornets all over the farm and letting the nest
alone. None of us knows how to go to the nest and crush it, and
yet I despair of hunting for hornets all over the sea when I know
where the nest is and know that the nest is breeding hornets as
fast as I can find them. I am willing for my part, and I know you
are willing, because I know the stuff you are made of--I am willing
to sacrifice half the navy, Great Britain and we together have to
crush that nest, because if we crush it, the war is won. I have
come here to say that I do not care where it comes from, I do not
care whether it comes from the youngest officer or the oldest, but
I want the officers of this Navy to have the distinction of saying
how this war is going to be won.
The Secretary of the Navy and I have just been talking over plans
for putting the planning machinery of the Navy at the disposal
of the brains of the Navy and not stopping to ask what rank that
brains has, because, as I have said before and want to repeat, so
far as experience in this kind of war is concerned we are all of
the same rank. I am not saying that I do not expect the admirals
to tell us what to do, but I am saying that I want the youngest and
most modest youngster in the service to tell us what we ought to do
if he knows what it is. Now I am willing to make any sacrifice for
that. I mean any sacrifice of time or anything else. I am ready to
put myself at the disposal of any officer in the Navy who thinks he
knows how to run this war. I will not undertake to tell you whether
he does or not, because I know I cannot, but I will undertake to
put him in communication with those who can find out whether his
idea will work or not. I have the authority to do that and I will
do it with the greatest pleasure. The idea that is in my mind all
the time is that we are comrades in this thing."
"I wish that I could think and had the brains to think in the terms of
marine warfare," he remarked, "because I would feel then that I was
figuring out the future history of the political freedom of mankind."
"We have got to throw tradition to the winds," he exclaimed, and went
on to say:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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