The impressions which these youngsters jotted down were amusing and often inaccurate, but they caught the spirit of the service and the day’s work. When one of them felt aggrieved because he was “bawled out,” he never stopped to take an inventory of his professional qualifications and the duties thrust upon him as well as upon other untrained and unseasoned lads. Nor did he always realize that he was allowed to perform functions whereby he had the safety of a hundred and twenty-five lives and a million dollars worth of irreplaceable property between his two hands. There was no time to learn by experience and every “bawling out” was, I hope, driving an important fact home. Where else could one of these boys have learned such valuable lessons and be on a pay-roll at the same time? Of course they could not understand such methods, but the system soon separated the sheep from the goats—the latter remaining at the business end of a deck swab. Many times the skipper was not as angry as he appeared. The first lesson was to say “Aye, Aye, Sir,” when told something important instead of trying to explain. When a young man explains, he is not listening to the order, but thinking up a reply. To the _Corsair’s_ company the most interesting happenings during the long period of convoy duty were the changes and promotions which shifted many of the family to other ships and stations and brought new faces aboard. Commander Kittinger had been advanced a grade on the Regular Navy list since joining the _Corsair_ and was in line for transfer to a larger ship. He was given the stately armed transport _Princess Matoika_, formerly the _Princess Alice_ of the North German Lloyd, and thereafter carried many thousand American troops in safety to France. In this ship the roster of officers was more imposing than in the yacht which served so faithfully, for Commander Kittinger now gave orders to two lieutenant commanders, eleven lieutenants, and twenty ensigns. Toward the _Corsair_ he felt affection and loyalty and was glad that his war record had included a year with her, crossing with the first American troops and battering about in the Bay of Biscay. Drilled in the exacting school of the regular service, he had only praise for the spirit, intelligence, and devotion of the Reserves, officers and men, who had fitted themselves to circumstances and played the game to the hilt. After the war Commander Kittinger was sent to the Fore River Ship Building Company as Naval Inspector of Ordnance. While there he received the following letter: _July_ 23, 1919 From: Director of Naval Intelligence, To: Chief of the Bureau of Navigation: Subject: Award of the Legion of Honor. The Bureau is informed that by a decree of the President of the French Republic the award of Member of the Legion of Honor with the rank of Chevalier has been made to Commander Theodore A. Kittinger, U.S.N., with the following citation: