World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations -- Submarine; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
I was fortunate in all of my departmental chiefs. The Chief of Staff,
Captain N. C. Twining, would certainly have been a marked man in any
navy; he had a genius for detail, a tireless energy, and a mastery of
all the problems that constantly arose. I used to wonder when Captain
Twining ever found an opportunity to sleep; he seemed to be working
every hour of the day and night; yet, so far as was observable, he never
wearied of his task, and never slackened in his devotion to the Allied
cause. As soon as a matter came up that called for definite decision,
Captain Twining would assemble from the several departments all data and
information which were available concerning the question at issue, spend
a few hours studying this information, and then give his judgment--an
opinion which was invariably sound and which was adopted in the vast
majority of cases; in fact, in all cases except those in which questions
of policy or extraneous considerations dictated a different or modified
decision. Captain Twining is a man of really fine intellect combined
with a remarkable capacity for getting things done; without his constant
presence at my elbow, my work would have been much heavier and much less
successful than it was. He is an officer of such exceptional ability,
such matured experience, and such forceful character as to assure him a
brilliant career in whatever duty he may be called upon to perform. I
can never be sufficiently grateful to him for his loyalty and devotion
and for his indispensable contribution to the efficiency of the forces I
had the honour to command.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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