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In a few years it will undoubtedly be more difficult to secure an appointment as an apprentice seaman in the Navy. Recently the complement allowed by law was filled, and enlistments were practically suspended, until Congress authorized an increase in the enlisted force. The Navy's requirements will again be filled with honest, conscientious, capable men, who will make service in the Navy their life's business, and will constantly re-enlist, which will reduce vacancies in the training stations to a minimum. The public does not even realize the opportunity which the United States Navy offers to the ambitious young man. Many uncomplimentary reports have been published concerning life in the Navy, and the Bureau of Navigation, in nearly all instances where it has been able to run down these reports and ascertain their source and the cause of their publication, has found that the reports were circulated by men who have been discharged for bad conduct, or who have been punished by the Department on account of bad behavior and have left the Navy for the Navy's good. |
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Manning |
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Regarding financial benefits, we will suppose, for example, that a man enlisting at the age of 18, reaches the rank of petty officer by the end of his first enlistment (4 years) and chief petty officer at the end of his second enlistment (4 years more). Any man can do this if he is willing to work. If he saves half his pay during 30 years, from the age of 18 to the age of 48 and he invests it in the Navy Savings bank at 4 per cent interest, and re-enlists immediately on the expiration of each enlistment those 30 years, at the end of that time he will have in cash $27,486, and may retire on three-fourths of his pay, which will be about $105 a month, or $1,260 a year. Thus he will have $27,486 in cash, which he can invest at 4 1/2 per cent., which will bring him in over $1,236 a year. Add this to his retirement pay and you will readily see that he would have $2,496 per year income from the early age of 48 for the balance of his life. |
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