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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, United States Naval Forces Operating in European Waters, to Capt. William V. Pratt, Acting Chief of Naval Operations

DISPATCH TO BE SENT

Date November 15, 1918

To   Opnav.

Prepared by    CS                      No. Simben 42

SIMBEN 42. For Acting Chief of Naval Operations.

Referring to my 9622 of June 15, 1918, my Simben 16, and other cables and correspondence covering a period of five months.1

     I feel that there is due me and the officers concerned2 some authoritative explanation of the action of the Bureau of Navigation in the matter of my often repeated recommendation that these officers be promoted.

     It is well known that frequently, since my first recommendation was received, other promotions have occurred, in cases precisely parallel to those of the Class Four Reserve Officers recommended by me, and I feel that this apparent discrimination, coupled with the long delay, has warranted the officers concerned in believing that their cases have not received due consideration. I am convinced that the inevitable result of permitting these officers to return to civil life without the recognition accorded to others that are no more deserving, and that have no longer, and, in some cases less, service to their credit, will be anything but promotive of the Navy’s best interests in future.

SIMS.                       

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 1: The specific correspondence that Sims identifies herein have not been further located. For an example of this type of correspondence, however, see: Sims to William S. Benson, 28 July 1918.

Footnote 2: These officers included, but was not limited to, Pratt, RAdm. Albert P. Niblack, Commander, Patrol Squadron Based at Gibraltar, Capt. Joel R. Poinsett Pringle, Chief of Staff, Destroyer Flotillas, Capt. Richard H. Jackson, United States Naval Representative in Paris, and Capt. Nathan C. Twining, Sims’ Chief of Staff. For an example of the frustration and disappointment Sims felt at these slights, see: Sims to Pratt, 30 August 1918.

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