The Navy League of the United States


Figure 1.--Here we see one of the Navy League's youth eucational programs. We are not sure if the boys are Sea Cadets, Junior ROTC, or some other youth program. They are getting a tour of the Navy's newest carrier, 'USS Entetrprise'in July 1962. Three months later 'Entetrprise' participated in the Navy's most dangerous undertaking of the Cold War, enforcing a naval quarantine on Soviet shipping approaching Cuba during the Cuban Missle Crisis.

The Navy League of the United States was founded as the Unites States was emerging on the world scene as a great industrial powerhouse and naval power (1902). President Theodore Roosevelt incourged the idea. The Navy League promoted the idea that the United States shold have a powerful navyfor national defense and to support its interests overseas. It spoke in favor of naval spending to Congresses reluctant to make military appropriations. The Navy League seems to have been more sucessful than groups promting the U.S. Army, but this was probably because the Navy in conjunction with two broad oceans was seen as a defensive force in the era before air power emerged as a major force and isolationist sentiment prevailed. The Navy League is the foremost citizens’ organization supporting the various sea services – the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S.-flag Merchant Marine, both these services and and their members. Not only does the Navy League operate as a lobby group, but it also conducts a range of educational programs which promote the idea that the United States is a maritime nation whose national economic and security interests require a committment to freedom of the seas. The three major missions of the Navy League is to: 1) promote the morale of active-duty personnel and their families; 2) inform Congress and the American public on the importance of strong sea services; and 3) support youth through programs such as the Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Junior ROTC and Young Marines that acquaint young people to the importance and values of our sea services. Here we see a youth group getting a tour of a new U.S. Navy carrier (figure 1).







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Created: 11:40 AM 11/26/2016
Last updated: 11:40 AM 11/26/2016