When he had business, for example, with the Director, U. S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, the DCNO’s aide-de-camp would call the Director BUAIRs aide-de-camp and tell him the DCNO wished to see the Director, BUAIR, and that if it was convenient, he would like to do so from, say, 1420 hours to 1445 hours on that day, or maybe the next. The DCNO’s aide-de-camp was very rarely told that the ssuggested” time and date would be inconvenient.
The chain of command was considered very important to the smooth administration of the Navy Department in Washington. If the DCNO had business with a subordinate of the Directog BUAIR (which rarely happened), the word would be passed through the Officer of the Director to the subordinate in question.
Lieutenant Commander Edwin Ward Bitter, USN, was aide-de-camp to Vice Admiral Enoch Hawley, USN, who was Chief, Aviation Assets Allocation Division, of the Bureau of Aeronautics. He was very surprised that the aide de-camp of the DCNO would telephone his office at all, and even more surprised at the conversation that followed, The DCNO wished to see the Chief AAAD as soon as it would be convenient.
When would that be?
“I’m sure the admiral can be in your office in thirty minutes, Commander,” It. Commander Bitter said. “Can you tell me anything that will help the admiral prepare? X In other words, what does the DCNO want to know?
“The admiral will come to your office, Commander, the aide-de-camp to the DCNO said. He then apparently consulted his watch. “It is 1455.
The admiral will expect to be received by Admiral Hawley at 1525.
Thank you very much, Commander. will The phone went dead.
Bitter cocked his head in curiosity, then stood up from his desk and walked to Admiral Hawley’s open office door. The office was neither large nor elegantly furnished. The desk was wood, but it was scarred, and utilitarian rather than ornamental. An American flag and a blue flag with the three silver stars of a Vice Admiral hung limply from poles against the wall. On the desk were In and Out boxes and three telephones, and an old Underwood typewriter was on a fold-out shelf.
Bitter knocked at the door.
Admiral Hawley, a silver-haired man in his late forties, glanced up and made a come in” gesture with his hand. Then, as Bitter walked into the room, he returned his attention to the stack of papers on his desk, reaching several times from them to punch buttons on his Monroe Comptometer, then waiting with impatience as the automatic calculator clicked and spun through its computation process.
Finally, he looked up at It. Commander Bitter.
“Admiral, DCNO will be here at 1525. His aide just telephoned. sx “Here? Admiral Hawley asked, demanding confirmation.
“Yes, sir,” Bitter said. “I told him that I was sure you could be in his office in thirty minutes, and he said DCNO would come here.” Admiral Hawley made a strange noise, half grunt, half snort.
“Is the Chief still here?” he asked.
“No, sir. I gave him liberty,” Bitter said.
“Then I suppose you had better make a fresh pot of coffee,” the admiral said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is there anything stronger around?”
“There is the emergency supply, Admiral,” Bitter said.
“This may qualify–I am presuming, Ed, if you knew what he wants, you would have told me–as an emergency.”
“I asked,” Bitter said. “He avoided the question.” Admiral Hawley nodded.
“Make sure it’s available, and ice and glasses and soda, but don’t bring it out until I tell you to. The only reason I can imagine why he’s coming here is that he’s so ticked off at me that he doesn’t want to wait until I could get over there.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing like that, Admiral,” Bitter said.
“Then you enlighten me, Ed,” Admiral Hawley said.
Bitter thought about it and finally shrugged. He then went to prepare the coffee and to make sure the Chief had not made a midnight requisition upon the bottle of Scotch and the bottle of bourbon, the emergency rations, in the filing cabinet behind his desk.
Admiral Hawley stood up, pulled a thick woolen V-necked sweater off over his head, stuffed it in a cabinet drawer, and then put on his uniform blouse. After that, he made an attempt to make his desk look more shipshape than it did.