Sailor in the Whitehouse by Robert F. Cross

Author:Robert F. Cross [Cross, Robert F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612515007
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

CHAPTER 11

Storm Signals from across the Seas

“There comes a time in the affairs of men when they must prepare to defend, not their homes alone, but the tenets of faith and humanity on which churches, their governments and their very civilization are founded,” President Roosevelt said in his annual message to the Seventy-sixth Congress on 4 January 1939.1 Roosevelt warned of “storm signals from across the seas,” stressed the need for a strong national defense, and urged the United States to put its “own house in order” to prepare to meet what he described as undeclared wars raging around the world.2

As Hitler’s army prepared to invade Czechoslovakia, the United States took steps to test its own defenses along the Atlantic seaboard, stretching all the way to South America. Roosevelt, long a devotee of the navy, elected to supervise personally the “war game” exercises scheduled to begin in February at an undisclosed location somewhere in the Caribbean. Recovering from the flu, the president would receive some much needed rest.

Before departing Florida for the Caribbean, Roosevelt took to the airwaves to deliver a stern warning to foreign dictator aggressors who might be eyeing the Americas for expansion. Addressing his radio audience from the back seat of his automobile, the president declared: “We say to all the world that in the western hemisphere—in the three Americas—the institution of democracy—government with the consent of the governed—must be maintained.”3

Embarking USS Houston in Key West, Roosevelt traveled in the admiral’s quarters to the secret site where the two week winter exercises would be conducted. Almost 150 ships, 600 planes, and about 60,000 officers and enlisted men would participate in what was said to be the largest contingent in each category engaged in U.S. naval games.4 A temporary White House was set up in Miami to get messages to and from the president.

Although Roosevelt had hoped to get in a bit of fishing during the two weeks at sea, the war games occupied most of his time, leaving little freedom on this cruise to play with his rod and reel. The president had done a little fishing with his physician, Dr. McIntire, and others before boarding Houston; he even contributed one dollar to a pool for the person catching the biggest fish.5

Roosevelt actively participated in the war games, and surprised both the public and the press when he announced that the goal of the games was not simply to protect the Panama Canal, but rather the entire Western Hemisphere from a transoceanic attack. In what was described as the most elaborate naval maneuvers ever staged in American waters, the games got under way promptly at midnight on 19 February. The fleet had been divided into “white” and “black” teams, with the white forces attempting to seize a U.S. base, probably the Panama Canal. The president was part of the black forces, whose role was to defend the base from attack.6 All forces had sealed orders, and even the president was not familiar with every detail of the battle plans.

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