As an addendum to Harold's very interesting post – so great was the feeling against a professional officer corps in the early 19th century that the US Naval Academy had to be set up under the table. West Point was founded in 1802, but between 1800 and 1845 Congress rejected twenty proposals to establish a naval academy. It was alleged that professionals would start wars because they "must have fighting to do" and that sailors "would look with contempt upon [the] trifling or effeminate leaders" an academy would turn out. At the time, naval officers were very often incompetent political appointees who embroiled the service in controversy and scandal. It was a historian who stepped in. George Bancroft, appointed navy secretary by President Polk, directed a council of officers to set up a training program in 1845, without Congressional authorization or funding. Bancroft got the War Department to give him Fort Severn in Annapolis. In 1851 the academy was finally established officially. Bancroft is memorialized with a magnificent building there. I draw this information from the fine book "The U.S. Navy: An Illustrated History," by the late Nathan Miller. I had the pleasure of working on the book as a young photo editor, a task that drew me into naval history and gave me a lasting admiration for that service. Recently, on a visit to Philadelphia, I was able to visit a WWII submarine and the venerable cruiser Olympia--Admiral Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay ("You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."), docked at Penn's Landing adjacent to my hotel. It was, to say the least, a deeply moving experience to see a tablet by the water listing the many United States submarines of WWII still "on patrol" with all hands. Henry Wiencek Charlottesville