September 19, 1942
CLOUDBUSTER
Page Three
Naval Aviators
To be Promoted
At Faster Rate
More rapid promotions in the ex
panding aeronautical organization of
the Navy has been promised by Secre
tary of the Navy Frank Knox, who
announced recently that steps have
been taken to insure that sufficient of
ficers will be available in the various
grades for the growing program.
Lists of officers for temporary pro
motion to higher grades have been pre
pared using the selective system, and
have been approved by the President.
The lists will not be made public, but
promotions will be made from these
lists as the needs of the service require.
In view of the rapidly expanding
aeronautical organization, it may be
expected that temporary promotions
of naval aviators will occur at earlier
dates than regular line officers, the
Secretary said.
3^00 Students
Expected at UNC
Some 800 coeds and approximately
2,500 boys are expected to be on hand
as the University of North Carolina,
America’s oldest state university, be
gins its 149th year next Thursday.
Many of the students have already
arrived, and they will continue to come
over the weekend in preparation for
the school opening. According to uni
versity administrators, total student
enrollment will approach the 3,300
mark, about 700 less than last year.
Approximately 30% of the students
come from out-of-state. New York
state leads the Yankee invasion with
about 150 students, with New Jersey
contributing around 90.
Ex-Coast Guarders
No strangers to the sea are Cadets
Joseph P. Van Vooren, and Robert
Paul Weber, both of whom were in the
Coast Guard before coming here. Van
Voorens is from Patterson, N. J., and
Weber is from Chester, Pa.
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C(m.o.o.KtssiHo-
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AT THE
ACADEMY
A Cadet Goes Backstage With ^Scrappy*
^
By Cadet James G. Butler
Armed with the doggerel advice of
that infernal nonsense Pinafore,
“Stick close to your desk, and never
go to sea,
Someday you may be ruler of the
Queen’s Navy,”
I prepared to meet the Captain. After
the encounter I definitely decided that
Gilbert had not met many men like the
Captain. For his desk is still as new
as his job, with scarcely a foot mark on
it. Not only showing his intense ac
tivity, but his unfamiliarity with the
ways of the landlubber.
The Skipper hails from Greensburg,
Indiana (no, I never heard of it before
either). His family were not tradi
tional Navy men and as far as he
knows, he is the first sailor in the Kes-
sing clan.
He still remembers the day he ap
proached his father with the proposal
that he would like to enter West Point.
His dad referred him to a Congress
man that lived across the street, (that
was when they got home once in a
while). He received the august assur
ance of this Hoosier Representative,
and after a period of time he received
an official envelope containing his ap
pointment—^but not to the Point.
Rather to some unheard of place called
Annapolis. When he again confronted
the Congressman with the query “Why
not the Point?”, he received the assur
ance that “Son, that’s perfectly all
right, it’s merely the Southern
Branch.”
Thus it was that 0. 0. Kessing, (the
double O is classified as restricted ma
terial, Oliver Owen) entered the Aca
demy, in 1910. While there he partici
pated, he will have you understand, not
starred, in boxing, wrestling, football
and lacrosse. His career there might
be best described as that of a very
energetic midshipman. Besides picking
up more than his share of bruises on
the athletic fields, he also picked up the
cognomen “Scrappy” which has stuck
as close to him through his life as a
wet pair of pants. 0. 0. always pos
sessed a mind of his own, and was
never averse to airing his opinions. So
adding up his strong will, a better than
average boxing ability, subtracting his
five, eight stature, one need not be a
4.0 math genius to see the result in j was brought to Soldiers field in Chi-
“Scrappy.” cago. That 1926 team incidentally was
He was graduated from the Aca-1 a Pippin, featuring such stars as Tom
demy, right into the Mexican war and Hamilton in the backfield, and Walter
the armored cruiser, Maryland. Dur- j Camp’s All-American Frank Wick-
ing this campaign he was on the little, horst at one of the tackles.
the first destroyer sunk in this, the
second World War, in the northern
Atlantic.
In 1926 when Annapolis inaugu
rated the system of a Graduate Man
ager in Athletics, it was 0. 0. Kes
sing who took the position. He had
long been a close friend of the late
Knute Rockne, and it was only natural
that he was the one to put Notre Dame
on the Navy Schedule. It was through
his efforts that the Army-Navy game
known West Coast of Mexico and
served with distinction.
With the outbreak of the W'orld War
he was assigned to the USS Hunting
ton on convoy duty, and volunteered
as a Kite Balloon Pilot. The K. B. was
a forerunner of the barrage balloon,
but with a basket. It was attached to
the ship by cable and flown some eight
hundred to a thousand feet in the air.
K. B.’s were supposedly super-lookout
for submarines but it was soon dis
covered that the U boats could spot
the kite balloons long before the K. B.
P. even suspected that underwater
craft were around. When the Hunting
ton finally lost the balloon, and
couldn’t replace it, “Scrappy” came
down to earth.
His Naval career continued with
heavier-than-air training at Pensacola
following the war. Abruptly inter
rupted, it was succeeded by destroyer
duty for several years in the Mediter
ranean and Adriatic. Shipmate and
boon companion with him on this trip
was Lieutenant Commander John P.
Graff; the ship was the Reuben James,
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We Welcome the Cadets
The Captain left this post in 1929,
but his enthusiasm for athletics never
left him. He was a member of the
National Collegiate boxing I’ules com
mittee for five years and associated
with the ’36 Olympics committee.
Sea duty called him again, this time
aboard the USS Holland, and two
years later he was transferred to the
Augusta as Executive Officer. Aboard
this cruiser, the flagship, he made a
China Cruise until 1937. He bobbed
back again at the Naval Academy, this
time as assistant to the officer in charge
of buildings and grounds. His last as-
Send It Home
Why not supplement your let
ters home with a copy of the
CLOUDBUSTER?
Remember though—it may not
be mailed under the “free” mail
ing privilege. Postage is re
quired.
signment before coming to Chapel Hill
was as C. 0. of the USS Chaumont, a
naval transport on the Asiatic Station,
until December 1941.
In all he has 22 years of sea duty,
and holds medals for the Mexican cam
paign in 1914, the World War, the
Haitian campaign, and for China Ser
vice. Shrouded behind the naval rec
ords hang two tales of being reported
ly killed twice. On one of these occa
sions he had the “rare privilege” of
reading his own obituary in the United
States newspapers.
Looking at the record, it is not hard
to see why Captain Kessing was picked
to be the prime mover in the setting
up of the four Naval Pre-Flight
Schools. In this job he inspected over
sixty universities before the final se
lections were made. And now still act
ing in an advisory capacity, he keeps
the airlines busy with his hops to the
capital, and the West Coast and to
other points North and South.
In charting the Skipper’s career, his
course seems to be laid out in straight
lines, with successive jobs well done.
It is a story of perspicacity and energy
leading to success. But his has been a
tale without one of the usual accoutre
ments of success. It is best described
in the words of Lt. Comdr. Graff, ex
ecutive officer of this station: “It is
the good fortune of very few naval of
ficers to have as many friends both
senior and junior contemporary, as
0. 0. Kessing.”
From the Argentine Army
That “Latin-American Way” was
acquired by Cadet Roland B. Smith in
Buenos Aires, Argentina. He served
13 months in the Argentine Army as
a private. He attended Cornell and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
graduating this year. His brother is
in the 26th Glider Pilot Training De
tachment.
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