An Ocean Away

YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY

By Lieutenant Andrea Howard ’15, USN

There is an age-old adage claiming you cannot choose your family, but in typical form, the (“Not College”) United States Naval Academy proves contrarian. During plebe year, midshipmen receive an assigned sponsor family, which for many yields cherished weekends with homecooked meals, clean laundry and a lifelong bonus set of parents and siblings. Both with friends’ sponsors and my own, I felt immense gratitude for the escape offered from the Yard. It took me nearly five years and 2,800 miles from Annapolis, MD, however, to meet the alumna who perfectly fulfilled the role of sponsor mom for me.

Linda “Postie” Postenrieder ’82 is a recognizable giant within the alumni community. In addition to being the proudest member of the Class of 1982, she has served as a Blue & Gold Officer, a member of USNA Out and the Naval Academy Alumni Association Board of Trustees and is the president of USNA Puget Sound, WA, Alumni Chapter —the home of our story—the Puget Sound.

Earning my appointment to the Naval Academy from Georgia, I had less than a month of exposure to the West Coast prior to receiving orders for a junior officer tour in the majestic mountains, greenery and water known as the Pacific Northwest. Quick weekend trips proved infeasible for family and in search of community, I reached out to Linda to connect with other Old Goats.

We met in person at a chapter networking event in downtown Seattle, WA, in April 2019. Although sweetened by the attendance of Linda’s close friend, Captain Wendy Lawrence ’81 USN, (Ret.), the real treat was Linda’s invitation to her home in Oak Harbor after my impending first underway. During my three-year tour with more than 20 months away from homeport, Linda and her partner, Donna Hinshaw, offered that much-needed sense of “home”—including Linda’s unforgettable Sound of Musicthemed 60th birthday weekend with her dearest friends and a handful of my favorite women submariners.

Although the mere existence of women submariners and openly LGBTQ+ officers rests on the legacy of graduates like Linda, a particularly poetic connection arose during the last year of my division officer tour on OHIO (BLUE) (SSGN 726). As the oldest submarine in the fleet struggled to reach material readiness for our fall 2021 mission, FRANK CABLE (AS 40) provided invaluable repairs. Linda served her first tour as a surface warfare officer among the first women on FRANK CABLE, and almost 40 years later, that platform directly supported national

Linda ’82, Emily, Andrea '15 and Donna at the 3 July wedding. Inset image: “Two Ringknockers: Linda and Andrea”

tasking for the first fully gender-integrated crew on SSGN 726.

While Linda acted as the pillar of my military family in Washington state, I most admire the way she and Donna serve as interlocutors of the Naval Academy’s core values of community and commitment to their neighbors on Whidbey Island, whether through art, fitness, food or love of nature. When I married my wife, Emily, in July, there was no better choice for a guest speaker to convey this uniquely Navy notion— even across the country or an ocean away from kin—of choosing and forever upholding your family. a

LT Andrea Howard ’15, USN, graduated with a double major in political science and Arabic from the U.S. Naval Academy and was selected as a Marshall Scholar. She completed her division officer tour on OHIO (SSGN 726) (BLUE), co-founded the Submarine Officer Women’s Network, and is slated to relieve as the navigator and operations officer on NEW JERSEY.

COMMODORE PROFESSOR

By Claude Berube, director of the Naval Academy Museum

If you walk through the Naval Academy Cemetery, you will come across these two headstones—those of Captain Theodore Woolsey Johnson, USN and Captain Paul Dashiell, USN. Neither were midshipmen at the Naval Academy. Neither were ensigns or served on ships. They were, like others in the first 80 years of the Academy, part of the Corps of Professors of Mathematics. The Corps was established in 1848 as a response to disciplinary issues and the desire of some faculty to hold some authority over their students.

Commissioned officers of the Corps of Professors of Mathematics were considered restricted line officers, along with the Supply Corps and Chaplains Corps. They were not, however, only teaching in the mathematics department. The cadre, limited to about a dozen at any time, could have taught in other departments and one was stationed at the Naval Observatory. In 1863, the Corps’ officers were given ranks and in 1872, there were three captains, four commanders and five lieutenant commanders or lieutenants.

The Corps of Professors could recruit from either active-duty navy officers or civilian academies. In 1890, for example, a commission became available. Among the applicants were active-duty officers Ensigns Philip Alger, Class of 1880, and John Hood, Class of 1879, and Chaplain EK Rawson. One civilian professor at the Academy and four other civilian academics competed as well. For active duty, a commission in the Corps could mean an immediate promotion since any professor would begin as a lieutenant.

Secretary of the Navy John Kennedy wrote to Superintendent Commander Cornelius Stribling that professors were to be excused from wearing their naval uniforms as professors while on active duty. For full dress, the professors would wear navy blue cloth with a citizen’s dress coat. For undress, professors would wear navy blue frock coats with Navy buttons and plain white or navy blue vests and pantaloons with round hats.

At the height of the Civil War, while the Academy was in Newport, RI, professors debated their uniforms. On 5 August 1863, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox wrote to Superintendent Captain George Blake that the Navy was getting rid of the gold-laced cap and to consult with the Corps what ornament they considered appropriate, such as the line officers who had an anchor inside a wreath.

Five days later, the senior Corps professor, John Coffin, wrote to Blake that they wanted a double-breasted frock coat with eight or nine buttons on each breast, the usual naval vest and a naval cap with rank. Later that year, Coffin wrote directly to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles that the Corps should have the same uniform as commissioned officers. Others bemoaned their pay, such as one professor of ethics who wrote to Blake that he had been appointed in 1850.

“I was instructed my pay would be that of the Professors of Mathematics and that I should wear their uniform.” According to the Naval History and Heritage Command, “The corps distinction for professors of mathematics was ‘the letter P, in silver, and in relief upon a plain gold circle,’ worn in the center of their shoulder straps and enclosed in the gold wreath of oak and olive branches on the front of their caps.”

In 1866, this device was changed to “a silver live oak leaf and an acorn,” to be worn on epaulets, shoulder straps, cap and on the ends of the collar of sack coats and overcoats. The corps insignia of professors of mathematics remained the same until 1919 when regulations were issued specifying that the oak leaf and acorn be embroidered in gold in lieu of silver and placed ¼-inch above the gold lace stripes on the sleeves of frock, evening dress and blue service coats, and on the shoulder marks worn with white service coat and overcoat. The olive green heretofore worn under the gold lace strips on the sleeves, and since 1899 on shoulder marks, was abolished as a distinguishing mark of the Corps of Professors of Mathematics.

Captain Paul Dashiell was a part of the Corps of Professors of Mathematics while working at the Naval Academy. While he taught chemistry and mathematics to midshipmen, he might be best known for compiling a 25-5-4 record as Navy’s head football coach from 1904 to 1906.

In 1881, Congress enacted a law requiring that each professor in the Corps of Professors pass a physical examination before a board of naval surgeons.

Pay became an especially contentious aspect of their positions. In 1907, Professor William Woolsey Johnson wrote to Superintendent Rear Admiral James Sands, Class of 1864, that the Corps should be entitled to professor emeritus status and on part pay in retirement.

In 1916, Congress revised the law for the Corps to prohibit commissioning new professors and to allow those currently on duty to serve out their time. In the meantime, some continued to appeal to Congress to revise laws for compensation.

In 1929, Commander Theodore Woolsey Johnson, Class of 1925, testified before the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives that there were only six Corps professors remaining and that he received $1,000 to $2,000 less annually than his active-duty counterparts. In addition, he asked for his prior time as a civilian professor be included to represent his years of service for pay purposes. The committee chair asked him if he recognized the difference between “an officer who, after long years’ of experience and training, goes to sea in command of, say a $40 million craft and an officer who devotes his time to teaching?”

Arguing in support of Johnson was Maryland Congressman Stephen Gambrill who noted that it was embarrassing to Johnson that there were now active-duty commanders once taught by Johnson and who now received more pay. Another Congressman, Michigan’s Roy Woodruff, said “the Government of the United States is big enough, wealthy enough and just enough to be fair to those who ably serve it.”

Nor was pay the only issue. Some believed that the rank of commodore ought to be established to reflect their years of service, even though there were only a dozen in the Corps. Nathaniel “Cit” Terry, for example, retired in 1917 after 45 years as a professor and was “entitled to the rank and pay of commodore on the retired list.”

Paul Dashiell, perhaps better known as a football player and Naval Academy football coach than as a chemistry and mathematics professor, died in 1937. His funeral was held at the Naval Academy Chapel will full military honors. Eight Navy Chiefs were his pallbearers. Escorting him to his final resting place at Hospital Point were midshipmen, Marines, sailors and the Naval Academy Band. It was a fitting end to the era of the Corps of Professors of Mathematics. a

Professor William Woodbury Hendrickson, Class of 1864, was the head of the Naval Academy’s mathematics department in the late 1800s. In this photo he is wearing the Corps of Professors uniform.