War Shipping Administration Field Service

In a scant year after its creation, the War Shipping Administration (WSA) thought it wise to create another uniformed civil service organization under its jurisdiction. At the time, the other uniformed divisions within the War Shipping Administration were the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps and the Maritime Service. The new uniformed service would comprise members of the Field Service Branch; when the case was set before Congress in 1943, the WSA engaged about 450 individuals involved in the Field Service – they were colloquially known as “Shipping Inspectors.” Their tasks revolved around repair and conversion activities at the 80 major repair yards and 117 repair contractors; at any given time there were 600 WSA-controlled vessels in drydock, repair, or conversion. Tasks performed by the Field Service involved:

The Field Service Branch also served as “eyes, ears, and legs for the resident auditor, enabling them to better approve charges made for time and material and to know that such time and material [was spent on vessels under question].” WSA recruited heavily among ex-Navy and Army men, who looked favorably upon donning a uniform. Such uniforms, it was argued, would give them an air of authority – and not be viewed as plainclothes spies as asserts a comment at the 1 October 1943 Hearing; the same hearing also mentions union rejection of uniforming agents of the WSA, as a uniform would create “certain attitudes” on the part of the Shipping Inspector, which would inevitably result in a shipyard riot. Instead it was floated that the Shipping Inspector wear a large badge – the WSA thought ill of this.

WSA did a trial of uniforming its Field Service with good review, as related by Mr. J. L. Murphy, Chairman of Price Adjustment Board, War Shipping Administration on a 1 October 1943 Hearing:

These uniforms, though, were purchased at the employee’s expense without reimbursement by the WSA – at the time the Comptroller General ruled no agency of the government could procure uniforms on the part of its employees. Further, in northern shipyards, a garrison cap was prescribed, and all men were to war puttees to protect them from getting their trouser cuffs in machinery while down in a ship’s holds. The Senate Hearing provided the following on additional articles to be worn:

The argument for a uniformed service – civilian and voluntary organized in a military fashion and following the model of the USMS – met with Congressional approval without much fanfare or debate on 5 June 1944:

Afterward, the subject was dropped, and a uniformed WSA Field Service did not reach fruition.

This did not stop members of the Field Service from wearing their khakis and placing insignia on combination caps and pith helmets. They also wore a repurposed Maritime Eagle with “Ships for Victory” inscribed upon it (it was once an award). Below find an example of their cap badge and Maritime Eagle.

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References

United States Congress House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Report of the War Shipping Administration on House Joint Resolution 182. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943. N.B. Penned 15 November 1943 by E. S. Land.

United States Congress House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. War Shipping Field Service: hearings before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Seventy-Eighth Congress, first session, on Oct. 1, 5, 1943. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943.

United States Congress House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. War Shipping Field Service: Hearings Before the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 78th Congress, 1st Session, on House Joint Resolution 182, a Joint Resolution to Create the War Shipping Field Service, November 18 and 19, 1943. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943.

United States War Shipping Administration. U.S. Merchant Marine at War. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1944.