The Key West Citizen

Key West Navy
Will Have First Class Of 35 Men; To Be Expanded To Two Hundred Students

The Navy's Undersea Weapons School, which moved here from New London, Conn., will open for its first class of 35 students January 26 and will be expanded until 200 Navy men are enrolled.

Established on December 15, 1947, as an activity of the U. S. Naval Submarine Base at Key West, the Navy's Advanced Undersea Weapons School is rapidly readying for full-scale operations.

At the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, the most recent addition to Key West's Navy family will be under the military command and co-ordination control of the commanding officer of the Submarine Base.

The school will be headed directly by an officer-in-charge, who will have the status of a head of department in the administrative organization of the Submarine Base.

Comdr. F. J. Harlfinger, U. S. Navy, a veteran of submarine warfare in the Pacific, is the presently assigned officer-in-charge of the school. It is expected that he will arrive in Key West on or about January 10 to assume actual direction of his organization.

The school will occupy buildings at the former Navy Receiving Station at the port of Key West once generally known as the "Section Base" but now properly called the Operational Development Station.

For those acquainted with the area it will be of interest to know that Building No. 5 will house the basic course instructional rooms, Building No. 6 will be the living quarters for enlisted personnel, Building No. 7 will be an auxiliary equipment station and that Buildings Nos. 9 and 10 will provide classrooms for students of the advanced course.

The Operational Development Station will provide messing facilities for enlisted personnel at its galley and living and messing facilities for officers at its Bachelor Officers Quarters.

New classes will enter after January 26 at about four weeks intervals until top enrollment of about 200 students will be reached and maintained. A staff of 32 selected officers and enlisted men will conduct the curriculum of the school.

Prior to its establishment in Key West, where the excellent climatic conditions and extensive parallel conditions for the sea operating areas offer unsurpassed conditions for the school's work, the new activity functioned as a part of the Submarine School at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, New London, Conn.