Monday, January 14, 2019

US Navy and Chess Boards

     According to in the October 24, 2017 issue The Virginian-Pilot, the Norfolk (Virginia) Naval Shipyard wasted $21 million for an unauthorized security force.
     Senior security personnel at the Shipyard established an unauthorized armed police force and wasted as much as $21 million in manpower, stockpiled vehicles and other gear, including a high-speed boat, for more than a decade following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a Naval Sea Systems Command investigation. Nothing new there! Shenanigans have been going on at the shipyard since at least World War II. 
     The January 21, 1945 issue of the Washington D.C. Sunday Star reported on misuse of manpower, waste and inefficiency at the Norfolk Navy Yard that was discovered when the Senate War Investigating Committee paid them a surprise visit. 
     According to the article Senate members found "idleness and loafing on a big scale." Civilian employees stood around in groups smoking and talking right on the decks of “vital fighting ships” and their bosses were nowhere to be seen. Even the men themselves thought there were too many of them on the job and they complained that as a result they weren't able to do an honest day's work.  Reports also claimed that this forced idleness caused thousands of honest and energetic workers to be demoralized because it resulted in reduced efficiency and a decrease in production. 
     The problem was, according to Yard officials, 50 percent turnover and lack of training. Yard officials also complained that hundreds of naval officers had more authority than their experience warranted which resulted in production delays.
     The Wednesday, January 24, 1945 edition of the Wilmington (North Carolina) Star complained that the Navy was wasting money that could have gone to the war effort by building chess boards and other trifling items. 


     One gets the impression that these boards and other items were being produced by the hundreds. In fact, according to another article, the value of these items were put at a mere $200. 
     Virginia didn't hold any state championships in 1943, '44 and '45 on account of the war. Their first championship after the war was in 1946 and it was won by L. Russell Chauvenet who had won it in 1942 and was to win again in '46, '47 and '48. 
     However, in neighboring West Virginia, Harold W. Liggett of South Charleston won the 7th annual championship that was held in Morgantown over the Labor Day weekend with a score of five wins and one draw. Liggett was hotly pursued in the 16 player event by Dr. Siegfried Werthammer who finished with a 5.0-1.0 score.
     With 18 players, it was the largest state championship to date and plus scores were turned in by William Hartling, Dr. Victor Lemke, Willaim Schaeffer and Frank Wisinski (4.0-2.0) and Richard Grim (3.5-2.5). It was hoped that with “the boys” back from the military that the next year's event would top 25 players. 
     The youngest player in the tournament was a 16-year old named Ariel Robinson who it was felt should be watched in succeeding years. He only scored one win and finished tied for places 16-18, but was reported to have given his other opponents a “tough tussle.”  Whatever happened to Robinson?
     Dr. Werthammer was born in Austria on January 11, 1911 and won or tied for first in the West Virginia championship a dozen times between the years of 1943 and 1965. Dr. Werthammer was chairman of the Pathology Department of Marshall University, serving in that post from 1975 until his retirement in 1978 at which time he became clinical professor emeritus. He also was chief pathologist at St. Mary's Hospital from 1942 until 1961 and at Cabell Huntington Hospital from 1955 to 1979. He died Jan. 1, 1983 in Sarasota, Florida. 
     He was mentioned in the 1952 case in the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, State vs. Comstock, concerning an autopsy he had performed.
     It was a criminal prosecution by West Virginia against Virginia Comstock who was indicted, tried and convicted for involuntary manslaughter. She was a registered nurse and superintendent of Barboursville State Hospital. The indictment stated that she "unlawfully did kill and slay Pauline Cook...” and was sentenced to be confined in the Cabell County jail for a term of six months. 
     The appeal states concerning Dr. Werthammer: “Without the least contradiction or contravailing evidence, this well qualified medical witness...” In the end, the conviction of Virginia Comstock was reversed, the verdict set aside and a new trial awarded.  
     In the following game Dr. Werthammer's opponent makes a small positional error and was smoothly defeated. 

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