Raymond P. Rodgers

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Raymond P. Rodgers : biography

December 20, 1849 – December 28, 1925

Rodgers reported aboard the battleship in June 1897 as her executive officer. Aboard Iowa, he saw action in the Spanish-American War of 1898, participating in the bombardment of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 12 May 1898 and the blockade of the Cuban port of Santiago de Cuba. For his "imminent and conspicuous conduct" in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, in which U.S. Navy forces destroyed the Spanish Navy squadron of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete on 3 July 1898, he advanced five numbers in grade.Hamersly, 1902, p. 156.

Rodgers was promoted to commander on 3 March 1899.Hamersly, 1902, p. 156. He commanded the gunboat from 1899 to 1900, operating in the West Indies and the Philippine Islands – where Nashville provided gunfire support to American troops fighting against Filipino insurgents during the Philippine-American War – and off China during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1901, he became aide to Admiral George Dewey, who was serving as President of the General Board of the United States Navy at the time. Late in 1901, Rodgers assumed duties at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York.Hamersly, 1902, p. 156.

Promoted to captain in 1903, Rodgers spent two years as commanding officer of the battleship in the North Atlantic Fleet.

Rodgers was reappointed Chief Intelligence Officer and returned to ONI in April 1906, succeeding Commander Seaton Schroeder, and was promoted to rear admiral on 4 July 1908. Rodgers in turn was succeeded at ONI by Captain Charles E. Vreeland in May 1909. He then spent the summer of 1909 in Europe, visiting the United Kingdom, the German Empire, France, and Italy to study their navies organizational concepts and methods of operation and bring home information that could support anticipated United States Navy reforms in those areas.

On 6 October 1909, Rodgers became President of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island; he also became Commandant of Naval Station Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, that month.http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/raymondp.htm At the time, the college participated actively in U.S. Navy war planning. Acting on a suggestion by Captain William Ledyard Rodgers – who had learned it at the United States Army War College – Raymond P. Rodgers introduced the "applicability system" or "estimate of the situation" into Navy war planning, requiring that planning be developed through a four-step process involving "statement of mission, assessment of enemy forces and intentions, assessment of own forces, and evaluation of possible courses of action," which has remained fixed in Navy war planning ever since.Miller, p. 16. Toward the end of Rodgers tour, the United States Secretary of the Navy, George von Lengerke Meyer, removed war planning functions from the college, which favored more cautious approaches in plans for war with Japan, placing all planning responsibilities in the more aggressive General Board of the United States Navy.Miller, pp. 24, 46, 70, 80-81.

Rodgers retired from the Navy upon the conclusion of his college presidency on 20 November 1911.Anonymous, "Admiral Rodgers to Retire; His Successor at Narragansett Won’t Head War College as Well," New York Times, July 12, 1911, page 6. Available on-line: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30615F73F5517738DDDAB0994DF405B818DF1D3