Nation: Newman’s Navy

When he tried to enlist in the Navy two years ago, John Michael Newman flunked the educational tests. A high school dropout, he joined the Job Corps instead, studied so hard that he was finally able to pass the service exams. Last week John Newman, now 18, became the seventh of civilian Carpenter Kirby Newman’s nine sons to enter the Navy—making the Newman family the first in the memory of naval officials to have seven brothers on active duty at the same time. Idaho communities celebrated “Newman Day”; John’s home town of Twin Falls proudly proclaimed itself the “Home of the Newman Navy”; and Secretary of the Navy Paul R. Ignatius sent a telegram expressing his and President Johnson’s pleasure at John’s induction. Asked if he would like to be stationed with one of his brothers, John replied: “No, I’m going out on my own.” That was just as well, since brothers may not serve together on any naval vessel in combat.*

*The order was issued after the five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, were lost aboard the torpedoed light cruiser U.S.S. Juneau. By coincidence, Captain Wes Gebert, who presided at John’s induction, was on a nearby ship and saw the Juneau go down.