A Rocky Mountain Sailor in Teddy Roosevelt’s Navy: The Letters of Petty Officer Charles Fowler from the Asiatic Station 1905-1910

An avid reader of naval history since my father’s service in World War II, I had been struck by the marked contrast between the touching personal depictions of WW II photo-journalism and the dearth of portrayals of sailors as persons, not just undefined elements of crews. Frederick Harrod would observe, Enlisted personnel are the forgotten men of naval history. 1 As a youngster I witnessed the first two years of World War II by hanging around recruits at the Naval Training Station, San Diego, California. While commissioned a line officer, my father proved too old for front line duty, so he was assigned to the legal staff as station deputy Provost Marshall, a position suited to his civilian profession of lawyer and US commissioner for Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, California.