Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor: Trans-Atlantic Communications Officer
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Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor:
"Trans-Atlantic
Communication Officer" 

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Dr. Hoyt is given the title of Trans-Atlantic Communications Officer - TCO

It also appeared that the Navy plan was to set up a receiving and control center at Belmar, N. J. This was the very beautiful site of a radio receiving center which had been set up by the American Marconi Company in 1913-14, though not yet much used. The American Marconi Company was under the guidance of President Nally, assisted by Winterbottom and other men who are now well known in the present RCA hierarchy. The Navy had taken over this station, had a rapidly increasing complement of necessary personnel, and had started the installation of private Navy leased wires to Washington and to certain high power stations capable of doing trans-Atlantic work. These stations were also in the hands of the Navy. I was given the title of TCO (Trans-Atlantic Communications Officer). As far as I know, I am the only Naval Officer who ever held that title. I was also Commanding Officer of the Belmar Station, with general supervision of the trans-atlantic network. I was given my pick of any men I wanted to pull into this work, as the Navy considered it of the most urgent importance. I had a number of the best men at Great Lakes immediately ordered to Belmar, including Young, Gebhard and Meyer. Some of them actually arrived before I did.

Meyer was, and is, one of the most interesting men I have ever known because, starting as a Yeoman 3/c of the Navy, with absolutely no knowledge of radio, he ultimately became a high grade radio engineer who is well respected by everyone who knows him. He has for years been in charge of the Transmitter Section of the Radio Division at the Naval Research Laboratory, and is now Head of Systems Integration Section of the Ship and Shore Radio Division of the Naval Research Laboratory. Mr. Meyer had been yeoman for me at Great Lakes and became, for a number of years, a confidential secretary and an all around right hand man, although he didn't begin to take on technical duties until about 1920. As for Young, who was the best man technically, we have been closely associated for thirty years.

Crossley was left at Great Lakes, to proceed shortly to Norfolk to install an underground receiving system. Later he was attached to the Radio Division of the Bureau of Steam Engineering and still later to the Naval Research Laboratory.

I might say, in passing, that the word "Steam" in the title of this Bureau was a matter of Navy tradition and history and an anachronism. Engineering in the Navy really began with the advent of steam, so it was natural that the word steam should appear in the name “Bureau of Steam Engineering”.

When I first entered the Navy we had no Bureau of Aeronautics, or even a Department of Naval Aviation, although we did have an interest in aviation. We had a Bureau of Ordnance, a Bureau of Steam Engineering and a Bureau of Construction and Repair, which had to do with the design, build-ing and repair of ships. The Engineering Bureau had the machinery and gadget end of it; the Bureau of Ordnance had to do with the guns, torpedoes, mines, etc; the Bureau of Yards and Docks had charge of all shore construction and buildings. We had a Medical Corps, a Dental Corps, a Corps of Civil Engineers and a Chaplain's Corps. Now the organization is very different; the Bureau of Steam Engineering, very shortly after I first knew it, became the Bureau of Engineering. During this war the Bureau of Construction and Repair and the Bureau of Engineering were merged as the present Bureau of Ships. Organized Naval Aviation started as Department of Naval Aeronautics and was graduated later into the present Bureau of Aeronautics. Engineering Officers who do only engineering work are simply known as line officers, EDO (engineering duty only) regardless of what branch of service they are concerned with.
Page updated December 30, 2003  page created September 02, 2000

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