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Chapter 23: Washington, Department of the Navy
The dim corridors and smoke-filled meeting rooms of Albany’s State Capitol collapsed instantly in Leo’s consciousness.
The scene shifted abruptly.
Leo found himself standing in a vast, brightly lit office.
Sunlight streamed through enormous windows, revealing the streets of Washington, D.C., with the distant silhouette of the Lincoln Memorial under construction visible on the horizon.
The walls were adorned with intricate world maps crisscrossed by complex maritime routes and the latest blueprints of dreadnought battleships and destroyers.
The constant ringing of telephones and clatter of typewriters filled the air—this was the beating heart of a massive bureaucratic machine operating at full speed.
Roosevelt sat behind a large mahogany desk.
He looked much older than he had in Albany. The lines on his face were sharper, the fiery idealism of his youth tempered into the steady, seasoned gaze of a man who wielded power.
He was swiftly reviewing a document, occasionally scribbling annotations with a fountain pen before decisively signing his name.
His title was Assistant Secretary of the Navy—a position that sounded like a subordinate role but actually held real authority over the day-to-day operations of the Navy.
"My second step," Roosevelt's voice-over began, now serious and measured, "was to seize real power and accumulate experience."
"The fight against Tammany Hall in Albany earned me national recognition, but it also made me acutely aware of reality."
"Lofty ideals and catchy slogans alone cannot change anything."
"You need power—and an intimate understanding of how this complex machine of power operates."
"I spent seven years at the Navy Department."
Leo’s perspective sped forward, compressing seven long and pivotal years into a fast-forward montage.
He saw Roosevelt standing before Congress during a hearing, facing a group of lawmakers who knew nothing about naval affairs but scrutinized every penny of the budget.
He witnessed Roosevelt passionately arguing with Midwestern agricultural-state congressmen over a proposal to add two new battleships to the Pacific Fleet.
He spoke not of military strategy but of Hawaiian sugar and California oil transported via Pacific shipping lanes to the East Coast.
He tied these economic interests to naval strength, convincing inland legislators that a powerful navy was vital to their own prosperity.
He saw Roosevelt wearing a hard hat, standing in the shipyards of Philadelphia.
In the cavernous dry dock, the keel of a battleship was being laid. Sparks flew, and the noise was deafening.
Roosevelt stood shoulder to shoulder with grease-stained engineers and shipbuilders, pointing to massive blueprints and debating the armor thickness needed to withstand new types of armor-piercing shells, as well as whether the gun caliber could surpass Britain and Germany’s latest models.
He understood these matters deeply—he was a true expert.
He saw Roosevelt on the docks of Norfolk Naval Base.
Behind him stretched rows of gray warships, and young Marines in khaki uniforms, rifles slung over their shoulders, prepared to board transport ships bound for the battlefields of World War I in Europe.
Roosevelt stood on a high platform, delivering a speech to these young men about to embark on their mission.
His voice boomed with conviction and inspiration.
He told them they were fighting not just for French soil but for the freedom of the seas upon which America depended.
"Leo," Roosevelt’s voice echoed, "remember this: ideals and passion alone cannot govern a nation. What you need is experience, knowledge, and the ability to translate complex ideas into actionable steps."
The scene finally froze on a tense emergency meeting.
On the wall of the conference room hung a massive map of the Atlantic Ocean.
Red markers dotted the map, marking the locations of countless Allied merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
During World War I, Germany’s submarines waged unrestricted submarine warfare, prowling the Atlantic like wolves, mercilessly attacking convoys supplying Britain and France.
The admirals of the Navy Department—the old-school officers with white beards who believed in the doctrine of “big ships, big guns”—were at a loss.
Their battleships, designed for decisive fleet engagements, were powerless against these elusive underwater predators.
As everyone struggled for solutions, Roosevelt stood up.
He walked to the map and proposed a plan that seemed almost insane at the time.
With a long pointer, he drew a line from the northernmost tip of Scotland all the way to the coast of Norway.
"Gentlemen," he said, "we cannot hunt them across the entire Atlantic, but we can trap them in their lair."
His plan was to lay a massive minefield across hundreds of kilometers of treacherous North Sea waters.
Tens or even hundreds of thousands of mines would form an impenetrable wall of death, blocking all German submarine routes in and out of the Atlantic.
A collective gasp filled the room.
The generals dismissed the idea as pure fantasy.
They argued it was technically impossible to lay mines in such vast and hostile waters.
Moreover, the cost and resources required would be astronomical.
"This is madness!" one admiral shouted, pounding the table. "We don’t have that many mines, nor do we have enough ships!"
Roosevelt personally took his plan to Congress and the White House.
He presented its feasibility and strategic value to President Woodrow Wilson and congressional leaders.
He negotiated directly with steel companies in Pittsburgh and DuPont Chemical in Delaware, securing enough steel and explosives for the colossal project.
Ultimately, he turned what everyone thought was an impossible, reckless plan into reality.
A massive fleet worked day and night to scatter tens of thousands of mines into the icy North Sea.
This “Northern Barrage” effectively curtailed the threat of German U-boats, playing a crucial role in winning the Battle of the Atlantic.
"Without those seven years at the Navy Department," Roosevelt’s voice-over resumed, "I would never have learned how to manage a vast federal agency with hundreds of thousands of employees."
"I would never have known how to draft and execute budgets worth tens of billions of dollars."
"I would never have mastered the art of negotiating and dealing with greedy arms manufacturers and cunning members of Congress."
"Without that experience, I could never have commanded the entire nation’s war machine during World War II."
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