ALVES-AUGUSTUS

COMPLETED OFFICER TRAINING BUT NOT COMMISSIONED

In January 1944 there were nearly 100,000 Black Sailors in the Navy but none were officers.  However, that was about to change when sixteen enlisted men serving in the Navy were ordered to the Naval Training Center at Great Lakes, Illinois, for officer training.  Although the normal officer training course was sixteen weeks, these men were expected to complete it in eight, a move that they believed was an attempt to set them up for failure.  The Navy also expected that about twenty-five percent of the class would fail as that was usually about the normal failure rate.  However, determined not to fail, the sixteen black officer candidates were determined to support one another throughout the brutal pace of training.  Although lights were off at 2230 each night, the group placed blankets over the windows and sat on the bathroom floor as they studied together by flashlight, each man bringing his expertise to help the others.  When exam grades were announced at the conclusion of the training the Navy could not believe their high grades.  Fearing they had cheated the group was required to take a second test, but this time the grades were even higher, the grade for the group was 3.89 out of 4.00, the highest average of any class in Navy history at that time.  Although all sixteen men passed the course, on February 24, 1944, only twelve were granted commissioning as ensigns and one was appointed as a warrant officer.  The group has since been identified as the “Golden Thirteen”, the first Navy commissioned African American officers.  All thirteen men have since died but their legacy remains and hundreds of subsequent African American naval officers view them as trailblazers and salute their sacrifices and accomplishments.

Augustus A. Alves was one of the three students who failed to be commissioned and the Navy has never explained why he was not promoted but it is noted that this rate brought the pass-rate down to the level of the average class of white candidates..  Readily available historical records reveal scarce information concerning Alves and although records report that the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) at one time held brief biographies of all sixteen men, NHHC now reports that they hold no biographical information concerning the three who were not promoted.  Alves was reportedly born September 17, 1901, in Providence, Rhode Island, was educated in Providence schools, and lived in Lewiston, Maine, from 1944 to 1971 following his naval service.  According to oral histories conducted with members of the Golden Thirteen, Alves became the first African American to reach the enlisted rate of Chief Specialist when he was assigned as adjutant of the Twenty-Ninth Battalion at Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes Training Center, following his Golden Thirteen officer training.  Augustus A. Alves died June 18, 1987, in Brockton, Massachusetts, and is buried at Saint Peters Catholic Cemetery in Lewiston, Maine, where he lies next to his wife who died June 20, 1949.  Alves grave marker carries the inscription:  CSP   US NAVY   WORLD WAR II.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret).