CLEARED  OF  BEING  ANTI-AMERICAN

During World War One, the Espionage Act of 1917 made it illegal to interfere with an Allied victory and defined interference as spying, promoting the enemy, and speaking out against the war or recruitment.  One of the many tasks performed by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) was the investigation of internal naval affairs from troublesome personnel to counterespionage.

Hattie C. Bansemer was recruited into the Navy during World War One as a Yeoman First Class (F) and served in the Second Naval District as a switchboard operator at the Communications Office of the Naval Base at New London, Connecticut.  In early 1918, reports were made to ONI concerning her father, Gottlieb Benjamin Bansemer, owner of a coal company in Hartford, Connecticut.  Co-workers and peers testified to Gottlieb’s anti-American and pro-German sentiments.  Even though investigation by ONI did not find any evidence of disloyalty by Y1(F) Bansemer, she was issued an Undesirable Discharge from the Navy on September 16, 1918, because of the sensitive nature of her job.  In October 1918, she contacted a representative serving in the U.S. House of Representative concerning her discharge and through his efforts her appeal to change the nature of her discharge was successful.  In 1919 the Navy reissued an Honorable Discharge to her “since it appears that nothing of a disloyal nature could be found against Miss Bansemer, her disenrollment being apparently due entirely to the conduct of her father.”

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