Why an Oceanographer of the Navy?

The recent establishment of an Oceanographer of the Navy can be identified with the recent upsurge of national interest in oceanography. The reply to Why an Oceanographer? should be apparent when the reply is found to Why oceanography? The billet of the Oceanographer of the Navy was established in 1962. The responsibilities of the present Oceanographer, Rear Admiral 0. D. Waters, were not assigned until 1967. His office, its history, purpose and relationship to the national effort are reviewed in this paper. It seems plausible that the reader\u27s motive has been instigated more by the rapidly expanding glamor field of oceanography than by curiosity about the Oceanographer of the Navy. However, since the Naval Oceanographic Program is about one-half of the total federal budget for oceanography, one can assume that this program is a weather vane for the national oceanographic program and for the future of oceanography