Importance
The US Navy's mastery of underway replenishment and its ability to refuel the fleet at sea without returning to port was a major factor in its successful operations against the Japanese during the Second World War. As the largest and fastest of the Navy's oilers, the Cimarrons were the principal class employed in direct support of the task forces. Many of the Cimarron class continued to sustain this function through the Korean and Vietnam wars as well, with the "jumbos" serving right up to the Persian Gulf War.
US Navy captains who had flight status ("wings") were eligible to command aircraft carriers, but it was a prerequisite that the officer in question first have a "deep-draft" command; accordingly the Navy assigned these officers to oilers which had a similar draft.
Read more about this topic: Cimarron Class Oiler (1939)
Famous quotes containing the word importance:
“An interesting play cannot in the nature of things mean anything but a play in which problems of conduct and character of personal importance to the audience are raised and suggestively discussed.”
—George Bernard Shaw (18561950)
“When we can begin to take our failures nonseriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.”
—Katherine Mansfield (18881923)
“Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely. Tis pedantry to estimate nations by the census, or by square miles of land, or other than by their importance to the mind of the time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)