摘要：The Spanish-American War's dominant narrative is replete with tales of great naval victories, the smashing defeat of the Spanish navy at both Cuba and in the Philippines , and the heroic naval officers – like Commodore Dewey, referenced in the epigram – who achieved these great feats. The navy's victories in the Spanish-American War helped place the United States firmly on the world stage as a great power and provided a set of overseas possessions that led to a period of "informal" empire. The war also vindicated Mahanian notions of seapower and accelerated the creation of a navy dominated by the battleship, both of which would come to have tremendous importance in the decades to follow. Yet there is an obvious, neglected piece missing from this story, that of the enlisted men who carried out these heroes' orders and made their victories possible. The enlisted men who fought in the Spanish-American War were products of the so-called "new navy" set of reforms that rejuvenated the U.S. Navy in the 1880s and 1890s, creating an almost entirely new naval force structure and set of strategic doctrines. Around the time of the Spanish-American War, the new navy was also in the process of transitioning not just from an age of sail to an age of steam in the fleet, but also beginning var currentpos,timer; function initialize() { timer=setInterval("scrollwindow()",10);} function sc(){clearInterval(timer); }function scrollwindow() { currentpos=document.body.scrollTop; window.scroll(0,++currentpos); if (currentpos != document.body.scrollTop) sc();} document.onmousedown=scdocument.ondblclick=initializeto make significant changes to its personnel structure. The new, more technically complex ships acquired by the navy now required new skill sets for enlisted men and officers alike; enlisted personnel who could be retained for the length of their professional careers in order to inculcate the desired technical expertise, which also required language fluency for training and command purposes as well as loyalty to the United States; and the internal reforms necessary to make life in the navy desirable for enlisted personnel so that they would be willing to remain in naval service. These profound transformations took several decades to complete, but were in their earliest stages around the time of the Spanish-American War
