Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter

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Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter (born November 8, 1925) is a retired U. S. Naval officer, notorious for being relieved of command of the USS Vance (DE-387) after only 99 days.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

Arnheiter was born to Theodore and Dorothy B. Arnheiter. He has a twin brother, Theodore Jr. (d. 2005), and a sister, Dorothy. Raised in New York City, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1952.[1]

[edit] USS Vance

Taking command of the Vance before Christmas 1965, he found a ship that was, in his opinion, unready for war off the coast of North Vietnam. He instituted measures to get the ship cleaned up (he stated that he had found it "crawling with cockroaches"), to get the crew trained, and activities that he thought would get the crew motivated.

Unfortunately, he also had more than his share of personality quirks that led members of the crew to keep a "Marcus Mad Log", something that would be used in his later court-martial.

One the duties of the Vance was to search small coastal traffic (junks) for contraband, specifically weapons to be used by the Viet Cong in the south. Since the Vance's motor whaleboat was lacking in speed, Arnheiter had a fast speedboat purchased for that purpose; however, he used special services (welfare & recreation) money, which is a misappropriation of funds. Arnheiter also had the navigation personnel falsify the logs when he ordered the Vance closer to the coast than his orders allowed.

Eventually word of these (and many other) activities reached higher command, and Arnheiter was relieved when the Vance was refitting at Manila.

According to the Time magazine article: "We all have a little of the Captain Queeg in us," admitted one officer. "But Arnheiter had more than his share."[2]

Journalist Neil Sheehan authored a book on the incident in 1971. The Arnheiter Affair was well-received.[3]

[edit] Marriage and children

He married Janice Blair Arnheiter[4].

[edit] See also

United States Navy Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Arnheiter: Annapolis '52", New York Times, 1968-08-11, p. SM70. 
  2. ^ "The Arnheiter Incident", Time, 1967-12-01. 
  3. ^ Smith, Gaddis. "A taste for heroism and a talent for farce; The Arnheiter Affair", New York Times, 1972-02-06, p. BR3. 
  4. ^ "Arnheiter Divorce Is Off", New York Times, 1973-03-04, p. GN59. 

[edit] External links