Typed document signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as Acting Secretary of the Navy. Washington, D.C., 30 April 1919. 2 pages, 4to, on Navy Department letterhead, with Fifth Naval District and Paymaster's Office stamps. Includes typed endorsements signed to verso. 

Orders issued and signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) as Acting Secretary of the Navy. The document commands Chaplain William W. Elder (1885-1964) to report for duty with the 2nd Provisional Marine Brigade stationed in the Dominican Republic. 

The orders read in part: "You are hereby detached from duty on board the Receiving Ship at Norfolk; will proceed to Charleston, S.C., and report to the commandant, Sixth Naval District, for temporary duty pending transportation to Santo Domingo, D.R."

Elder joined the Navy as a chaplain in 1905 and saw service aboard the USS Arizona and USS Texas. He would later serve as the chaplain of the Pensacola Naval Base and, in 1941, as the Chaplain of the Atlantic Fleet. When he retired in 1946, he was the Navy's fourth-ranking chaplain. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt was appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Wilson in March 1913 and served in the position through the entirety of World War I until August 1920. When the United States entered the conflict in April 1917, Roosevelt oversaw the naval deployment and was involved in the expansion of the branch to four times its prewar size. 

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