He served aboard the steamer USS Pensacola from 1878 to 1879 and at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., from 1880 to 1881, and was promoted to midshipman on 4 June 1880.

[2][3] Rodgers was on special duty at the United States Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C., from 1884 to 1885, then received instruction in torpedo service during 1886.

[4] In October 1895, Rodgers reported for duty aboard the screw gunboat USS Alliance, which operated as a training ship during his tour.

Leaving Alliance, he was assigned in May 1897 to the Columbian Iron Works and Dry Dock Company, which was engaged in ship construction for the U.S. Navy in Baltimore, Maryland.

[10] Foote also bombarded Morro Island on 29 April 1898, and during the summer carried mail, dispatches, and supplies from Key West, Florida, to the blockading squadron off Cuba until the end of the war in August 1898.

[13] He was assigned to the battleship USS Kentucky before moving on to a tour on the Naval War College staff at Newport, Rhode Island.

[14][15] Relinquishing command of Wilmington, Rodgers attended the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1907–1908.

"[17] He suggested to Raymond P. Rodgers, who served as President of the Naval War College from 1909 to 1911, that the Navy adopt a similar approach.

During this tour, he also served on the Advisory Commission to the Conference on the Limitation of Armaments in 1921–1922, and as a technical adviser to the Committee of Jurists on the Laws of War at The Hague in the Netherlands in 1923.