In the ensuing years, Rush again alternated tours of duty afloat with assignments ashore. He served at the Boston Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts, in the equipment department and at the Naval War College and travelled to the Philippines where he became captain of Cavite Navy Yard in February 1906. In June 1907, he assumed command of the gunboat , the first of a series of successive sea commands that included "Ranger", battleships and , troop transport , armored cruiser , and battleship , and the First Division of the United States Fleet.