THE: E:NGINE:E:R
 

\JOLUME 4 NUMBER 2 )UMMER 1974
 

FE~TURE~

2 Pipel ine/News Iterns 

4 A Promising Tool for The Engineers/MAJ Joseph Briggs 

8 An AIT Approach To Dynamic Training/COL Maurice D. Roush 

10 Let's Get Back On The Training Track/CPT Guy R. Varchetto 

13 The "New Reliables"/CPT Leroy L . Saage 

16 Training With A Personal Touch/CPT Harold H. Scott 

18 Readiness Is Spelled Training/MAJ Mathew J. Jones, Jr. 

24 A Star For Valor/Eugene V. McAndrews 

28 Can Your Unit Meet ATP Standards/CPT Thomas F. Ramos 

30 Maneuver Damage Control/CPT Richard G. Perreault 

33 Apprentice To JourneymanlMAJ Hugh T. Stevenson 

36 The Military Dimension In Containerport Design/ 

MAJ Paul J. Theuer 

40 Engineers And Ethics/CPT Jess J. Franco, Jr. 

42 A Possible Solution To A Dangerous Problem/ 

CPT William D. Brown 

44 Bridging The Gap/Career Notes 

DEPARTMENT)
 

Chief's Briefs Pipeline Bridging The Gap
 
Gratiot became a clerk in a land office and died in St. 

y 13, 1855. 

Charles Gratiot, the U. S. Army's tenth Chief Engineer, was born 

St. Louis, Missouri, on August 29, 1787. 

Gratiot was appointed to the United States Military Academy at 

est Point from the Missouri Territory in 1804 by President 

Thomas Jefferson. He graduated from the Point in 1806 and was 

commissioned a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. 

Lieutenant Gratiot was promoted to the grade of captain in 1808 

and was assigned to help (t hen) Lieutenant Colonel Alexander 

Macomb construct fortifications at Charleston, South Carolina. 

Later, from 1810 to 1811, Gratiot was the post commander at West 

Point. 

During the War of 1812, Gratiot distinguished himself as General 

William Henry Harrison's chief engineer. Later, in 1819, he was 

appointed chief engineer of the Northwest Territory. Then, from 

1819 to 1828, Gratiot was the superintending engineer for 

construction of defenses at Hampton Roads, Virginia. 

Gratiot was promoted to colonel, breveted a brigadier general, 

and appointed as the Army's Chief Engineer on May 24, 1828. 

The general was a brave and distinguished engineer for 32 years 

but his over-zealous attitude regarding interpretation of the law in 

rendering his accounts caused President Martin Van Buren to 

dismiss Gratiot from the Army in 1838. Army General-in-Chief 

Macomb and fellow officers sympathized with Gratiot and felt the 

President's action was too harsh. 
· PIPELINE. PIR
 

TWO DMA OFFICERS 

NAMED TO DISTRICT 

ENGINEER POSTS 

Two Defense Mapping Agency officers have been named 

District Engineers by an Army 

Command Selection Board, 

according to Lieutenant GeneraI Howard W. Penny, Director 

of the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) Washington, D.C. 

Colonel Bernard C. Hughes, 

Chief of Plans Division, Headquarters DMA and Colonel 

George B. Gray, Deputy Director for Plans, Requirements 

and Technology, DMA Topographic Center were two of 11 

officers selected for these key 

U.S. Army Engineer positions. 

Colonel Hughes is the new 

District Engineer, Buffalo, 

New York, while Colonel Gray 

has been assigned as the District Engineer for Saudia 

Arabia. 

There are 13 Divisions and 39 

District offices, commanded by 

Engineer officers and staffed 

primarily by civilian employees. The work is decentral ized 

so that each District Engineer 

exercises complete control for 

the Corps in his area. 

The District Engineer is the 

Coprs' action officer for regional and local water resource 

programs as aCE plans and 

executes a major national wa ­

ter resources development program under national policies 

and directives established by 

the President and the Congress. 

In his area, the District Eng ineer heads the world's largest 

and most versatile construction agency. He directs waterways planning, design, construction and operation. In 

2 

most districts he provides a 

complete construction management and engineering service for the Army . He also designs and constructs for other 

U.S. Governmental agencies 

and foreign governments, 

when directed. 

TESTS OF FIBROUS 

CONCRETE NEAR 

COMPLETION AT WES 

Researchers at the Waterways Experiment Station in 

Vicksburg, Mississippi, are in 

the fina I stages of testing a 

concrete conta ining steel 

fibers. 

Historica lIy, high-tensile ma ­

teria Is have been used to improve the strength of brittle, 

low -tensile materials. Straw 

has been used in sunbaked 

bricks, horse hair has been 

used to reinforce plaster, and 

more recently va rious types of 

fibers such as asbestos, nylon, 

fiberglass and steel have been 

used to improve the tensi Ie 

properties of portland cement. 

Concrete mixed with steel 

f ibers, which has been used in 

funeral vaults for a long time, 

first caught the attention of the 

Corps of Engineers in the mid60's because of its blast-resistant qua lities. At WES the 

ma in interest in fibrous concrete is its possible use in 

buildlnq a ircraft runways. The 

Federa I Aviation Administrat ion is supporting WES in this 

project. 

In two series of tests (January 1971 -March 1972, March 

1972-May 1973) WES engineers 

subjected a total of four pavements to simulated loading 

conditions of the C-5A and 747 

aircraft. The test results 

showed that outstanding performance can be obtained from 

relatively thin pavements 

made from a mixture of .concrete and random ly dispersed 

steel fibers. 

The fibers WES used are 

commercially available in different sizes. Length va ries 

from 3/4 to 21/2 inches, and the 

diameter from 14 to 25 mils. 

The la rger the aspect ration of 

the f ibers (Iength/equ iva lent 

diameter), the smaller is the 

required fiber content to produce a given strength. At WES 

the typica I mixture of fibrous 

concrete conta ins 1 inch fibers 

and the fiber content varies 

from 100 to 300 Ibs. per cubj ­

yard. 

WES also built a road w. 

fibrous concrete to study its 

properties in regard to the 

need for joints in pavements. 

The road built was 1000 feet 

long, 24 feet wide, 4 inches 

thick, and contained no joints. 

Upon curing, seven cracks 

a ppeared in the pavement, dividing the 1000-foot-long sec ­

tion into 8 slabs ranging in 

length from 60 to 240 feet. 

Crack widths varied from 0.2 to 

0.5 inches. It is felt that with 

proper joint construction a uniform slab length of at least 100 

feet could have been maintained. This is significant 

when one cons iders that usua I 

slab lengths are from 10 to 25 

feet. 

This study, along with additiona I testing, will develop the 

technology for utilizing f ibrous 

concrete as a paving mater' 

which will hopefully result 

thinner, more durable pavements requiring less mainte­
nance and providing improved 

performance over conventional 

paving materia ls. 

HENK ASSUMES 

COMMAND OF 138TH 

GROUP AT 

FORT RILEY 

.olonel Floyd H. Henk, 

former District Engineer of the 

Fort Worth District, has assumed Command of the 138th 

Engineer Group at Fort Riley, 

Kansas. He succeeded Colonel 

John P. Chandler, the new 

Deputy Commandant of Com ­

bat and Training Development 

at the U.S. Army Engineer 

School, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. 

Colonel Henk was a student 

at the Army War College, 

Carl isle Barracks, Pennsylvania, prior to becoming the 

Fort Worth District Engineer 

in 1971. His other principal prior assignments included duty 

as Military Assistant in the 

Offi ce of the Di rector of Research and Engineering, Office 

of the Secreta ry of Defense; 

Commanding Officer, 13th Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry 

isl on. Korea; Branch Chief, 

e-X and space Division, 

f ice of the Chief of Research 

and Development, Department 

t lNE.PIPELINE.
 

of the Army, and Research and 

Development Coordinator for 

the Defense Atomic Support 

Agency . He also has served 

with the Alaska District Engineer's Office and the Japan 

Construction Agency. 

A native of San Marcos, 

Texas, the Colonel earned a 

Bachelor of Science Degree 

from Texas A&M Univers ity 

and a Master's Degree from 

the Un iversity of Illinois. He 

also is a graduate of the Com ­

mand and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan ­

sas. 

Colonel Henk is a registered professional engineer in 

Texas and is a member of the 

American Society of Civil 

Eng ineers and the Society of 

American Military Engineers. 

INDUSTRY GETS LOOK 

AT FUTURE TROOP 

SU PPORT PLANS 

"Troop Support for the Future" was the theme of an 

Advanced Planning Briefing 

for Industry (APS I) held recently in Humphreys Hall, Fort 

Belvoir, Va . The APBI was 

sponsored by the U.S. Army 

Troop Support Command 

(TROSCOM), St. Lou is with 

the Command 's Mobility 

Equipment Research and Development Center (MERDC), 

Fort Belvoir, serving as host. 

Conference organizers said 

some 400 participants from industry and government attended the briefing . The program included briefings on 

current projects and future 

plans by the chief of MERDC's 

five R&D departments and 

directors of TROSCOM's Natick (Mass) Laboratories 

(NLABS). 

The AP B I is designed to 

obtain maximum industry 

participation in TROSCOM's 

continuing efforts to keep pace 

with future troop requirements, by providing encapsulated information on the Com ­

mand's R&D programs, problems, assessments, forecasts 

and objectives. 

The Honorable Norman R. 

Augustine, Assistant Secretary of Army for Research and 

Development, was the banquet 

speaker, March 26 at the Fort 

Belvoir Officers Club. Major 

Genera I Hugh R. Higgins, 

TROSCOM Commanding Genera I gave the keynote address. 

Colonel T. R . Hukkala, 

ME RDC Commander, introduced the Center's presentations with an overview of its 

facilities and projects followed 

by Terence G. Kirkland, 

Technical Director, who discussed the MERDC Technologica I Long Range Plan. Col. 

Robert Chant, N LABS Deputy 

Commander, reviewed their 

programs, and James H. 

Flanagan, Deputy Technical 

Director for Eng ineering, presented the Natick Technological Long Range Plan. 

MERDC topics will include 

countermine, barriers, counterintrusion, bridges, watercraft, water and waste management, camouflage, electrical power, combat construction 

equipment, environmental 

control, materials handling, 

fuels, and fuels handling. Natick briefings covered personnel armor and i ndi v idua l 

equipment, airdrop systems, 

shelters and personal hygiene 

concepts . 

3 
TOOL 

THE ENGINEER Ma jor Joseph Brig

L et' s say you just got the mission to destroy a 

railroad tunnel. You pullout your demolition 

bible, your trusty FM 5-25, turn to page 4-57, and 

there's the answer to your problem - or is it? To 

effectively neutralize the tunnel, the FM cans for 

eight 750-pound high explosive charges placed in 

chambers drilled into the rock. Of course, most 

engineer units are equipped to rapidly produce the 

required cavities! However, regardless of the time 

required to perform this task, it must be done 

since the doctrine brings out the fact that most 

other methods are impractical because of the large 

quantities of explosives required. Even with eight 

750-pound charges, one-hundred-twenty 50-pound 

boxes of C-4 must be handled. 

There's got to be an easier way, right? Well, if 

you could ever get clearance, you might consider 

using an ADM. Never happen, you say. Let's 

hope not, but in the meantime we still must get rid 

of that tunnel. 

As you might have guessed by now, this guy 

has got some new blasting technique up his sleeve. 

The Army is looking at a new family of explosives 

called slurries. Actually, slurries aren't all that 

new. The commercial blasting and mmmg industries have been using them successfully for more 

than 15 years. 

When earthmoving and rock hauling equipment 

started getting bigger and bigger, until they 

reached the point where they could handle 20-, 50-, 

or even 100-ton loads, the amount of blast rock 

needed to keep pace became enormous. Mining 

engineers could no longer rely on cartridged 

dynamite to keep up with the demand. Explosives 

that could be easily handled in large quantities 

were needed. 

It was discovered that by adding a small 

amount of fuel oil to pelletized ammonium nitrate 

(a common fertilizer) one obtained an excellent 

explosive for production blasting. ANFO (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil) is much safer than 

dynamite; it was cheap, and it could be handled in 

bulk quantities almost like a liquid. Unfortunately, 

it had a few drawbacks. ANFO has a low density; 

therefore, it requires a larger volume than dynamite or TNT, for example, to produce the 

results. Worse than that, it is hydroscopic: i. ; 

absorbed moisture, and therefore could be us 

only in dry drill holes. 

4 
30,000 CY cu t after 300 hour s of sha pi ng effor l by heav y equ i pmen t . 

An ammonium nitrate based explosive is no 

stranger to the Army. For more than 30 years 

Uncl e has been procuring the 40-pound cratering 

charges commercially. The primary ingredient of 

these charges is a dry mix ammonium nitrate with 

a high explosive boo ster. Po ssibl e underwater 

employme nt of the cratering charge dictated that 

it be manufactured in a waterproof metal canist er. 

In the early 60's, it was found that b y adding 

water to ammonium nitrate along with suitable 

stabilizing and gelling ag ents, not only were most 

of the drawbacks of ANFO overcome, but handling 

of the r esulting explosive was simplified. 

These water-based ammonium nitrate explosive s are called slurr ies or water gels. They vary 

cd.

con sistency from a heavy paste to a solid 

ery mass, depending on the gelling agents 

Th e gelling agent insures a homogeneous 

mixture by preventing settling of components and 

it facilitates handling. Slur r ies can be formulated 

so that they can be pumped in a liquid state into a 

drill hole - thereby filling the entire hole and 

coupling directly with th e medium - after which 

they set up a more solid consistency. 

A simple slurry is onc in which the fuel oil 

found in ANFO is replaced with another fuel that 

is compatible with a water gel. Most commercial 

slurr ies consist of an explosive base, such as 

ammonium nitrate or sodium nitrate, and a fuel, 

such as carbon, sulfur, or aluminum. Some slur r ies 

use a high explosive su ch as TNT as a sens it izer , 

and these are cla ssified as slurry high explosives. 

Th e majority, however, contain no high explosives 

and are cla ssified as slur r y blasting agents. 

The addition of large quantities of aluminum 

produces a slurr y with very high energy release at 

moderate detonation pressures. The presence of 

aluminum lowers peak pressures, but provides 

5 
higher sustained gas pressures during the explosion. 

Thus, slurries represent not just one specific 

explosive with a given set of properties, but a wide 

range of products with a varying set of explosive 

properties. 

Slurries can be obtained in a variety of forms. 

They can be pre-packaged in polyethylene "sausages" in amounts of a few pounds up to a few 

hundred pounds. Or they can be mixed on-site in a 

special truck-mounted unit, which also pumps the 

slurry into the emplacement cavity. Commercial 

mixing-pumping units are capable of handling loads 

up to 50,000 pounds. 

What this potentially means to the military 

engineer is that he could obtain and easily emplace 

slurry explosives in quantities as small as a few 

pounds or as large as several tens of tons. Moreover, he could specify certain properties that the 

slurry should have to best match the job that 

needs to be done. 

Research is currently underway at the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment 

Station (WES) and the Army Material Command 

(AMC) to develop and evaluate, for military use, a 

family of slurry explosives that are capable of 

performing in both combat and con struction roles 

and that can be dispensed from a commercial 

portable mixing and pumping unit. With this 

system, the military engineer would be able to 

choose the best slurry mixture based on the 

requirements of the job (e.g., high energy and 

shock pressure for breaching hard materials or 

moderate energy and high gas pressure for 

cratering). It is envisioned that the slurry would 

be mixed either on-site or at a central location 

from a series of inert, nonexplosive ingredients 

(which individually would require no special storage or security arrangements). 

The slurry would be delivered to the job site in 

either prepackaged form or in the mixing-pumping 

unit. It would then be placed in the proper configuration for detonation by hand or by pumping. 

Detonation would require using a small high 

explosive booster. such as C-4. The slurry system 

in field operations would require logistical backup 

not unlike a concrete batch plant. But the 

r esulting explosive system would be much safer 

and more versatile than the present Army system. 

Slurries would not replace military explosives 

like C-4, but they would make an excellent 

substitute for the 40-pound ammonium nitrate 

cratering charge, since it appears that after this 

year the cratering charge will no longer be 

manufactured commercially in the United States. 

Slurries would also give the Army the capability of 

using explosives to do jobs not now considered 

feasible. 

The fact that slurry can be easily used in very 

large quantities means that large scale explosive 

excavation tasks would be possible. Craters 20 

feet and 100 feet across could become standard' 

barrier systems. Explosive excavation of ro 

cuts, harbors, canals, storage reservoirs and othe 

engineering structures would be possible at considerable savings in time and manpower over 

conventional construction methods. Demolition 

missions that require prohibitively large quantities 

of conventional explosives, such as the tunnel 

destruction job mentioned earlier, would become 

much less difficult. In brief, slur ries could introduce a whole new technology into military engineering. 

Hand load in g of a slu r r y . Th e plastic ba g is slit and the slur ry 

is a l low ed to slid e into th e em p lacem ent hole . 

About this time you will probably be saying 

that aU this sounds very interesting and fanciful, 

but who's to say that any of these ideas will work. 

For the past several years many of these 

"fanciful concept s" have been examined theoretically and practically by WES through its Explosive 

Excavation Re search Laboratory, ERRL. Formerly call ed the Nuclear Cratering Group, ERRL h» 

conducted a series of projects using slurry exp 

sives to perform construction and combat engrneering tasks. 

6 
This IS a t ypic al slurry mix i ng and pum ping tru ck . Th e truc k 

is pumping 11 s lurr y explosive in to water-f il led hol es. 

One of the first major projects was the 

construction of a small-boat harbor at Kawaihae 

Bay on the big island of Hawaii. Twelve 10-ton 

charges of an alumninized ammonium nitrate 

slurry we re used to excavate a channel and 

berthing basin 12 feet deep in the coral bottom. 

The charges were buried about 40 feet deep and 

about 100 to 120 feet apart. 

Construction of a dam near Trinidad, Colorado, 

required th e relocation of a railroad line. The new 

Iignrnent passed through a ser ies of hills and 

equired cuts in excess of 20 feet deep and 400 feet 

long. Twelve 2-ton and twenty I-ton slurry 

charges were used to excavate 18,000 yards of 

sandstone for one of the cuts. Not only was the job 

done in considerably less time than would have 

been required by conventional methods, but it was 

also done at much low er cost. 

Slurries have successfully excavated craters 

that are impassable to tactical vehicles and demonstrated their usefulness in creating obstacles 

and barriers. In the fall of 1971 and 1972 Projects 

ARMOR OBSTACLE I and II were conducted in 

the Bearpaw clay shale near the Fort Peck 

Re servoir in Montana. They were conducted to 

evaluate on a go-no-go basis the obstacle effectiveness of the slur ry produced craters and to evaluate and improve upon the existing prechamber 

barrier concept and the Ar my's deliberate road 

crater technique using slurry explosives. The 

explosive and equipment tested ranged from 240 to 

4000 pounds and from the M151Al Jeep to the 

Army's main battle tank, the M-60. In all cases, 

the craters produced were classified a s effective 

obstacles. Th e pre-chambered crater s proved to 

be extremely effective. Not only was it impossible 

r the tank to exit this crater even after 

attempt ing to maneuver in it , but remedial dozer 

action proved only marginally effective and quite 

time con suming. From these initial tests it appears that with the employment of slur ry explosives serious consideration can be given to modifying the standard deliberate road crater de sign by 

reducing the number of emplacement holes and 

the r eby sav ing valuable emplacement time and 

manpower. 

Project ARMOR OBSTACLE II is the first of a 

series of experiments geared to investigate specifically the feasibility, de sign, and employment 

concept s for utilizing slurry explosives for creating 

barriers to impede en emy movement, destroying 

targets (such' as dams, bridges, and culver t s), and 

improving military engineering construction techniques. 

The name "Explosive Dredge" may be familiar 

to many engineers who were in the Mekong Delta 

of South Vietnam in 1968. This is the name of a 

project conducted by the Navy, that was testing 

line charges made of packaged slurry saus ag es for 

producing and widening canals. Results of this 

program were also very successful. Using 20 

pounds of slurry explosive per linear foot in less 

than 12 inches of water, the r esearch team was 

able to produce canals 20 feet wide and 4 feet de ep. 

As recently as early June, tests with slur r y 

explosives were completed near Huntington, 

Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the 176th Engineer Group of the Virginia Nat ional Guard. The 

tests examined the effectiveness and usefulness of 

slurry explo sives compared to t he 40-pound cratering charge. Once again, the "jelly goo ," as referred 

to by several of the guardsmen, produced some 

excellent craters. 

There is no scheme or devious plan to revolutionize military engineering by the employment of 

slur ry explosives. However, it is fairly obvious 

that this commercial ex plosive could provide the 

engineer with .a powerful tool, well-suited to 

tomorrow's battlefields. 

Major Joseph Briggs is assigned as the Assistant Chief of the Planning and R esearch Division of 

the Explosive Excavation Research Laboratory, a 

laboratory of the U s. Army Enginee r Waterways 

Experiment S tatio n. He also serve s as the S tation 's co.ordinator f or the Military Engineering 

A pJ!ltcatwns for Commercial Explosives. His troop 

assumments have included company commander, 

and atomic demo lition munition team leader with 

the 86t Engineer Battalion (Com bat Army ) at 

Fort Dtx ,. New J ersey, and as chief of advisory 

teams unih. the 539th Engineer Battalion in 

Fietnam and Thailand. He also served as executive officer of the 20th Engineer Battalion in 

Vietnam. He holds the B.S. degree in Architec ture 

Engineering from Hampt on Institute, Virginia, and 

the M.S. deg ree in Civil Engineering from th e 

University of California. 

7 
Colonel Maurice D. Roush 

New Pilot Advanced Individual Training (AIT) 

programs at Fort Leonard Wood. Missouri, 

concentrate upon the soldier as an individual and 

are aimed at increasing the skill and motivation of 

graduates. The conditions which existed during 

the Vietnam era favored the unskilled approach, 

and the rapid turnover in the Army did not favor 

the long-term motivational aspects of training. 

Now, however, the needs of a volunteer Army 

make it essential that we produce multi-skilled and 

hence flexibly employable soldiers. 

Long range economies in keeping our field 

forces up to strength also necessitate turning out 

career motivated soldiers. Both goals can be 

served by clearly demonstrating early in a soldier's 

career that achievement yields tangible rewards. 

Most AIT courses now are geared to a uniform 

rate of learning by all trainees. This results in a 

de-facto penalty for the more adept trainee or the 

man with previous experience. He is slowed to the 

• 

rate of the less adept and, in our experience, is 

often severely frustrated in the latter part of the 

course. Yet, he is precisely the man upon whom 

we should be concentrating and providing an 

incentive and a reason for making the Army a 

career. 

With these thoughts in mind, a pilot program 

was devised at Fort Leonard Wood early in 1973 to 

seek a more responsive method of training engineer soldiers. The program was coordinated with 

the Engineer School and subsequently approved 

by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command 

at Fort Monroe, Virginia. 

Entitled "Incentive Training," the program 

uses a modified selfpaced approach with add-on 

modules for those who complete early. The sevenweek Crawler Tractor Course (MOS 62E) was 

selected for conduct of a four-cycle test. Under th• . 

program, trainees who can pass the standar 

performance tests in three weeks also can learn to . / 

operate scooploaders and wheeled tractors. Those 

8 
graduating in four weeks also can learn the motor 

grader, and those graduating in five weeks also 

can learn th e wheeled tractor. Individuals who 

·quir ed the total se ven-week period to learn the 

awler tractor r emained in the course for that 

period and standards were not r elaxed for any of 

the tes ting. Equipment and instructor constraints 

preclud ed use of a true se lf-paced mode of 

instruction, hence t he three, four and five week 

testing poin t s. 

Cons ide r at ion was given to r estricting the pilot 

program to only a modified self-paced approach 

without the add-on training. Su ch an approach 

offers the clear advantage of earlier delivery to 

units of at least some of our tr ainees. How ever, 

the incentive and motivational advantages would 

have been impaired severely or completely de ­

stroyed. It was consid ered essential to be able to 

offer the higher achi ev ers a r eward for their 

int ensified efforts and thus begin early to prove to 

t he soldier that the Army does r eward achievement. 

The pilot In cen tive Training program be gan 

last September and has been monitored closely by 

the Engineer School, Human Resources Research 

Organization (HUMRRO) and TRADOC. Improvements to the initial program were pu t into effect as 

soon as t hey were recognized as de sirable. For 

[nst ance, the original concept included self-pace d 

sting only at th e end of t he t hird and fifth week s 

and limited add-on training to the scoop-loader and 

wheeled tractor. 

Shor tly after th e first cycles, it became apparen t that the program would ben efit by adding 

testing at the end of the fourth week and providing 

grader operator add-on training. Also, the third 

week t esting, which had been mandatory, wa s 

made voluntar y. The proportion of trainees pa ssing the mandatory third we ek test had be en small 

and it. appeared that this early testing might be 

counterproductive for the less ad ept. Since the 

change, about 25 percent of the trainees have 

volunteered for the third week test. 

The success of the program is demonstrated by 

the fact that TRADOC au thorized its ex tension on 

an "as is" basis pending completion of analysis and 

fina l r ecommendations. Furthe r, HUMRRO has 

been directed to concentrate its efforts on the 

Crawler Tractor Cours e to assist in attaining 

optimum r esults. 

Whil e the analysis of the In centive Training 

pilot program is not complete some observations 

are in order based upon the first four cycles. They 

show th at ­

•	 A significant number of our trainees are 

capable of learning to operate more than 

one piece of equipme nt in seve n weeks. So 

far 10 percent have learned three pieces of 

equipment and 53 percent have learned 

two. 

•	 All command indices, such as sick call and 

AWOL rates indi cate the program is producing a better motivated , more soldierly 

gr aduate. 

•	 On-site, groups of trainees coaching eac h 

other has become prevalent. 

•	 Those trainees who still require the entire 

seven weeks to learn to operate the crawler tract or have not be come discouraged. 

To the contrary, the failure rate has decreased. 

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the 

Incentive Training program lie s in the field of 

trainee attitudes. All chain of command personnel 

associated with the program have noted a striking 

up swing in trainee eagerness and motivation in all 

asp ects of soldi ering. As an example, the Cr awler 

Tractor Course consistently surpasses the other 15 

Engineer MOS producing courses combined in 

ha vin g its members se lected as the outstanding 

soldie r of each day's Brigade guard. 

Gaining commanders are being notified by 

letter on an individual basis of those trainees who 

learned to operate additional equipme nt. Feedback has been r equested from the field to help 

assure responsiveness to the needs of TO&E units. 

An Incentive Training pilot program along 

similar lines also ha s be en devised for Pioneer AIT 

CMOS 12AIO) and was launched for the first time 

on March 17, 1974. TRADOC au thorized four 

cycles of seven weeks duration. After the fourth 

cycle is completed the program will be evaluated 

to determine whether it should he adopted permanently. 

Colone l Maurice D. Roush 'is th e Commanding 

Officer of th e 4th Advan ced Individual Training 

Brigade(ENGR) , Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. A 

22-year active duty ve teran, the colonel's military 

education includes a Bachelor 's Degree from the 

Unite d States Military A cademy and graduation 

from the Engineer Officer Adv anced Course, the 

Command and General Staff College, the A rme d 

Forces Staff College, and th e A rmy War College. 

He also earne d a Master's Degre e from the 

University of Illinois in 1956. During his service 

career, Colonel Roush has served as an Engineer 

Unit Commander in Korea, Deputy District Engineer, Tactical Officer at West Point and A nnapolis, 

and Engineer A dvis or to th Turkish Third Army. 

He also had assignments as a Battalion Command er, District Engineer, and Deputy Civil 

A dminis trator of the Ryukyu Islands. The colonel 

has served a total of seven yean overseas in 

Korea, Turkey, Hawaii, Vietnam, and the R yukyu 

Islands. 

9 

personne l. This places a heavier load on the 

officers and noncoms to absorb more of t he add inal duties t han they would normally sha re if t he 

t were operating at full stre ngth. This simply 

s up to the fact t hat when all of a unit's 

unctions are accomplished by less t han the number 

of people authorized to get the job done there is a 

proportional loss of efficiency. 

• TOE units were designed to accomplis h 

specific functions or missions and were authorized 

only enough personnel and eq uipme nt to carry 

them out. No TOE/TDA allows for special 

training devices at company level or specialized 

personnel in this field but most companies try to 

maintain the materi als necessary to support a 

training operation by detailing an NCO and a clerk 

to the ta sk, 

• Officers and noncoms detailed to training ar e 

responsible for the conduct and beh avior of their 

men. . Lead ership and training are overlapping 

areas to a gre at extent. Both areas demand a grea t 

deal of time and effort. The officer 'or noncom who 

plans and conducts his training to the best of his 

ability has no recourse but to deny his personnel a 

degree of the lead ership they require. Our 

soldiers must be led, mot ivated , and assiste d 

t hro ughout their tour of duty no matter whether it 

is for two or 20 ye ars. We cannot achieve these 

iectives by den ying t hem lead er ship . 

• Most noncoms assigned to line units as squad 

aders or platoon sergeants hav e had littl e if any 

form al training or experience on how to be an 

effect ive instructor. Our noncoms have been 

trained and have acqu ired experience in the 

principles of leadership. They may have the 

necessary know ledge but t hat does not make them 

automat ic instructors. 

• It is said by some so-called military experts 

that t he soldier enlisting in today's Army leaves a 

lot to be desired. This mayor may not be true but 

he certainly is better educated than his predecessors . This being the case, he is able to detect that 

his squad leader and platoon sergeant may not 

have the ability to be instructors. After he 

realizes this basic fact, the soldier becomes less 

receptive to the training and often has a tendency 

to ridicule his superiors who are making genuine 

attempts to conduct proper training. 

There ar e a number of other reasons why the 

"decent ralized training concept" is not working up 

to origina l expectations. Perhaps the main point is 

th at it does not work. The Army can continue to 

demand results with little chance of getting them. 

eople can continue to write and rewrite circulars 

d regulations to clar ify the program. Or the 

my can face the facts and attempt to do 

something abo ut them. Since it is highly unlikely 

that the present "pass t he buck" training concept 

will cease to exist, it is high time to give the unit 

commander some guidance and suggestions he can 

use to accomplish t he mission. 

Decentralized training does have one thing 

going for it. This is the realization that the unit 

commander knows best what his strengths and 

weaknesses are and therefore knows where he 

ought to be concentrating his training program. 

Wit h this thought in mind and an awareness of the 

problems with the current training policy, there is 

a way of improving training immensely without 

restructuring the Army from the Chief-of-Staff 

down to squad level. 

Ther e is nothing remar ka bly new abo ut the 

proposal that is being offered here to alleviate the 

training problem. It par allels the old committee 

training concept slightly but differs conside rably in 

organizat ion and function. In t he past, the 

battalion S3 grabbed a few special duty people who 

wor ked up lesson plans, publishe d schedules, and 

conducted training for three soldiers when 300 

were programmed for t he class. Instead of t his 

plan, why not try committee training or ganized in 

such a mann er as to embody pro fess ionalism, unit 

integrity. te amwork, job satisfaction, and leadershi p. Th is concept can be adopted by nearly all 

TOE units of battalion size. However, se parate 

companies and some units performing su pport 

functions may have difficulty impl ementi ng a 

pr ogr am of this nature. 

Committee training. as envisioned her e. is still 

decentralized down to battalion level. There are 

four steps that must be taken to implement th e 

program. First. determine t he training requirements; second , select and equip th e committee ; 

t hird, pr epare a training schedule; and finally, put 

it to work. Let us examine each step in succe ssion: 

• D ETERMIN E TRA IN ING REQ UIREMENTS - In any given TOE battalion with four 

line companies, the training requirements would 

be the same. Since th e company commanders ar e 

the best judges of their training needs and the S3 

is read in on the battalion's requirements, th ey 

need to have meetings to determine and agree 

upon th e training requirements for the entire 

battalion. This could take up as much as two 

weeks time and require several me etings. The S3 

should list major ar eas that require atten tion . 

Then the unit commanders should present th eir 

pr oblems and contributions for consideration in the 

development of t he finalized list. These areas 

would then be broken down into sub -areas 

requiring concentrated attention. The S3 and th e 

unit commanders would then discuss each and 

every major and sub -area and reach a decision on 

th e amount of training t hat would be required for a 

given subject. When each subject area is 

11 
completed the S3 would add it to a list which, 

when completed, would constitute the unit's 

master training program. This would give the unit 

a basis from which to work. 

• SELECTING AND EQUIPPING THE COMMITTEE - Under this concept, each company in 

the battalion would be required to attach one full 

TOE squad to the battalion S3 for the express 

purpose of conducting the training program. These 

squads would be staffed with the best personnel 

available in each company. To insure professional 

staffing, the battalion sergeant major would be 

required to personally monitor the assignment of 

enlisted personnel to the four squads. In addition 

to "cream of the crop" staffing, each squad would 

be equipped with 100 percent fully operational 

tools, vehicles, and equipment authorized by the 

currect TOE /TDA. The four squads would become 

the training committee for the battalion. Their 

mission would be to work directly for the 83 and 

conduct the battalion's training program. This 

would be done on an individual, squad, or platoon 

basis. Under the direction of the S3, the squad 

leader and his personnel would prepare lesson 

plans, research study material, coordinate utilization of training areas, support their instruction 

with organic equipment and manpower, and 

receive guidance from the operations officer for all 

support beyond their capabilities. The training 

committee would handle the program for six to 

nine months before being replaced by different 

squads. The professional staffing that was used 

when the program was established would insure 

its success. Succeeding squads would be able to 

draw on the lesson reference files, training aids, 

and experience developed by the first group of 

squads. 

• SCHEDULING - Determining training re ­

quirements and the organization of the training 

committee should take place simultaneously. As 

soon as both functions are completed, the four 

squad leaders would report to the S3 for a briefing 

on the training objectives. The S3 would then 

assign each squad leader his share of the training 

subjects. Each squad would be given one month 

lead time in which to prepare lesson plans, study 

and research subject material, and finalize the 

training program. During the third week of the 

month, the squads would begin a series of rehearsals with the 83 to refine the instruction. It is 

not anticipated that each squad would present 40 

hours of instruction each week or every other 

week. The S3 would plan the training schedule to 

coincide with the normal operations of the 

battalion in a way that would allow every squad or 

platoon in the unit to rotate through the required 

subjects within the desired time frame. 

• PUT IT TO WORK - After the first three 

steps have been completed the battalion would be 

ready to start its training program. Then it would 

be up to the first line supervisors in the unit 

read the schedules and insure that their person 

attend the required training sessions. Also 

junior officers and noncoms should attend the 

training sessions with their men. It should be 

mandatory that they attend the sessions since the 

burden of conducting the training would be on the 

instructors. Their prime mission would be to get 

their personnel to the training site. Their other 

requirements, of course, would be to offer 

assistance to the instructor and provide overall 

supervision for their men, if necessary. This 

program comes under the heading of leadership 

and teamwork. This way the supervisor is a 

supervisor and the instructor is an instructor. 

Neither one is a mixture of both. Can there 

possibly be a better arrangement for a training 

program? 

a 

It should be understood that the training 

committee could not be required to conduct 40 

hours of training each week. Just how much 

training each squad would conduct would be up to 

the S3, the company commanders, and the 

capabilities of each squad of instructors. 

What happens to the rest of the week? We ll, 

the company commander could now concentrate 0 

the routine program of running his unit the way 

should be run. He would now have time to condu 

motor stables, command information classes, hold 

inspections, and maintain his living and working 

areas. By not having to concern himself with 

sponsoring the training that the training committee would be handling, the unit commander 

could now run his unit in a much better fashion 

than most are being run today. It certainly would 

be run with less effort and strain for all concerned. 

Just imagine how much better these ' units 

might be if the commanders were able to spend 

the same amount of effort and strain they are 

putting forth today only in the areas that need so 

much of their attention. Let us hope they will be 

able to do just that tomorrow! 

Captain Guy R. Varchetto is the Commanding 

Officer of Headquart ers and Headquarters Company, 7th Engineer Brigade, U S. Army 

Headquarters, Europe. The article he presents 

here for THE ENGINEER is a modification of a 

suggest'ion he submitted to the command some 

time ago. He wrote that "it is almost taboo to 

speak out for any type of training other than the 

current "Decentralized Training Concept" here i7, 

USAREUR." It is hoped that this topic wi ....." 

gen erate some contro versial discussion on current 

ideas regarding training in the Army today. 

12 
THE
 

Have you ever looked with nostalgic envy at a 

r eplica of a 19th century frontier r ecruiting 

ter ? "Capt ain Kit Carson is raising a troop of 

alr y to join the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Join 

Th e cha nce to raise and train a unit seem ed lost 

to th e contem porary Army until the 9th Infantry 

Division came on the scene at Fort Lewis , 

Wa shington. And with it came still another 

oppor tunity new to most officers and non-commissioned officers - th e chance to conduct Advanced 

Individual Training within a t actical unit. 

This is the stor y of Company D, 15th Engineer 

Battalion (Combat ), and its effor ts in recruiting 

and training within th e 9th Division. The 9th was 

reconstituted at Fort Lewis aft er ser vice in 

Viet nam and designa ted a unit-of-choice division . 

Since it was manned at only cadre strength, those 

present to watch th e colors uncased knew they had 

to r ecruit the balance of t he division. Rumor has it 

that th e t hen Ar my Chief of Staff, General William 

C. Westmoreland, said to the new Division 

Command er, Major Gener al William F. Fulton, "If 

you want a division, Bill, go out and get one." 

Though th e recruiting effort was organi zed and 

contr olled from division level, it was up to each 

company commander to screen, se lect, indoctrite, cajole, and dispatch non-commissioned 

icers from his company to r ecruit the enginee r 

diers he needed to up-grad e his command from 

r einforced squ ad to compa ny. Though noncommissioned officers were used exclusively at 

Captain Leroy L. Saage 

fir st, once th e division had trained some new 

recruits, many of these were selected as 

Hometown Recruiters to re turn home and r ecruit 

th eir friends. Creditabilit y was the by-word in th e 

re cruiting effor t. The "Madison Avenue" ap proach 

wa s dis carded in faVOl' of a t ell-it-like-it-is attitude. 

We migh t ha ve re cruited fewer men, bu t th e one s 

who enlisted had a pr ett y good idea of what they 

wer e getting into. In an effort to better tell the 

engineer story, a special engineer display and 

r ecruiting t eam went on the road for six weeks in 

ke y western states to supplement the regular 

program. Although statist ics var ied wit h each 

Recruiting Main Station visited, all enjoyed a 

marked increase in recruiting during th e time the 

en gineer team was with th at station. 

Members of Company D not activ ely participating in r ecruiting also were not idle. All the 

oth er chores associated wit h cranking up a new 

unit had to be done. Barracks were up graded, 

offices set up, and th e compa ny maintenance area 

and bridge park had to be or ganized. 

By far the most demanding t ask was planning 

and pr eparing th e in-unit ad vanced individual 

training pr ogr am. Maximum use was mad e of t he 

de centralized training concept with the compa ny 

commande r makin g most of the decisions concer ning what th e recruits would be train ed to do and 

how t hey would be trained . Army subject 

schedules were us ed as guides , but originality and 

creativ ity were key element s by whi ch the training 

program was judged. Str ong emphasis wa s placed 

13 
on making the training task-ori en ted and its 

conduct prim arily hands-on. 

Any tr aining program has the require me nt 0 

supervision and validation of assimilated skills a .'1 

knowledges. Thus is revealed one of th e attribut IJ?!' 

of in-unit AIT as opposed to the training center 

variety. When new soldiers arrived in the unit, 

th ey were assigned to the section and platoon with 

whi ch they would remain while in the comp any . 

The chain of command r esponsible for the ir 

discipline, morale . and mission accomplishment, 

also was r espon sible for training. Leaders are ap t 

to be more conscientious in training wh en th eir 

later r eputation s will depend upon how well their 

cha rges perform . 

Buildin g this habitu al association of lead ers and 

r ecrui ts began the first day the new arrivals 

r eached the unit. The "New Reliabl es" (derived 

from the 9th Division motto, Old Reliables) were 

not glad-handed but were made to feel welcome 

and were given ever y assistance in settling into 

th eir new home. The se ction sergeant was th e key 

man in t he life of th e New Reliable. He was the 

th e primary trainer , advice giver, and motivator. 

He was also an infinite source of information. Th e 

section sergeant insured that each New Reliabl e 

was assigned a "buddy." The "buddy" helped 

orient the new man to post facilities and 

participated in peer training. The greatest va

of t he budd y system , however, was t he mark 1\ 

redu ction in off-post assaults and robberie ",./ 

normally committed against lone soldi ers. Genuine 

effor t was made to maintain responsiveness in the 

chain of comma nd. Discipline is based upon 

confidence, and confidence is built in part by 

reasonable r edress of grievances. 

The acid test of the entire concept came in the 

actual conduct of trainin g. The company wanted to 

emphasize and properl y develop individual engineer skills whil e simultaneously maintaining small 

unit int egri ty. Th is idea was far easier t o talk 

about than to impl ement. A few general guid elin es 

were finally decided upon. First, the base training 

unit would be the platoon. Each platoon attende d 

tra ining as a group and usually would not be 

training in th e same subject area as anoth er 

platoon. Secondl y, introductory and explanatory 

phases of training would be directed toward the 

individual soldier whil e practical exer cises would 

be conduct ed as a platoon. Thirdly, qualification 

tests usually involved a platoon mission with each 

memb er demonstr ating skill in a specific area of 

that mission. Lastly, the final t est before 

gr aduation wa s of the situ ation-reaction ty pe . Each 

soldier wa s pr esen ted with a sit uation, an array i \ mentt' adnd graded fup oln . hisths el onl t d rtJ 

eq uipme n an mann er 0 so vmg e stipu a e 

pr oblem . 
Th e shor tcoming most fr equ ently point ed out 

by detract ors of th e decentralized AIT-in -unit 

concept is th e loss of efficiency . Their ar gumen t is 

t hat a training center, with its large training 

pdget and training cadr e, can better tr ain a 

bldier in indi vidual skills. An instructor who 

t eaches only one subject will be more pr oficient 

than a squad leader or pla toon leader with myriad 

other r esponsibilities. This argument is certainly 

legitimate . 

But let's look a t th e Army's tra ining objectives 

in the ir order of pr iority. Th ese obj ectives ar e: 

(1) military disciplin e. (2) te amw ork, (3) health , 

stre ngth, and e ndurance, (4) t actical proficiency, 

and (5) techni cal proficiency. Examination r eveals 

tha t th e efficiency provided by a cent ralized 

training program has its gre atest impact in only 

one ar ea - techni cal pro ficiency. It is last in 

pri ority. The str ength of the AIT -in-unit concept 

is t hat it most directly addresses itself to the first 

four objectives. Many of us would do well to 

r em ember t he maxim, "First a soldier. then an 

engi nee r." 

It was men tion ed earlier tha t the bulk of 

training was to be hands-on. This may deser ve 

some ex pa nsion. Hand s-on tra ining means simply 

that a soldier learns a skill by actually practicin g 

that skil1 rather t ha n hearing ab out it in a 

classroo m. Some of th e mor e complex subjects 

quir ed int rodu ctory classroom time , but by far 

iost of the soldier's time was devoted to learning 

y doing. 

Additio nally, tr aining was structured ar ound 

attainin g a desired skill level demonstrated 

through accomplishing a parti cular t ask at the end 

of the tr aining block. The ma ster training 

schedule provided guidelines in the form of an 

estimated number of hours r equired to teach a 

sp ecific block of instruction. Th e training schedule 

fluctuated depending upon how well the new 

enginee r soldi er learn ed the r equired skills. This 

was possible because the 9th Division allowed up 

to 13 weeks to complet e AIT and the normal 

platoon r equired around eight or nine weeks to 

train. Once AIT had been completed , opportuniLi es wer e mad e available for specialized training 

gear ed to meet the personal needs of th e individual. 

En gineer soldiers in less glamorous MOSs were 

allowed t o cross train as hea vy equipme nt 

oper ators or in oth er technical skills in high 

demand in th e civilian job mark et. And of course 

for t hose soldiers lookin g for a little excite me nt , 

th e Northwest with its challenging riv er rapids 

and scores of moun tains offered virtually unlimited 

possibilities for adventure training. Th e 9th 

Division may well have t he only bridge company in 

t he Army that is capable of conducting ski-borne 

bridgin g ope rations, if th ere is such a thing. 

Ma ny of the enlistees looked toward the Army 

as a means t o upward mobility . In support of 

these efforts , the 9th Division esta blished the "Old 

Reliabl e Un iversity." Th rough th e "Univer sity" 

soldiers were allowed to attend course s taught 

through civil institutions during duty hours. 

Classes were taught on post and offered vocation al, high school, college. and gr aduat e school 

courses. As an example, a soldier entering the 9th 

Division with a high school education could ea r n an 

Associates De gree through Old Reliable Unive risty by th e end of his guarant eed sixteen 

months with the division. 

What has been pr esented here is one company's 

experience with r ecruiting and training in t he 9th 

Division . Whil e not universal, many of th e 

concepts discuss ed here ar e applicable to all 

t act ical units. Decentralized r ecruiting and training bolster teamwork and esp rit -de-cor ps and 

pro vide true satisfa ction for th e leader. 

Captain Lee Saag e is a recent graduate of the 

Enqineer Officer Advance d Course at Fort Belvoir 

Virginia. He also is a graduate of the Enginee; 

Officer Candidate School and attended George 

Washing ton Unive rsi ty in ~h ngton, D. C. 

Captain Saaqe 's assiqnments include both ADE 

and Bridqe Company Commander with the 9th 

Infantr y Div ision, Electro nics Supply Officer with 

the 15th Support Brigade, and Operations Off icer 

for the 91st A ssault Helicopter Company in 

Vietnam. 

15 
0 

T he comb at r eadiness of any .ni~ is dep end e.n~ on 

thr ee factors: 

personnel logistics, and training. 

A unit may 

have an acceptable troop strength and 

en ough equipment to outfit its 

troops, bu t if t 

troops are not motivated and proficient in th 

assigned responsibilities, the combat readiness 

this unit 

is apt to be marginal. It is for this r eason 

th at leaders at ev ery level should be aware of the 

ty pe of training the replacement str eam personnel 

ar e receiving. 

Th e majority of r eplacement 

stream personnel 

ar e trained in the U.S. Army Training Centers or 

service schools throughout the cont inent al United 

States . For Engineer soldiers this center is 

located at 

F t. Leonard Wood, Missouri. 

Most soldiers who entered the service during 

the last 10 years remember the se cond plase of 

formal training, Ad

vanced Individual Training 

(AIT), as an eight-wee k ext ension of Basic Combat 

Training with a few written examinations scattered at random throughout the training cycle. 

The product of this type of training, mor e often 

than not, wa s a soldi er proficient at answering 

multiple-choice questions. Once r emoved from this 

sterile environment, he was lost in the r eal world 

wh en his choices were r educed to two courses of 

action - righ t and wrong. Most soldiers in this situat ion were inclined to 

do nothing at 

all, since th e consequences for takin 

the wrong course of action far outweighed the co 

se que nces for pleading ignorance and lettin 

things slid e. 

Another fallacy with the old training practices 

was that th ere wa s no way to really build the confidence of th e indi vidual. After graduating 

from AIT, t he soldier had the knowledge from th e 

instruction 

pr esented, but he lacked the confidence 

to apply th at knowledge. 

Minnesota Metropolitan State College (MMSC), 

Minneapoli s-St. Paul. Minn esota, ha s a method of instruction unlike most high er-learning institutions. Th is new type of state-supported school 

covers th e final two 

years of college in a rather 

unique mann er. 

The instructors are from the professions, 

business, communit y services and so for th. Th ese instructors do not ne cessarily have degrees themse lves. The students work directly with these people in an apprentice-type training and are t aught to r elate their textbook knowledge to the world of r eality. 

Dr. David Sweet, President of the college, feels 

that pen-and-paper exams are too narrow and that 

ex perience in a chosen field, guid ed by an experience d person, is much better. Doctor Sw e \ has state d that it is not when and how the stude ) has learned the subject , but rather that the -/ 

student does know the subject. This new concept 

16 
... .. .. . 

in education has been heralded as the wav e of the 

ut ur e. 

A system similar to MMSC's has been adopted 

, the Army and is called "Per formance-or ient ed 

Training." This is a dynamic and motivating 

training administered with advancement based on 

indi vidual progress . How does this system differ 

from the old? Well, for the Engineers it takes less 

tim e. The new training cycle for most Engineer 

Military Occupational Specialty courses is sev en 

weeks as opposed to the old eight-week cycle. 

How can a better-qualified soldier be produced 

in seven weeks when th e old system utilized eight 

we eks to produce a multiple-choice expert? Th e 

performance-oriented system is based on a go/no 

go approach. This means th e trainee must actually 

perform an assigned task und er the close 

supervision of an instructor in a satisfactory 

manner before he is allowed to continue to th e 

next plase of training. This allows the faster 

learners to progress at a more rapid rate and 

slow er learners to receiv e additional training to 

brin g their level of performance to an acceptable 

standard. 

The faster learners are utili zed as pe er -instructors to aid the slowe r learner s. This coupled with 

a gen eral streamlinin g of subject matter has 

ought about the shorter training cycle . This 

es not mean any proficiency is lost. On the 

contrary, less time is spent listening to lectures 

and more tim e is devoted to actual job 

performance. 

Performance-oriented training brings the r epla cement stream personnel up to an equal plane 

of proficiency. However, th e individual training 

should not stop with AlT. Once assigned to a unit, 

this highly trained and motivated soldier must be 

allow ed to maintain and even improve his 

proficiency by mor e specialized, operational experience. Perform ance-oriented training in AIT 

merely est ablishes a basis from which an individual 

can expand. It is up to every s uper visor to insure 

that these individuals are at least afforded the 

opportunity to do jut that. 

Performance-oriented training may not be the 

sale solution to attaining a more-professional 

Army, but with the expansion of this t ype of 

concept to all fields of training and management, 

the goal of a mor e professional Army will be advanced . 

Captain Harold H S cott is a recent graduate of 

the Engineer Officer Advan ced Cours e at Fort 

Belcoir, V1'rginia, A lso a graduate of the Engineer 

Officer Candidat e S chool there, he has served with 

Engineer units both in th e United Stat es and 

o'verseas. The captain was formally assign ed to 

th e 1st Engin eer Battalion, 1st Infantry Di vision 

(Meeh), Fort Riley, Kansas; the 4th AIT Brigade, 

USATC, Fort L eonard Wood, Missouri, and in 

Vietnam with th e 26th Engineer Battalion, 23rd 

Infantry Division (A merical). 

17 
.,
 

II' -/

Readiness Is Spelled .\ 

T he drawdown in and subsequent withdrawal 

from Vietnam returned us to a peacetime Army 

- an Army replete with shifted priorities and th e 

historically recurrin g condition of postwar austerity. The articulation of our national policy 

r egarding future calls to arms was irrefutably 

br ought int o focus by the Secr eta r y of Defense in 

1970 wh en the Total Force Concept was enunciated. This concept explicitly includ es the Re serve 

components in our military planning. It assigns 

th e Reserve components a major role in th e 

strategy of our National Security. Post-Vietnam 

r eductions in Acti ve Army strength effe ctively 

incr eased Reserve compone nt strength. 

'I'oday's force structure pr ofile puts nearly half 

of the Army's strength in the Reserve components 

(See Figure 1). This for ce distribution demands 

t he high degree of emphasis bein g dedi cated to th e 

Reserve compone nts. Unlike th e "One Army" 

concept which never really got off the ground, th e 

"Tota l Army Force" concept wa s forc efully conceive d and is rigorou sly pursu ed. Emphasis and 

interest are much in evide nce from th e high est 

echelons of th e Army to the lowest. Th e recent 

r eorgani zati on of th e Army in CONUS is directly 

r elat ed to practi cal reali zation of the Total Army 

Force (See Figure 2). 

'00 aII bra ncb e£) 

55/. 

45'l. 

AW Vf I RiS vr

A~ cO "" 7S

nr ,\

CO ~~ 'TS

301. 

l--_ l-------l c 

/' engineer uranr h 

Ma jar Matthew J. Jones, Jr. 

Key features of this reorganization included ­

• Metamorphosis of th e Contin ental Army 

Command (CONARC) into two discrete elements, 

th e Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) 

with individual training r esponsibility and th e 

Forces Command (F ORSCOM) with r esponsibility 

for unit training and readiness. 

• Reali gnm ent of the CONUS Armies into 

three numb er ed Armies, - First, Fifth and Sixth 

- with th e principal major mission of commanding 

and training Army Reserve units and super vising 

th e training of Army National Guard units. 

• Cr eation of nine Army Readiness Regions 

(ARR) and 28 subordinate Ar my Readiness Grou 

(ARG) dedicated to aiding flie Reserve componen 

to enhanced readiness through both branch an 

functional assista nce teams (See Figure 3). 

• Conve rsion of seven brigades from se lecte d 

Tr aining Divisions into Maneuver, Training Commands (MTC), or mini-MAC's, whi ch with existing 

Maneuv er Area Commands (MAC) provid e nine 

organi zations, essentially one per ARR, to write, 

conduct and evaluate FTX, CPX, and ATT for 

Reser ve component units. 

• Establishm ent of training assistance progra ms by the Army training community specifical­

------_.------ _.­

18 
f: 

" 

ly for th e Reserve components. 

Even before th e r eorganization of th e Army 

began, however, man y of th e serv ice schools had 

under tak en dy namic pr ograms for suppor ting the 

Reserve components in their training. Th e U.S. 

Army Engineer School was among the firs t to 

establish an active, positi ve, coor dinated pr ogr am 

for th e Reserve components. This program was to 

become an extension of the school's previous 

efforts but on a much lar ger scale . 

In J uly 1972, the Engineer School initiated its 

xpanded Reser ve Component Support Progr am 

ith t he specific mission of increasing the level of 

'ngineer School support to and pa rticipation in 

Reserve compone nt engineer training. This 

program derived principally from th e dr amatic 

picture of the force structure pr ofile which had pu t 

approximately 70 per cent of Total Army Force 

enginee r resources in the Res erve compone nts. 

The maintenance of a corps of professional military 

engineers, both individual and unit, for th e Total 

Army For ce and a full appre ciation for th e total 

trainin g depend ence of readiness compelled the 

En gineer School to invest man y of its assets in the 

traini ng of the Reserve compone nts . 

The conside rable importance of the Reserve 

compo nents was established in t he force str uct ure 

pro file. But. the establishment of a respon sive and 

viable support progr am was seen to be depend ent 

upon an und erstanding of and appreciation for the 

distinctive characteristics of t he Reserve components. There were and are clea r differences 

between t he two compone nts which need to be 

recognized . 

Unlike the Active Army, memb er s of the 

Reserve components must appr oach th eir Reserve 

compo nent duty as an avocation, not a vocation. 

his is r eflected immediately in th e amount of time 

ailable for traini ng and in the scheduling of t ha t 

ime. The Reserve components must train at 

night, on weekends and fr equ ently during th eir 

vacations. 

P eer pr essure has a much more pervasive influence in t he Reserve components t ha n it has in 

the Active Arm y. Since Reserve component 

members fun ction in a dual envir onment, they are 

more subje ct to the kinds of pressure bro ugh t to 

bear by their wives, civilian coworkers, civilia n 

employer s and social groups. The most cited 

r eason for non-reenlistment in enginee r Reserve 

component units is family influence. 

While societal aspirations for a better life have 

touched the military at large, t he impact of th ese 

aspirations have been ve ry strongly felt by the 

Reser ve componen ts. To attract and r etain 

per sonnel. , th e Reserve components find th at t hey 

must offer t heir members an opportunity to make 

meaningful social contributions through community ser vice pr ojects. For th e most part the Reserve 

components have done an admirable job in the ir 

approach to th ese projects . However. th er e is a 

te nde ncy to get too involved in these kinds of 

projects to t he detriment of mission essent ial 

military t raining . The Reserve components must 

find a r easonable balan ce between t he tw o. 

Althoug h r apidly improving, the equipment 

status in ma ny units is not good. Frequen tly, the 

units will not have the equipment at all, will have 

but a portion of t heir authorization. or will have 

obsolete equipment classified "cont ingency and 

training." It is difficult to train people to become 

proficient in their skills when th er e is no 

equipme nt with which to train. 

Training facility availab ilit y is yet an other 

thor n in t he side of Reserve compo nent units. 

particular ly those located in metropolitan areas. 

Even assuming t he availability of eq uipme nt, 

certain as pects of trainin g become an are a of 

conce rn wh en there is no plac e to operate tha t 

equipme nt. 

Reorganization of units is an irritant whi ch 

occurs too ofte n. As for ce str uct ures are changed 

member s of units are r eorgani zed fr om one branch 

to anot her. Unlik e the Active Army, personn el in 

Res erve compone nt units usu ally cannot be 

r eassigned to another unit in their branch but 

must become qualified in a new br anch in order to 

be retained. 

Reserve compone nt units are often heavily 

fr agme nted. Subordinate elements are split ove r 

state borders causi ng command and control 

probl ems which often have a detrimental impact on 

major unit exerc ises. 

Yet another trait of the Reserve compone nts is 

t he limitati on on upward mobility. A mem ber is 

geographically bound to a specific Reserve 

component unit by virtue of t he phy sical location of 

his r esidence. Th e opp ortunities to tran sfer to 

anot her unit for pr omotion advanceme nt are 

19 
limited. 

Reserve component units have consistently 

demon strated that th ey are deficient in focussing on 

and delineating t hei r trai ning needs. Whether the 

units do not r ecogn ize the ir shortfalls or wh ether 

tra ining deficiencies are overs hadowed by mor e 

visible difficulties such as personn el t ur bulence, 

and eq uipme nt and trai ning facility inadequacies, 

which ha ve been r eport ed, is not certain. But , it is 

sus pected tha t one of th e most salient and most 

und esirahl e char acte r istics of th e Reser ve components may influence such reporting or non-r epor t ­

ing . This has to do wit h the tend ency of Reserve 

component units to ope rate in a shell, - their 

inclination to not work with ot her Reser ve 

component units and t heir predi spositi on to 

avoiding self-criticism by admitting t heir deficien ­

cies, es pecially in confessing their faults to a 

sus pect Active Ar my . Breaking this shell will be a 

task of large proportion. But great strides have 

been made in this area. This shell shows many 

cracks wit h many mor e developing daily. What is 

significant her e is t hat these cracks are self-generated. Th e Reserve components are now looking 

outsid e of t hems elves to prepare for r eadiness and 

their ex pa nded r ole in the National Strategy. 

Because th e whe r ewi th al to accomplish the 

mission of training support to the Res erve 

components was r ecogni zed as a principal constr aint, the iden tification of resources and mean s 

was recognized as being critical to t he development of an effective and efficient pr ogram. Figure 

4 en umerates the r esources and means which wer e 

identified . What are these means? 

The first mea ns is Organic Instruction. Units 

have alwa ys pr epared t heir own lesson plans using 

DOD, DA, Engineer School and whatever othe 

pertinent references the y could find. This wi 

conti nue. However, in view of t he limit ed time 

which Reserve compone nt units have for tra ining 

20 
prepar ation , it helps t he m greatly t o use th e 

prepared inst r uct ional mater ials stocke d by the 

service schools. The gr oup study app roach t o cor ­

sponden ce cour ses is an exc ellent trainin g 

.hicle but ha s not been pursue d to any gr eat 

xt ent. In terest in the group st udy correspondence course format has been on the increase and is 

encouraged be cau se it can be supplem ented with 

live instruction and hand s on, performance 

orie nted trainin g. 

USAR schools playa sig nifica nt role in Reser ve 

compone nt training. Th e Engineer School has 

been monitoring t he USAR school instructi onal 

pr ograms. providing t hem with instr uctiona l 

materials, advising Res er ve compone nt units of the 

USA R school availability and assist ing host schools 

in presenting th eir AT programs . Additionally, 

the E ngineer School s upplements with its r esiden t 

faculty the trai ning of USAR School stude nts by 

offeri ng nonresident /residen t phases of the E ngineer Officer Advan ced Course . 

Several Reser ve compo nent units have contracted, usually th rough t he USAR School system, 

with pri vate civilian trainin g ins titutions for the 

training of t heir pe rsonnel in hard skills such as 

car pe ntry, plumbing and electricity . The En gineer 

School has begun to monit or such actions with a 

view towar d ad vising t he Res erve components 

at -large on t he successes, failures, adva ntages, 

,1.0 or tfa lls and procedures for using t his training 

eans . 

One means which has always been available bu t 

little us ed is training int eraction between Reserve 

component units. Since t he ent ir e obj ective of 

Reserve compone nt training is t o pr ep are for 

mobilization , it seems highly desirable that units 

which will be r equired t o mu tu ally support each 

ot he r in time of conflict receive a fair amo unt of 

integrate d training in peacetime. This way each 

could learn t he oth er's capabilitie s and a mutual 

respect and confide nce could be de veloped . Th e 

E ngineer School ur ges this t ype of int eraction 

between Reserve compo nent engineer units and 

t heir sist er br anch units and is prepared to provide 

th e necess ar y ad vice and assistance to support 

units which und ertake this effort. 

Active Army unit s and ot her or ganizations 

have been increasingly fur nishing teams to support 

Reserve compone nt unit r equests for training assistance. This is good because it educates both the 

Active and Reserve compone nts as t o eac h ot hers 

capabilit ies and fost ers a healthi er attit ude among 

t he va rious components. 

The desire to train with Active Army units 

ems to be a common desire in t he minds of 

se rve compone nt un it training personnel. This 

s done fr equentl y during annual t raining (AT) bu t 

could be accomplishe d more ofte n during weeke nd 

multiple unit train ing assemblies (MUTA's) as 

well. 

Mobile tr aining teams (MTT) play a major r ole 

in the Engineer School's support of the Res erve 

componen ts. Th e ins tr uctiona l depart men t s, to 

include t he Defense Mapping School, have pr ovide d team s in th eir ar eas of expertise and will 

cont inue t o support the program with MTT. Additionally, bo th NCO and Officer Adva nce d Course 

stude nts have been employed in an MTT capacity. 

Resident instruct ion is an exce lle nt tr aining 

vehicle. Th at is as it should be since th at is wh ere 

t he great est expertise lies. During Reserve 

compo nent inacti ve duty trainin g (IDT), act ive 

TRAINING
 

RESOURCES AND MEANS
 

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duty for training (ADT ) or AT un it members have 

the option of auditing r esident classes on a space 

ava ilab le basis. Additionally, the School offers unit 

ori ented Sp ecial Non-POI Courses and St aff 

Refr esh er Courses on a r equest basis and 

indi vidu aly oriented Sp ecial POI Courses on a 

schedul ed basis. 

Th e personnel assign ed against t he En gineer 

School MOBDE S TD are located all over th e 

count ry. Excep t for cor responde nce course work 

they have little opp or tunity to ea rn r etir em ent 

point s. As part of th e progr am of maintaining 

communication with th es e men and assigning the m 

tra ining projects, they could serve as one-man 

mobile training team s. Several MOBDES person ­

nel located in t he Fort Belvoir-Was hington area 

have indicated a desire to partici pate voluntarily in 

local MTT and sp ecial weekend course efforts. Th e 

E nginee r School is planning to us e them in the 

futur e. 

One means which t he Enginee r School is 

ex plori ng is increased use of the Individu al Read y 

Reserve (IRR). Here is a vast pool of ex pe rt, 

unt apped resources. Th e School is currently coor dinating with t he Res erve Compone nt Personnel 

and Administ ration Center (RCPAC) to determine 

ways and mean s for making better utili zati on of 

21 
IRR personnel. The mechani sms are availabl e. 

Th e TRADOC Liaison Officer, r ecently attached to 

t he Engineer Sch ool, is investigating this means 

and is wor king toward developin g a program th at 

will identify and employ IRR in th e training of 

both Reserve component and possibl y Active 

Army units. In concrete t erms , just what is the 

Engineer School doing in te rms of tr aining 

assista nce? 

Look at Figure 5. It is an oth er perspectiv e of 

the tot al pr ogram asse mbled by t he Engine er 

School for the Reserve components. The training 

assistance availabl e from the E ngineer School falls 

into tw o gen eral categori es - direct and indirect. 

Indirect assistance consists of correspondence 

courses, the provision of instructional materials 

and a br okerage function which entails our coor dinatin g with an ARR, ARG and/o r a requestor in 

obtaining viable tr ainin g assistance fro m sources 

external to t he Engineer School. Dir ect assistance 

activities address pr incipally the residen t course 

subjects taught at t he School. Insofar as possible, 

t he common thrus t of th e School's direct assistance 

effor ts is to help a unit become se lf-sufficient in its 

training. 

There are four dir ect training assistan ce 

activities. First ar e th e mobile training t eams or 

MTT. An IVITT is a provisio nal eleme nt consisting 

of one or more personn el wh ich is task organi zed 

to conduct on a t emp or ar y dut y (TDY) . basis a 

specific miss ion of providing direct training 

assistance in the form of instruction and /or 

techni cal advice to Acti ve Army, USAR or ARNG 

units within CONUS. There are tw o types of 

MTT , - "point" and "area" . Th e "point" IVITT is 

dispatched to a single unit at a given location. The 

"area" MTT provides instruction at a given 

location to a multitude of units fr om a relatively 

large geographic ar ea. 

Th e Engineer School does disp atch MTT, 

however, they are viewed as a last resort aft er all 

oth er feasible alter native sources for secur ing the 

r equired training ha ve been exhausted. Since t he 

School's first MTT wa s dispatched in November 

1972, th e En gineer School and th e Defens e 

Mapping School have sent over 90 IVITT to more 

t han 20 units throughout CONUS. 

Seco nd is t he Special POI Cour se (SPC) . It 

cons ists of two-da y, weekend courses of instr uct ion 

offered to meet training demand s which cannot be 

accommodated by "White Book" courses. These 

courses ar e offer ed in a ser ies of four eac h quarter. 

Th ey are design ed to teach-the-teacher how to 

t ea ch a specific subject. Quot as ar e limited to no 

more than two personnel per compa ny size unit. 

Course cap acities vary dep ending upon subject and 

are specified in the course announce me nt lett ers 

which are periodically se nt to the field. 

Students attend th e SPC in paid-training 

stat us. Funding for stud ent pay and travel is the 

r esp onsibili ty of t he orders-issuing authority . 

The se courses are suited for IVITT configuratio - " , 

and have .been ta ug ht via MTT at unit locatio 

Each senes has been oversubscribed. Th e ".!II 

courses have been extremely well-received by the'­

Reser ve components. The t hr ee series to date 

have attracte d mor e th an 400 personnel from more 

than 50 units throughout CONUS. Interest has 

been high and feedback excellen t. Reserve 

component commanders have expr essed both a 

high degr ee of satisfaction with t his program and a 

firm hope for its continuation. 

TYPES OF SUPPORT 

DIRECT INDIRECT 

-M-O-BI-U- T- R-A1NINGTEEJAS 

SPECIAL POI COURSES 

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIA ' 

CORRESPONDENCE COURSES .STAFF REFRESHER COURSES BROKER I

I 

SPEC IAL NON·POI ~OURSES I J 

Third is the s';:::':~f:~he Course (SRC), J 

Th is is normally a 40-hour course of instruction 

pr es ented on reques t to one or mor e Engin eer 

Groups, Brigades or Command s and the staffs of 

th eir subordinate units, and t ailored to provide 

both officer and senior NCO members of engineer 

staffs both r efresher training and applicatory 

exercises. St ude nts normally attend the SRC in 

paid-trainin g status. Funding for student pay and 

travel is the responsibility of t he ord er s-issuing 

aut hority. 

Finally, th er e is the Special Non -POI Cour se 

(SNC). The SNC is a 16-hour course of instruction , 

normally conducte d on weekend s, which is 

pr esented on a request basis and is organized to 

meet specific training requirem ents of a unit or 

gro up of like type units . Units normally attend in 

IDT statu s. Since th e initiation of the uni t 

orie nte d SRC and SNC, over 20 units have 

att ended 36 su ch courses. 

The r ange of t he Engineer School's capability 

for providing direct t raining assistance is shown on 

th e map at Figure 6. This figure indicates th e 

location by states of unit s which have re ceive 

dir ect training assistance fro m th e Engineer a 

th e Defense Map ping Schools. In a given year t h 

En gineer School and the IVIapping School pass 

22 
between 5,000-6,000 students through their classrooms. Under the auspices of the Expanded 

Reserve Component Support Program the two 

chools have been touching over half again as 

any Reserve component students (approximately 

,300) annually through their direct training 

assistance activities. 

Beginning in fiscal year 1976 several new 

initiatives will be added to the existing array of 

activities. Among these are the Engineer Staff 

Orientation Course. This course will have two 

formats, - one for combat engineer and one for 

construction engineer unit staffs. The course is 

designed to orient staffs of units which have been 

reorganized from another branch to engineer 

branch . Additionally, a Commanders' Seminar 

Course will be offered twice annually. This course 

will be a two or three day course for battalion and 

higher level unit commanders and their training 

officers. Its obj ectives will be to review training 

developments, share training lessons learned and 

develop recommendations for improving training. 

To manage the School's Expanded Reserve 

Component Support Program, the Field Support 

Division has been established in the Department of 

Army Wide Training Support. This office is the 

single point of contact for all matters pertaining to 

Engineer School support of Reserve Component 

training. It is essentially a clearinghouse for 

J oordination and information. The resident intructional departments do almost all of the 

Instruction, both in residence and in MTT 

configuration. This involves the entire School in 

working with Reserve component units and, in 

addition to giving the units professional instruction, has a secondary benefit of major significance. 

It serves as a vehicle for reeducating Active Army 

engineers vis-a-vis the Reserve components and 

their capabilities. 

Relatively few members of the Active Army 

have had any association with the Reserve components. Yet nearly everyone has attitudes and 

opinions about the Reserve components. For the 

most part these attitudes and opinions have been 

formed from second and third generation hearsay, 

are frequently unhealthy and have no basis in fact. 

The associations between the Engineer School and 

the members and units of the Reserve components 

have been eminently successful in dispelling false 

notions and in establishing a bond of mutual 

r espect and appreciation for the dedication and 

exper t ise of each component - Active and 

Reserve - for the other. 

Much has been done; yet, much remains. 

Engineer School support to the Reserve compoents is currently on a more coordinated, systematized basis as ever before. But the entire 

engineer training community is just beginning to 

" -, ..... 

'i ! 

( L .. 

,I I.o •

, 

=--~~~ --,- -=- =~~~~ --,

cooperate on constructing mutually supportive 

programs to the benefit of all the Army's 

engineers. The Engineer School and the Defense 

Mapping School have developed an excellent 

cooperative arrangement for extending training 

assistance to the Reserve components, including 

provisions for joint Engineer School-Mapping 

School MTT and special resident courses. The US 

Army Training Center-Engineer at Fort Leonard 

Wood also is offering a large measure of training 

assistance. Additionally the Engineer Coordinators 

at the Army Readiness Regions and the Engineer 

Assistance Teams at the Army Readiness Groups 

are participating heavily with the engineer 

training community in constructing viable as ­

sistance packages. 

The Engineer School is the "professional home" 

of the Army's engineers. Reserve component 

engineer units should consider the School as one of 

their training resources just as they should consider the ARR and ARG as one of their training 

assets. All engineers are interested in improved 

readiness. The only difference is that the 

Engineer School spells readiness with a "T" for 

training. For it is only through training that 

readiness will come. All of the Army's engineers 

must work together to give the Total Army Force 

a corps of professional military engineers, - that 

is the single, common reason for existence. 

Major Mattheui J. Jones, Jr., is the Chief, Field 

Support Division, Department of Army Wide 

Training Support, U S. Army Engineer School. 

Since his commissioning in 1962, he has served 

with th e 326th A irborne Engineer Battalion, 8th 

and 2d Engineer Battalions, U S. Army Support 

Command- Vietnam, MA CV, and Test Command, 

Defens e Nuclear Agency. He has a Mast ers 

Degree in civil engineering from Stanford University and is a graduate of both the Engineer 

Officer Advanced Course and the Command and 

General Staff College. 

23 
A 

STAR
 

FOR 

VALOR 

A STAR FOR VALOR is th e first of 

six articles THE ENGINEER intends to
 

rnn on th e Medal of Honor, its origin, its
 

history, its me aning, and some vigne tte s
 

' about engineers who won it in the
 

conflicts in which this nation has been
 

engaged, beginning with the Civil War
 

more than a century ago. 

A famous American author once said 

"Show me a hero and I will write you 

trag edy." He spoke more trnththan 

fiction. Many of the officers and men 

who have earne d the Medal in the wars 

this country has fought, have paid th e 

supreme sacrifice for it - their. lives. 

Since World War I, the Medal has been 

awarded only for the highest acts of 

gallant ry . 

There is an old ?a1jinq in the militm'y 

that when -the . going gets tough, the 

tough get going. That would be the only 

way any member of our Armed Forces 

coul.d earn the Medal of Honor - going 

above and beyond the call and going it 

tough. 

So.: it is onl.y fitting that our Army 

enqineers get an insight into the heroic 

exploits of some of their famous 

counterparts. These articles unfold 

Engineer historu in combat from the 

Civil War to the present. The first 

article deals with the history of the 

Medal and 

sequ ent articles 

what 

includ

it is all about. Sube engineers in the 

Y Civil War, the Banana Wars and War \ 

War I, World ,War II, Korea, an ~~ .Vietnam - The editor. 

--- <> 

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24 
Eugene V. McAndrews 

S hort ly after the end of hostilities in World War 

II, the 33d President of the United States,. 

Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) decorated 28 heroes 

with our nation's highest combat award -----: the . 

Medal of Honor. . 

, As a Marine aide read the citation of a young 

hero who had lost both arms while saving several 

wounded comrade s during the bloody battle for 

Iwo Jirna, Truman broke from his attentive 

position and walked to th e lad. Placing his hands 

on th e Marine's shoulders, and visibly upset, he 

said, "Son, I would rather have th e right to wear 

th e Medal of Honor than be President of the 

United States." 

It wa s a spontaneous remark that would later 

gain a niche in famous quotations and would 'be .. 

repeated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and . 

Lyndon B. Johnson. . 

Although spontaneous on Truman's part, he 

meant it. In 1948 he ordered the Army

r/ nformation Center to compile all necessary 

\, cords and information in order to prepare an 

official history of the Medal and the deeds of its ' 

recipients. In 1950, Truman requested the Navy to 

do likewise. Truman's high regard for the Medal 

of Honor has been shared by nearly all Americans. 

The Medal was created more than 100 years 

ago, a product of this country's bloody Civil War. 

Up until that time, Americans awarded no badges 

of distinction to its soldiers. George Washington 

had instituted the Order of the Purple Heart 

during the Revolution; but few were awarded and 

the decoration was discarded until 1932. Many 

Americans in th e 1860's opposed medal awards 

because they felt such awards imitated European 

militarism. 

President Abraham Lincoln and Iowa Senator 

J ames Grimes disagreed. Grimes introduced the 

bill resulting in the creation of the Navy Medal of 

Honor. Lincoln signed the bill on December 21, 

1861, approving th e award of a Medal of Honor for 

"gallantry in action and other seaman-like qualities 

during the present war." On July 12,1862, Lincoln 

signed a similar bill for an Army Medal of Honor 

"to such non-commissioned officers and privates as 

hall most distinguish themselves by their 

,

\ 

[allantry in action and other soldier-like qualities 

during th e present insurrection." On March 3, 

1863, the Army regulations were amended to 

include officers. 

.. Too many Medals were awarded during the 

Civil War. Nearly 2,100 Medals were awarded; 

many for ' genuine bravery; many more for 

"seaman-like" and "soldier-like" qualities, neither 

of which was defined. In addition, the design of 

the Medal proved too popular. Following the war, 

numerous veterans organizations, including the 

. Grand ' Army of the Republic, designed badges 

which were likenesses of the Medal. Secretary of 

War Edwin Stanton nearly ruined the value of the 

Medal by awarding it to the entire 27th Maine 

Regiment - 864 Medals. Stanton also had 

promised award of the Medal to 12 other 

regiments. Fortunately he never got around to 

doing it . 

The first elevation of the Medal to its hallowed 

position came a month after the Custer Massacre 

by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in the Little Big 

Horn country of Montana. As a r esult of heavy 

fighting, company commanders recommended 

hundreds of troopers for Medals of Honor. But 

General Alfred Terry, commandant of the 7th 

Cavalry, stopped the recommendations. He announced that the Medal was for combat gallantry, 

and was not to be awarded wholesale. 

Teddy Roosevelt and the Spanish American 

War insured further protection. On September 3, 

1898, th e Army Medal of Honor law was amended 

to read: "Medals of Honor will not be awarded to 

officers and enlisted men except for distinguished 

bravery or conspicuous gallantry ... above his 

comrades, and that involves risk of life." 

Roosevelt, who was recommended for the 

Medal but did not get it for his charge up San Juan 

Hill, put the Presidential Office to work in 

protecting the Medal. First, he had the design 

changed and the patent given to the Secretary of 

War so the design could not be duplicated. He 

further stated that the recipient would receive the 

Medal from the President when at all possible. 

Previous awards had been made by parcel post, 

and in rare cases, registered mail. Then in 1907 

the first Medal of Honor roll was created. 

Prompted by Roosevelt's initiative, Congress 

went to work on strengthening criteria for winning 

the Medal. In 1916, a special panel of generals 

reviewed all past awards to determine whether 

such actions actually merited the Medal of Honor. 

Nearly 920 nam es were striken from the Medal of 

Honor roll, including the members of the 27th 

. Maine, the bodyguards who accompanied Lincoln's 

body back to Illinois, Mary Walker - an Army 

contract doctor who was the sole woman ever to 

receive the award, and civilian scouts such as 

William "Buffalo Bill" Cody. 

The Army also redefined valor. Required now 

was an act of valor against an enemy of the United 

25 
States with risk of life above and beyond the call-o.f :.;~... of Honor, but the recommendation was 

duty. To make sure there were no mistakesfas to - ::- d.e nied. Roosevelt was angered and brought 

the' position and status of the Medal,-the Corigr-ess .._ -. strong::-pressure against Secretary of War Nelson 

established the "Pyramid of HOI!ort p lad rig the Alger ~to receive the award. Roosevelt wrote 
 

Medal of Honor as the highest .of i mimb of other . Senal br t: I1 gab~t Lodge, "If I don't r.e~eive ,»
 

medals given for lesser degrees of ~}or In.§.ti- award, noone does.' Both Lodge and Wilham Ta . //
 

tuted in 1918 were the Distinguished Seryice Cross -=- -=tried=.to_ge-t Roosevelt the Medal. They failed; but
 

(DSCl, Distinguished Service Meoal- (D~M:):= and -- . Roosevel( had Alger ousted from office one month
 

the Silver Star. In later years came -the Navy later. As President, Roosevelt helped institute
 

Cross, the Air Force Cross, the Bronze Star, Air changes which protected the Medal.
 

Medal, and Purple Heart. _ _ - _ - --:-_ -=. 1'h~ designs of the Medals of the three
 

Since 1916, only the higheSt .=hit-oisIii "ha,s ~~ fi s: the Service - Army, Navy, and Air 

resulted in the award of the Medal"Of-Hunor?"And '+-For ce· - ::.are .very different. The fact that they 

since 1916, the majority of MedaLotHonQr ~War -~ ha \>.e separate designs tends to confuse people. 

have been posthumous. -----=-. ~_.:: .: 'l' -has' brought the military under fire. The 

The latest conflict that involved U. S. --ttoops -· NajionalCommission of Fine Arts recently 

was Vietnam. A total of 209 Medals of Honor-were - criticized the separate designs as "lacking the 

awarded for gallantry and valor l V=that ::c@u tr y. = simpJicity__characteristic of medals of other 

The first to win it in Vietnam was -a SI>~cial E.orces :::=; -=: () "I o- lt' son, Army Brigadier General 

officer, Captain Roger Donlon." ....::... - -" Th ~od 6re:Roosevelt, Jr., was awarded the Medal 

Since its establishment in 1861, a total of 3;178 of Honor-for his valor as Assistant Division Commembers of the Armed Forces have earned the mander of the 4th Division on D-Day at Normandy. 

Medal. There were 431 recipients of the Medal in ~~ - He was later killed in action there. 

World War II and 131 in the Korean War. Captain-of-the-Maintop John Williams was the 

There has been heartache in getting the medal.; first sailor to receive the Medal. He won it for 

In 1952, Halsey McGovern refused to accept the - valor during small amphibious assaults undertaken 

posthumous Medal awarded to -",his son, First to clear the James River of Confederate shore 

Lieutenant Robert McGovern. The o lder Mc- _ batter ies during June, 1861. The first Marine 

Govern said he didn 't believe politicans (President _ recipient was Corporal John Mackie for action on _ 

Truman) were qualified to make such llwards. He ' May 15, 1862. ", 

also refused a Silver Star awarded to another-son. The only - Coast Guardsman to receive t Iji;" 

Eugene Guild of Denver, Colorado asked President Medal was Signalman First Class Douglas Munro 

Truman in 1951, if his criticism of Truman's of Cle Elm, Washington. His award came in 1942 

administration had prevented his son from winning when he tried to rescue a group of Marines with 

the Medal. " his LCVP at Guada1canal. Munro was killed in the 

So, what of some of the men who.have won the rescue. 

Medal and the deeds they performed? The first Medal awarded to a Seabee went to 

The first incident for which a Medal of Honor Marvin G. Shields, Port Townsend, Washington, 

was subsequently awarded went" to Army Doctor for gallantry at Dong Xoni, South Vietnam, while 

Bernard J. Irwin. He led a rescue party to the serving at a Special Fores camp . 

relief of an Army patrol in Apache territory in Five Army men have received two Medals of 

1859, three years before the Medal was created. Honor: Frank D. Baldwin, Thomas Custer, Henry 

He did not receive the Medal; however, until Hogan, Patrick Leonard and William Wilson. 

January 21, 1894, nearly 33-years later. Thomas Custer wore both his medals, much to the 

The first Medal of Honor incident in the Civil chagrin qf his .brot her George. More than once 

War occurred on May 24, 1861. Private Francis E. George told Tom to tak~ off his "toys." Yet Tom 

Brownell was given the Medal . for killing the was loyal to his brother; and he died with him at 

murderer of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, com- the Little Big Horn in 1876. It was legend for 

mandant of the New York Zoauves. - Brownell many years that the Sioux warrior Rain-in-thereceived the award in 1877. Face had eaten Tom Custer's heart. The story was 

The first persons actually to receive their proved to be untrue. 

medals were the now-famous "Andrews' Raiders;" Seven Navy men have received two Medals: 

who attempted to hi-jack a Confederate train in John Cooper, John King, John McCloy, Patrick 

April of 1862. Oddly enough, in the 1880s and Mullen, Robert Sweeney, Albert Weisbogel and 

1890, two of the Raiders, AU Wilson and Andrew Louis Williams. " 

Pittenger, wrote accounts of the raid with each Two Marines, Smedley Butler and Dan Dal JJ)\ 

accusing the other of spying for the Confederates. received two Medals. Butler refused to wear hi ~/

Teddy Roosevelt was recommended for the second medal, insisting he didn't deserve it. Con26 
fronted with a charge of being "out of uniform" he 

decided to wear it. Daly was recommended for an 

unpredented third Medal of Honor for heroism 

uring the Battle for Belleau Woods in World War 

He did not get it but received the Army's 

istinguished Service Cross - that service's 

second highest combat decoration. 

Lieutenant Frank Luke, the "Arizona Balloon 

Buster," was the first flyer to receive the Medal. 

His World War I exploits became legends; Luke 

Air Force Base in Arizona is named for him. Navy 

Commander Howard Gilmore was the first 

submariner to win the Medal, his exploits coming 

early in World War II. 

Five Marines during World War I received 

both the Army and Navy Medal of Honor. All 

served with the Army's 2d Infantry Division and 

were thus honored with the medals of both 

services. The Marines were John Kelly, Mate 

Kocak, John Pruitt, Ernest Janson and Louis 

Cukela. 

Corporal Antoine Gaujot received an Army 

Medal of Honor for valor during the Philippine 

Insurrection in 1899. His brother, Captain Julien 

Gaujot, received an Army Medal in the 1911 

Mexican campaign. 

Harry and Willard Miller, brothers, received 

Navy Medals of Honor for similar deeds, on the 

same date, May 11, 1898, while on board the US.S. 

ashville during the Spanish American War. 

The ' only father and son to receive the Medal 

were Major General Arthur MacArthur, for valor 

during the Civil War; and General of the Army 

Douglas MacArthur. for valor in thePhilippines in 

the early, dark days of World War II. Douglas 

MacArthur was the highest ranking officer to wear 

the Medal. ' , 

The Reverend Joseph T. O'Callahan,"S.J., was 

the only chaplain to receive the Medal. His award 

was ,the result of actions that 'helped the 

carrier US.S. Franklin after it had received 

several hits by Japanese suicide planes .in April, 

1945. " " 

Despite the extensive use of helicopters in the 

Vietnamese war, tlteonly "chopper" pilot. to win 

the Medal did it , during the Korean' War. Nav y" 

Lieutenant 'J ohn'Koelsch, ',attached ' to the US.S. 

Princeton,' w~ it 'while" attempting to rescue "a 

downed Marinepilot. Hewiis shot down and later 

killed in a prisonerco(war camp. . ' 

Two Negroes earned"'the Medal oCHonorin 

Vietnam: Private Milton Olive, III and Specialist 

Six Lawrence JoeL A total 'of 45 Negroes have 

, won the Medal. ' 

Many American Indians als have won the 

edal. "The ' latest was Corporal .Mitchell Re9 

loud, a Winnepago Indian. The killed 

in Korea. , 

Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector, won
 

the award serving as a medic with the Army
 

during the Okinawa campaign. He saved nearly 75
 

wounded men of the 77th Infantry Division.
 

Sergeant Alvin York, the famed hero of World
 

War T, also was a conscientious objector before he
 

performed deeds that brought him the Medal of
 

Honor.
 

The unjustly-treated Japanese Americans of 

World War II have distinguished themselves. 

Private First Class Sadao Munemori smothered a 

grenade, saving the lives of several comrades 

during the Italian campaign. In Korea, Corporal 

Hiroshi Miyamura won the Medal on the Imjin 

River. Although later captured, he killed 60 

enemy soldiers before they overwhelmed him. His 

award was top secret until after his repatriation. 

It was felt that any public announcement would 

subject him to intensified pressure from his 

Communist captors. 

The publicity involved in acts of heroism has 

resulted in many mistaken stories of fact. Neither 

Colin Kelly, the B,17 hero of the early Philippines 

fighting, nor Ira Hays, the Pima Indian who helped 

raise the flag on Iwo Jima and was captured in the 

immortal photograph' by Joe Rosenthal, received 

Medals of Honor. Kelly was awarded the 

Distinguished Service Cross. Hays never received 

any combat decoration. Many believe he felt so 

ashamed of this fact after the country treated him 

as a "hero," that he turned to drinking and died in 

a drainage ditch. 

The stories of Medal winners are legend. They 

somehow constitute a framework for American 

determination. , 

Audie Murphy, Merlal of Honor winner in 

World War II and hero, turned movie star, who 

later died in a peacetime airplane crash, summed it 

all up best: , "You never. know. how far a man will 

cast his shadow, until he stands up!" 

Eugene V. 'McAndre,ws 'is an "authoritative 

source on the history of the Medal of Honor. A 

former historian in the Office of the Chief' of 

, Engine ers in Baltimore; he considers hw collection 

of historical material, diaries and memorabilia of
 

" U S. Army 'Winners, of the Medal among the most'
 

<complete in existence; He holds a B.A. in history
 

from Carroll College, ,H elena;, Montana; 'an M.A.
 

from "the University of Oregoriin Eugene, and is
 

presently preparinq a Ph.D dissertation.for Kansas
 

State- University at Manhattan. THE-ENGINEER
 

'is gratejul to ~' the opportunity to use his ' , 

ioorks. .Some of the artic,les 'in' this series were ' 

completed. underthe'"mos't despairing ' conditions. .. 

, ,:Mr: "Mc.Andreios' wrote them. after suffering a 

stroke :that paralized' one .side of his body and 

suffering"kidney failu re. 

27 

I 
When th e United States Army adopted a system 

of decen tralized training, it placed a tremen ­

dous amo unt of responsibility into the 

hands of 

compa ny comma nde rs . Mor e than ever before, a 

compa ny's 

ability t o perform as a well traine d uni "\) 

is dependent upon th e zeal and managem en t abilit } 

of its 

comman de r . 

There is a large assortment of Army literature 

av ailable that is useful for unit training, bu t most 

important are the Army Training Progr ams (ATP). 

The new ATP's pr es ently being published are 

esse ntial to 

company comma nde r s in conducting 

unit training, for with out th em , there would be no 

spec ified guidance on the degree of readiness 

ex pected of a unit. 

Army Training Programs ar e developed from a 

study of a unit's capabilit ies, as st ate d in its Table 

of Or ganization and Equipment (TO&E ). These 

unit capabilities provide a list of missions that are 

appropriate for the unit to perform. Skills ne eded 

to accomplish th ese missions are th en list ed in th e 

ATP. Defined in its 

simplest form, an ATP lists 

specific tasks th at may 

be given to a unit, and the 

minimum standards whi ch should be 

met for eac h 

task. For 

exa mple, an ATP for a comb at engineer 

compa ny may ha ve a task of building an eighty 

foot , doubl e single, Bailey Bridge with an objective 

of completing it within thr ee hours. If, under. <, 1\ 

normal condit ions , th e company cannot compJet 

th e bridge within three hours, then that compan 

is not conside red 

combat r eady. 

28 
Herein lies the imp or tance of an ATP, for it 

acts as a gau ge, and without it t he commander 

cannot compare his compa ny's perform an ce with 

ccept ed Army standar ds. Army Training Tests, (( hich determine whether a unit is combat ready . 

ar e based enti rely on th e standar ds esta blished in 

th e ATP·s. 

A ficti onal sit uat ion usin g ATP 5-35 (E ngineer 

Combat Battalion. Ar my or Corp s), will illustrat e 

some ways of efficiently utilizing t he ATP to 

manage a comp any's tra ining progr am . A newly 

arrived officer has just ta ken command of a 

Combat Engineer Company. 

By st udying th e results of the company's last 

ATT and inter viewin g his plat oon lead er s and 

platoon sergeants , th e new company comma nder 

determined th ose mission ar eas in t he ATP his 

compa ny is weakest in performing. He set 

pri or ities in his training program in ri ver crossing 

oper at ions, defensive barriers and combat construction. 

Tr ainin g based on the ATP requires an efficient 

use of time, so t he comma nde r . after coor dinating 

with various post facilit ies, limit ed dent al. fina nce 

and ot her non-em ergency appointments to Thursday or Friday afternoons . 

Routin e activities , such as motor stables. 

physical tra ining , and weekly command informa ­

ion classes we re sched uled only in the afternoons, 

allow as much time as possible for training in 

e mor nings. In add ition, t he commande r limited 

his administrative wor k. Article 15 hearin gs, and 

insp ections to the afternoons so he could be 

present to obs erve his unit tra ining. 

The comma nde r not ified his platoon leaders and 

plat oon sergeants of specific tasks in the ATP th ey 

wer e t o pr epar e for instruction at leas t three 

we eks in advance, so t hey could pr epare less on 

plans for his inspection and approval. 

ATP 5-35 emp hasizes squad tra ining as the key 

t o good company perform ance. If each squad in 

th e compa ny could prop erly install a deadman, 

e rec t an a nchorage t ower , and attach a cabl e to a 

tower and deadman, th en ea ch of his platoons. 

with out any further tr aining , could complet ely 

install an anchorage syst em for a floating bridge. 

None of the tasks need t o be learned next to a 

river; so weeks be fore th e compa ny was scheduled 

to go to a special training site for float bridge 

training , t he compa ny tra ined its squads in the 

basic skills of bridging. Having saved some time, 

the commander conce ntrated his training at t he 

bridge site on t he mor e difficult skills which must 

be learned on th e river. At the sa me time the 

uad s we re training with bri dge eq uipment , 

mpany tr uck drivers trained in vehicle camouflag e and truck recover y techni ques. 

Since a lar ge portion of th e ATP's combat construction tasks involves operat or skills, the 

company commander kept his eart h movin g equipment operators as busy as possibl e. He had th em 

constr uct roughly graded roads through the post 

demolition range and then used the ro ads to train 

his squads in road cratering. Wh en possible. he 

used his dozers, front load ers and dump trucks for 

community relations' projects. At t he bridge site, 

his operators improved access roads and bridge 

assembly sites. Through out this peri od the 

operators' se ction lead er supervised the ir activities, str iving to train t hem t o meet t he 

performance st andards in t he ATP. 

To gener ate interest in the t raining and to train 

in othe r areas of th e ATP , the compa ny 

commander se nt his t hree line pla t oons to t he 

brid ge site by differ en t rout es. One platoon 

arrived 15 miles upstream of the site and infiltrated in on assault boats. The second platoon 

conduct ed a tactical march t o the br idge site and 

defend ed it against the t hird platoon whi ch 

conduct ed an airmobile assaul t on t he bridge site. 

In ord er to ens ure t he success of his training 

program, t he comma nder continually evaluated his 

squads. Each sq uad had to pass pr oficien cy tests 

eve ry Friday morning th at covered the tasks 

taught durin g th e week. A sq uad failin g to meet 

th e ATP standards had to take a ret est on 

Saturday and train each subseque nt weekend until 

it met the standar ds. Th e compa ny continued t o 

tr ain in large sized tasks, s uch as Bailey Bridge 

construction, until it could attain t he ATP 

standards . 

As can be seen her e, unit training is a full tim e 

job which requires a great deal of effort from t he 

unit commander . Unless a major ity of his time is 

spent on trainin g ma nageme nt, the unit's tra ining 

program will be a failure. The unit will lack the 

ability to react quickly to an eme rgency sit uation, 

and will undou bt edly lose lives fr om bein g poorl y 

t rained. 

Th e Ar my Training Program does not dictate 

to a comman der how he should train his unit. 

However . it does t ell th e comma nder , in a fully 

compre hens ive way, whe n his unit is trained well 

enough t o make it combat read y. 

Captain Thomas F. Ram os is a graduate of the 

Unit ed Stat es Military Academy at West Point. 

After receiving his commission in the Corps of 

Engineers, the captain was assigned to the 

Department of Doctrine and Trainin g Development at the U S. A rmy Engineer School as proje ct 

officer for the preparation of A TP 5-35, Com bat 

Engineer Battalion, Corps. He is a recent 

graduate of the Engineer Officer A dvanced Course 

at Fort Belvoir, Viroinia, 

29 
T oday, during a period of inflation, increased 

costs and limited allocations, the Army must 

closely control its operational resources. For 

years, many people have looked upon damage done 

during field training exercises as unavoidable and 

the costs incurred as a trade off for the needed, 

training. If the Army can control and minimize 

maneuver damage, when operating off military 

reservations, as in Europe, the overall costs will be 

minimized. 

The mission of controlling and repairing 

maneuver damage logically falls to the Corps of 

Engineers who have the background, experience 

and assets to help combat this problem. The 

Division and Brigade are the principal maneuver 

elements and since they have organic engineers, 

this is the logical level to minimize maneuver 

damage. 

The cost of maneuver damage claims cannot be 

overemphasized. The United States share for 

maneuver damage payments for Reforger II 

(September-November 1971) was over $1,435,000. 

The costs for Reforger IV (January-March 1973) 

has already exceeded $525,000 and all claims are 

not yet settled. Even a division-sized maneuver 

such as Marne Rock I (May 7-12, 1971) cost 

approximately $175,000. Some maneuvers in 

Germany, have been cancelled or postponed 

because of the anticipated maneuver damage. 

Payments for damaged forests are according to 

the type of tree, age of tree, value of the wood and 

the labor costs to replace and restore the forests. 

Naturally, the claims must be investigated 

individually and claims personnel must be very 

diplomatic and knowledgeable when computing the 

final amount of the claims. 

The Claims system and the methods of 

computing the amount actually paid is very 

complex. For example, road damage is paid for on 

an area basis, structural damage by replacement 

or restoration costs and perhaps the most 

complicated damage payments are for damage to 

farmland and forests. A ruined field of wheat 

would not only be the marketable worth of the 

grain, but also the farmer's labor costs ,and the 

cost for recultivating the field. 

Claimants don't always receive the amount of 

their original claims. For example, only 36 perce ~\

of the amount claimed in 5,644 claims. for Re~org ljP 

III was actually paid. The Army and Its Engmeers 

can't be expected to stop all maneuver damage, 

30 
t th ey can greatly minimize it. 

An effective Maneuv er Damage Cont r ol Progr am can be impleme nted in three phases: 

planning and training before t he man euv er, control 

and r epair s during the maneuver, and reportin g 

and investigating both during and afte r the 

exercise . All th r ee are equally impor tant if the 

progr am is to be effective. A well trained and 

controlled force not only minimizes man euv er 

damage, but it also reduces inconv eniences to the 

inhabitants in th e man euver area. Let us examin e 

ea ch. 

PLANNING AND TRAINING PHASE - This 

is the responsibility of t he Divisional En gineer 

Battalion. At battalion level, a Maneuv er Damage 

Control Officer should be appointed to organize 

and lead the ba ttalion Maneuver Damage Cont rol 

Headqu arters and formulate th e ove rall Division 

policy. 

Su pporting eng inee r company commanders 

would be r esponsibl e to give maneu ver damage 

control classes to the suppor ted maneu ver 

Brigades' eleme nts. 

( Liaison and coordination must be made with all 

\, the pa rticipating Division elements, the 

Inform ation Office and public officials fr om the 

man euv er area. Unl ess conditions pr ohibit, the 

popul ation should be notified well in advance of the 

exercise through the Information Office and 

exp lained the procedures for submitting claims of 

damage to private pr operty. 

The Maneuver Damage Control Officer should 

delineate and publish restrictions in the man euver 

ar ea. Th ese should be furnished to t he lowest 

comman d levels of the man eu ver eleme nt s for 

planning purposes. He should also publish a list of 

proce dures to minimize maneuver damage. 

Ea ch ma neuve r element from the company 

sized unit to the Division must have compre hensive man euver damage policies and operating 

pr ocedures . Maneuver damage officers must be 

ap pointed at each level to consolida te and r egulate 

the contro l effort. 

All personnel, to includ e subordinate leaders 

and vehicle crews must learn how to min imize 

maneuve r damage. 

Commanders must be familiar with t he 

procedur es, organization and functions of t he 

Maneuver Damage Control Headquarters and 

must plan around any re strictions in the maneuver 

are a. 

CONTROL AND REPAIRS DURING THE 

MANEUVERS - These are t he . Maneuver 

Damage Contro l Hea dqu arters' Responsibilities. 

Th e Maneuver Damage Control Officer will 

31 
ke ep th e maneuver commander aware of trafficability conditions, engineer effor ts and keep a log 

of all reported maneuver dam ag e. 

Mobil maneuver damage survey teams will 

travel the maneuver area. make spot reports of 

inves tigated damage and keep th e Maneuver 

Damage Control Officer aware of maneuver conditions. 

Engineer personnel and equipment must be 

available to make hasty, on the spot, r epairs when 

a safety ha zard exists. 

Commanders must insure that unnecessary 

man eu ver damage is avoided. 

Spot Reports must be sent to the Maneuver 

Dam age Control Officer in a timely manner. 

Hazardous or unsafe conditions must be 

r ectified immediately, if poss ible, and reported. 

AFTER MANEUVER REPORTING - This is 

the r esp onsibility of the Maneuve r Damage 

Control Officer. He will consolidate all Brigade 

and En gineer reports. make an overl ay showing 

damaged ar eas and forward copies to t he Division 

Claims Office and any other Army Agen cy 

handling claims for the area . He also will brief and 

advise th e commander of th e overall man euver 

damage situation; and inves tigate any newly 

r eported damage and periodically update maneuver damage assessments. 

Appointed maneuver dam age control office 

must make and consolidat e t he r eports at tH 

company. battalion and brigade levels and submit 

them to the Maneuver Damage Control Officer. 

Then commanders should debrief their personnel 

and take corrective actions deemed necessary. 

Maneuver Damage in most instances can be 

avoided. Commanders using available assets, 

comprehensive programs and policies and command emphasis can greatly r educe the costs of 

tr aining their units during realistic exercises. 

However, every subordinate leader, vehicle driver 

and squad member must be aware of and have a 

willingness to minimize maneuver damage for the 

effor t to be su ccessful. 

Captain Richard G. Perreault is assigned to the 

Far E ast District, Pacific Division. He is a 

graduat e of Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a 

Bachelor of S cience Degree in Civil Engineering 

and the Engineer Officer Advanced Course. Prior 

to coming on active dut y he worked for the California Division of Highwa ys. During the four 

years he was stationed in Germany, Captain 

Perreault served as a platoon leader, Battalion S2 

and Company Commander in the 10th Engine 

Battalion, 3d Infantry Di vision. While detailed 

the S2, he also served as the Division Maneu ver 

Damage Control Co ordination Officer. 

32 

MILITARY APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM 

TI o. o\

LE'."f;L 

1 

LOCAL 

VE

APPRENTIC ESHIP SYSTEM OF THE OPERATING ENGINEERS T,..---...., Inie tnOlio no l Union A uoc ic ted General Notional COMIfUclo'$ 01 As scc iencn ( onl, od ou 

Ope,of in'l EnginuI$ Ame'ica 

Lccel (onhoctOI$" 

Ass ociat ion' Locer Ullions 

BUleo u e! Ap Pf( hi Slate Apprentice ,hip 

U.S. in: Lebor Councils 

Locol Joint Lo of ono ~c: enl App,enticeship 

Cemmmee 

Co Le ~I cies:

Ste te und Loco l Empl oyment Service 

- • - Cons ul t a nts , Advis or s -

your squad lead er meets this guid eline. We surely 

hav e the facilities to train journeymen. 

• Labor-management cooper ation. This mean s 

Army-Industry cooper ation in concurring in 

apprentice program. 

With few exc eptions, your training equates to a 

civilian apprenticeship program. 

What's so different from industry training as 

compar ed to th e Army? For cer tain trades there 

is little differen ce in training journeymen in 

civilian life or th rough the Army Training System. 

In many cases , industry just doesn't und erstand 

our terminology, i.e., MOS, EER's, BCT, AlT. 

Th er e are some Army skills where our degree of 

training is not as dem anding as industry. This is 

prim arily becau se there ar e no slots or positions 

required for such a high degr ee of skill. This is 

true in th e vertical construction skills. Th e Army 

doesn't have a requirement , at present, for a 

Master El ectrician or Mason. However, th e 

training and exper ience th at you pick up in th e 

se rvice may count, in th e future, towards an 

apprenticeship program in industry . 

How does industry train their journeymen? By 

complying with those Department of Labor 

guidelines. Industry establishes their own apprenticeship standards for each respective trade. 

Th ese standar ds are r egistered with the Departmen t of Lab or, Manpower Administration, Burea 

of Appr enticeship and Training. Registratic 

makes a publ ic r ecord that an apprentice is bein 

trained und er establish ed standards for a trade or 

skill. Generally, no one firm makes up the 

standards. Normally two or more national 

organization s establish the standards. In the case 

of th e Operating Engineer, three organizations 

developed th e standar ds and formed a commi ttee. 

Take a look at the Apprenticeship System for 

Operating Engineers. Treat this system in tw o 

levels; one national and th e other local. The 

national lev el establishes standar ds and meets the 

requirement for management-labor cooperati on. 

This committee is composed of r epresentatives 

from th e International Union of Operating 

En gine ers, Associ ated General Contractors of 

America, and the National Constructors Association. If standards change, the national commi ttee 

does all the work. The local level or committee 

implements the standards. 

Why have an apprenticeship program for th e 

Army? Considerable effort has been invested by 

unions, contr actor s and governmental agencies in 

developin g standar ds for trades and crafts. These 

sta ndar ds ar e well developed and defined. In 

addition, a certain degr ee of ethical standa r ds a , 

built into such a program. When tr ainirl 

stand ar ds and ethics are combined, everybody 

benefits, from th e indi vidual to the U.S. Army. 

34 
Realizing that every soldier is not going to stay in 

the service. a military apprenticeship program can 

serve as the stimulas or motivation for the 

-car eer soldier to contribute his best to the 

my while getting the most from his training and 

xperience. 

What about a system for the Army? First. let 

us get a little background. A great deal of effort 

has been placed on getting all Services to consolidate training base requirements with the goal of 

reducing costs. The equipment operators' field 

was chosen as one of the first engineer-related 

programs for this endeavor. In September 1973. a 

standard program of instruction (POI) was 

developed by Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine 

Corps representatives at Fort Belvoir. At present, 

the Navy is conducting a test on three cycles of 

training using this POI. It is planned to have the 

Army, Air Force and Marine Corps consolidate 

AIT at Fort Leonard Wood starting in early 

November of this year. The Navy will continue to 

use Port Hueneme, California as their training 

base but will use the Inter-service POI. 

Interservice training took a giant step forward 

for the Army. It provides for a multi-skilled 

operator. One MOS will cover the operation for 

several pieces of construction equipment. This 

concept helped to align our training program closer 

industry or the trade of Operating Engineer. 

edless to say. any effort on our standards took 

1 an Interservice title. 

Take a minute to look at the proposed Military 

Apprenticeship System. A noted similarity exists 

between the military and the industry system. 

There are still two levels: A national committee 

and a Central Registry which performs similar 

functions to the local committees. The Central 

Registry monitors all apprenticeship actions and 

serves as the interface between you, the 

apprentice, Department of Labor and the National 

level or Committee. If local committees were 

established, unit commanders would be tied up 

with local union and contractors in long meetings 

on apprenticeship actions. Since states have 

different laws on apprenticeship local committees 

would also be bound by different state laws. The 

Department of Labor has agreed to monitor 

apprenticeship actions through our Central Registry. This procedure makes it a simple matter 

when apprentices are assigned overseas or 

transfer within CONUS. 

What about our standards? Just what is in our 

standards - Interservice Training Standards for 

ilitary Equipment Operators and Mechanics. Our 

gram follows the registered program for the 

de of Operating Engineer: 

• A four year program consisting of 6.000 

hours of OJT. 

• A minimum of 432 hours of related instruction. Here maximum credit is given to your AIT 

schooling. The remaining instruction is contained 

in correspondence courses or formal unit instruction. 

All OJT documented in your Apprentice 

Master Record will be credited to this program at 

time of implementation. The E4's and above will 

receive 500 hours of O.JT credit without documentation or AMR. This credit is granted only if you 

actually have 500 hours of stick time or hands-on 

training. 

• Forms and records are the same as found in 

your Apprentice Master Record. The registration 

or application form becomes initially the most 

important form. 

• Completion of the program will result in a 

certificate from the Department of Labor. 

• Industry support of the program. To get a 

journeyman rating in civilian life. you have to work 

for it. There will be no difference with the Interservice program. It takes three years on the 

outside to obtain this rating and at best four years 

while in the Army. If you leave the Service 

without getting a completion certificate, you will 

receive credit by the civilian member organizations 

of our National Committee towards their apprenticeship program. 

What will the future hold? Our proposed 

program has started on its long way up to 

Department of Defense and Department of Labor. 

Other Service schools. Transportation. Ordnance, 

Military Police and Quartermaster are developing 

similar programs. The timing is right for the 

Army to support apprenticeship efforts. Your part 

in the program is to make sure you are registered 

and are maintaining the Apprentice Master 

Record, under the existing Military Engineer 

Apprenticeship Program. Previously identified as 

the Trade Union Recognition Program. This title 

was looked on by Department of Labor and the 

Associated General Contractors of America with 

disfavor. Despite our disclammer in the AMR, the 

title implied union support. The union recognition 

title has been eliminated. 

Our proposed program has a great deal to offer 

industry, the Army, and our nation's work force. 

One wonders if the day will ever come when the 

high school graduate applies for a job and gets this 

reply: "Join the Army and learn a trade first." 

Major Hugh T. Stevenson is assigned to the 

Engineer School, Deputy Commandant for Combat 

and Training Deuelopmenis where. as a project 

officer. he was involved in developing the Interservice Apprenticeship Program. He is currently 

Chief of the MOS Test Branch. Training Programs 

Division. 

35 
The adoption of containerization techniques by 

the military is perhaps the greatest thing that 

has happened to the movement of military materiel 

in this century. Its presence connotes ease in 

handling both at port-nodal points and aboard ship; 

efficiencies in manpower and shipping time; and 

cargo security. 

The economics of containerization show evidence of increased ship productivity by approximately a factor of three as a result of reduced 

"inport" times, while affording the ship-owner an 

improved r eturn on his investment from five to 

eight times that achieved by conventional breakbulk cargo vessels operating along the same 

routes. 

.Not mentioned is the increased productivity for 

terminal service personnel and terminal resources 

by a factor of approximately 10 with the use of 

containerized cargo. 

Cargo Configuration Unit Labor Factor 

Break-bulk cargo 0.52 units (*) per manhour 

Containerized cargo 2.54 units per manhour 

(*weight, LTONS or cube, MTONS) 

How is all of this advantage to be developed in 

terms of port space requirements and physical 

arrangement of facilities'? What minimum facilities 

are required for a single or multiple containerport? 

What tonnages are required to justify the 

construction of a containerport? These are just a 

few of the questions which must be asked and 

answered before construction can begin. 

To be part of the total transportation system in 

the general port area, the containerport must be 

linked to the road and rail network, if the latter 

exists. Of lesser importance, site selection should 

also consider accessibility to an all-weather airport. 

In a military setting the selection of a containerport site should exclude sites where waterside 

acce ss is limited by the presence of navigational 

ha zards, where operations are affected by seasonal 

sea conditions, or where extensive dr edging is 

required . 

During the planning phase a survey should be 

mad e of maximum draft requirements for vessels 

expected to call at the new port. Vessel draft 

requirements for standard C-2 and C-4 containerships are approximately 28 feet, while super-containerships with a capacity for 1,400 or mol' 

equivalent 20-foot containers will have a draft of 

feet or more. Therefore, at berth water deptH 

must not be less than 34-36 feet for the C-2 and C-4 

vessels and at least 45 feet for the newer and 

greater capacity containerships. 

The use of Delong-type barge units can sharply 

red uce port construction where bottom soil 

conditions and tidal range permit. Equally 

important is the back area of flat land required for 

container storage, marshalling and other container 

related and support facilities. 

Minimum facilities at the containerport for 

vessels without ship mounted gantry cranes are 

single or multiple berths of an appropriate length, 

gantry cranes of sufficient capacity; container 

marshalling area(s); container stuffing and stripping area for less-than-container load (LTCL) 

cargo; entry and dispatch facilities including container docum entation points, container inspection 

and import customs; and support equipment storag e and maintenance ar eas. 

The minimum per-berth containerport area is 

about 25 acres; however , where land area is not 

r estricted, a per-berth area allocation of 40 to 45 

acres is recommended. As the size of containerport increases with an increased number of berth 

the average area per-berth will decrease. ~/,

Minimum export and import (combined) container cargo to justify a containerport is approxi36 

mately 350,000 STONS per year . 

Containerport layout is an important factor in 

determining oper ating efficiency, sec ur ity, and 

containers hip turn-around time. Equally important are the state of training and pr oficiency of 

t erminal service personnel and th e pr oper 

scheduling of container s to and fr om the port. If a 

cont ainer por t is properly organized and operated it 

can achi eve an annual per-berth capacity upwards 

of 500,000 STONS. 

Th e geometr ic shap e of a container- port should 

be rectangular. The final dimensions ar e a 

function of land area availabl e, number of berths 

and whether a pier or quay-wharf arrangement is 

used. Based on the land area availabl e, a special 

effort should be made to minimi ze t he average 

distance between t he marshallin g area and t he 

shipside gantry crane. 

Contain erport layout is influenced greatly by 

the ty pe contai ner(s) handled . Size of container is 

ge nerally carrier-ori ented. For example, SEALAND SERVICE uses a 35' x 8' x 8W container, 

whereas AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES uses a 

20' x 8' x 3' box. If container size is not taken into 

account such aspects as gan try crane spreade r 

fra mes for vertical container handlin g, trai ler 

chassis, and container marshallin g-parking design 

becomes impossible. 

Term contr acts with a single carr ier or exclusive use of MILVAN containers can facilitate 

planning and later operations. Landside container 

handling may be performed with bogey-type 

chassis used to move container s to and from t he 

conta ine rpo rt or via straddle carri ers which afford 

th e added advantage of multiple stacking of contain ers in the marshalling area. If the latter 

method is used, pavement strength must be 

provided which is adequate to support the addib anal container load and the wheel load of th e 

loaded stra ddle carrier . 

Access to the containerpor t is via an ent rance 

complex. This is where port documentation is 

initiated and wher e th e port operator ass umes 

r esponsibility for expor t (outgoing) containers. 

Marshalling instructi ons to pre-determined parking locations are assigned at the entr ance comple x 

for ea ch container by cont ainer number . Initial 

ins pection is also conducted in th is area. Coldstorage r eefer containers are assigned to stalls 

eq uipped wit h electrical out lets. Ship manifests 

are prepared on the basis of destination and 

container number. Off-loaded import containers 

are similarly assigned to pr e-determined parking 

locations in the marshalling area based on 

information r eceived on pr e-arrival ship manifests. 

Prior to th eir departure from t he container port, 

containers are normally inspecte d and passed 

t hrough a cus toms inspection. 

Container Marshalling Area 

Lower Portion of Gantry Crane 

38 
53 4SS 

SEA-LAND SERVICE container 

Aeria I View of Pier 4 (Delong) 

Of special concern to the port designer is the 

handling of export and import containerized cargo 

which comprise less-than-containerload shipments. 

To accommodate LTCL cargo, an estimate must be 

made of export cargo to be stuffed in outbound 

containers and import cargo to be stripped from 

inbound containers. This data is essential for the 

sizing and layout of receiving (export car go) and 

delivery (import cargo) buildings, generally of a 

standard frei ght consolidat ion building design for 

st uffing and stripping containers, and cargo 

transfer to and from small cargo vehicles. 

Detailed space allocation within the port 

becomes a fun ction of container storage timerequirements, arrival rates of export container s, 

entrance compl ex and inspection processing rates, 

and out-processing times for containers departing 

the port. Queu eing lanes at the entrance complex 

and in the vicinity of the receiving and delivery 

buildings als o must be pro vided. One aspect of the 

total port compl ex which must not be overlooked is 

an area of adequate size for maintenance of 

bobtails (or straddl e carr ier s), equipment storage, 

cont ainerport utilities. 

Experience at the Pier 4 (Delong) complex, 

Cam Ranh Port, Vietnam, demonstrated that a 

minimum number of well-trained personnel can 

handle large quantities of containerized cargo 

with near optimal time-efficiency. During one 

25-hour period more than 12,000 STO NS of 

containerized cargo was unloaded and empty 

container s were r eload ed aboard a SEA-LAND C-4 

vessel. Turn-around times such as th ose substantiate the ship -owner and port-operating efficiencies. Normal container cycle times employing 

trained personnel, that is the time required to 

remove one container from the ship and load a 

second container on the ship, generally vary from 

four to six minutes. 

Container relat ed port operations demand a 

greater awareness of the "total transportation 

system" concept than other conventional methods 

of cargo handling and shipment. Linked with this 

method of cargo handling is the physical facility 

which becomes a function of cargo traffic pattern 

and related inter-modal and inter-port cargoes 

moved through th e containerport. 

If all aspects of t he system can be optimized, 

th en efficiencies can be realized by the port 

operator, by th e carrie r , and individual shippers 

and consignees. If all these things are accomplished - we ha ve done our job - and the 

advant ages of CONTAINERIZATION are ours! 

Major Paul J. Theuer is a former Commandant 

of Cadets, Army ROTC, at Pennsylvania S tate 

University. He is a registered Professional 

Engineer in the District of Columbia and holds a 

Master of S cience degree in engineering. 

39 
ENGINEERS
 

AND 

ETHICS 


 

Captain Jess J. Franco, Jr. 

S hould the Corps of Engineers have a Code of 

Ethics'? Proponents of such a code have stated 

that as professionals it is strongly needed. Some 

believe that such a code would be too lengthy and 

cumbersome and therefore too difficult to apply. 

Others feel that individual standards are sufficient 

to guide one in the selection of his courses of 

action. If, however, we are to truly be professionals, should we then not have a professional 

Code of Ethics? 

The highest compliment that can be given to a 

member of the military is to call him a "professional". By stating this, we are implying that he is 

technically proficient and military in his manner. 

But, is that all that is required of a professional 

the military - and, in particular, in the Corps 

Engineers? In civilian professions, a professiona

. 

is more than a correctly performing, proficient 

40
 
technician. Each profession has a se t of ethical 

rul es. Individuals are judged equally by their 

ethical conduct and technical proficiency. To be a 

rofessional he must meet both these standards. 

herefore, should there not be a se t of ethical rules 

- a Code of Ethics - for the military and

particularly for the Corps of Engineers? 

As engineer s, we have an obligation to protect 

the safety and welfare of others. A poor design or 

care les s const ruction can result in injury and /or 

dea th . Unlike many other professions, ours affects 

many, not a few. As a result of this responsibility, 

th e civilian engineer profession has placed on its 

members requirements of competency , proficiency 

of performance, and the high est degree of moral 

and et hical conduct. To gove r n th e conduct of the 

Profession al Engineer, a code of ethics was 

adopted . This code specified guide lines for the 

eng ineer conc erning t he manner in which he was 

t o practice his profes sion. Unlike the civilian 

enginee r , the military enginee r does not have such 

a code, yet he provides the same type of service. 

Being members of th e Cor ps of Engineers, we 

find ourselves practicing two profession s. We are 

members of the military and we are engineers. 

Both professions have r equirements and responsibilities which must be met. To be a professional in 

eit her , one must conform to technical and ethical 

standar ds. Regarding th e latt er. General Westor eland ha s state d t hat " . . . th e individual 

ficer bears r esponsibility for th e establishment 

and obs ervan ce of scr upulous, ethical standards." 

This applies to both th e enginee r officer and the 

engineer NCO. To be professi onals, we need a 

Code of Ethics. It would provide guidance in th e 

practice of both of our professions - particularly 

as engineers. 

Some indi viduals will still feel that such a code 

is impractical because of th e complexity ne eded to 

cover our profession accurately and because the 

military enginee r wears two hats - that of the 

combat and th e constr ucti on engineer. The responsibilities and r equirem ents of each is not 

necessarily th e same , but ar e similar. Whether 

one performs in a combat or a construction role, 

one common denominator exists - we are still 

engin eers. It would be tr uly impractical to attempt to est ablish a Code of Ethics which cove re d 

every ar ea of conduct for every situation. However , a basic code , limited t o major precepts, could 

easily be adopted. As such , it would allow 

sufficient lateral interpretation to be applicable to 

most situations. Th e degree of engineer ing may 

change, but t he principals of conduct and the 

alues of professionalism should never vary. 

Basing a profession on individual standards of 

onduct tends to offer a shaky foundation upon 

whi ch to build . Each individual will govern himself 

according to his own standards. They mayor may 

not agree with the majority of his profession and 

mayor ma y not enha nce the reputation of his 

profession. What may be considered acceptable or 

allowable to one indi vidual may be morally abusive 

to another, This is not to say that a code of ethics 

should take away the individuality of its members, 

but rather tha t some form of unity of idea or belief 

is nec essary to protect the honor, integrity, and 

professionalism of the respective vocation . Th erefore, th e followin g is offered as a basis for a Code 

of Ethics for the Cor ps of Engineers: 

• I am a professional. 1 unll base my 

decisions on accuracy, sound judgement, 

and tru thfulness. My actions will be 

characteristic of th e highest standards of 

the Corps of Engineers. 

• My profession is critical to th e health, 

we lfare, and safe ty of others and theref ore requires that m y practice be conducted with the high est degree of technical, moral, and ethical standards. 

• I will never perf orm in such a manner 

as to impune m y in tegrity, the integrity 

of others of my profession, or th e reputation and honor of the Corps of Engineers. 

• I will conduct myself, such that, m y 

course of action is never as a res ult of 

personal gain; at the expense of oth ers. 

• A s a memb er of the Corps of Engineen, I have an obligation of responsibility as an engineer and as a member 

of the Unite d Stat es military. I will conduct myself as a professional by me ans 

of projicient and ethical judgement. 

Should th e Corps of Engineers have a Code of 

Ethics? I sincerely believe so. We are truly 

professionals by vocation. Such a code would 

produce a unity of conviction and a bond of 

professionalism within the Corps; respect and 

r ecognition without. As engineer officers and 

NCO's, we have an obligation and responsibility to 

meet - to be truly a profession with a Code of 

Ethics. 

Captain Jess J . Fran co, Jr., is a graduate of the 

Engineer Officer Candidate S chool, a recent graduate of the Engineer Officer A dvance Course, and 

holds a BS degree in Civil and Environmental 

Engineering from the Universit y of Wisconsin. He 

has served with the 39th Engineer Battalion (Cbt ) 

in RVN, the 9ist Engineer Battalion (Cbt) in 

CONUS , and commanded a com pany in th e 389th 

Enginee r Battalion (Const) in CONUS. 

41 
The Henry Larcom Abbot Award
 

A 

POSSIBLE 

SOLUTION 

TO 

A 

DANGEROUS 

PROBLEM 

Captain William D. Brown 

42 

N uclear engineer s and physicists at the U. 

Army En gineer Power Group at Fort Belvoir, 

Vir ginia appear to have found a solution to the 

problem of how to dispose of che mical warfare 

agent stockpiles in this country. The breakthrough 

also would solve future sit uations where th e use of 

chemical warfare agents by an enemy may require 

exte nstive detoxifi cation of our own military and 

civilian water supplies. 

Th e news media has made the American public 

aware of th e problem of how to dispose of chemical 

warfare age nt stockpiles with extensive covera ge of 

the topi c. The subject was given nationally 

televised coverage on the CBS program "60 

Minutes" last year. In addition, the Washington 

Post and Newsweek magazine have run in depth 

articles on the topic. This type of coverage 

obviously has aroused an increasing interest in 

chemical warfare agent stockpiles, especially toward 

those at th e Rocky Mountain Arsenal, near Denver. 

The pr esence of a significant quantity of GE, a 

colorless. odorless nerve gas and oth er toxic 

agents at Rocky Mountain Arsenal pose s a major 

community relation s problem and a potential 

safety hazard for th e Army. 

Although committe d to relocate or otherwi 

dispose of this stockpile, the Army is burdened witfi 

the immediate probl em of accomplishing this feat 

in the face of technological, environmental. and 

legal complications. Such disposal methods as 

ocean dumping are now practically and politically 

infeasible. Incineration methods also appear to be 

economically and invironmentally unsound , even if 

th e likely legal litigation could be successfully 

overcome. 

The solution th e Power Group's nuclear 

engineers and physi cists offer draws upon 

exte nsive r es earch in t he radiochemistry field in 

t he treat me nt of wastewater by ionizing gamma 

radiation. Th e gamma radiation molecularly 

dissociates hydrocarbon compounds, as found in 

sew age water. and may similarly be used to 

des tr oy the organic hydrocarbon compounds which 

compose the basis of chemical warfare agents. 

Alt hough no specific r esearch ha s been done on 

gamma ray destruction of such agents as GB. VX, 

and BZ, a similar proc ess, reverse osmosis, has 

been examined by scientists at the Edgewood 

Arsenal in Maryland. It was determined th er e 

that this process was capable of removin 

significant amounts of toxic agents in water in a' 

circumstances. Howev er, improved equipment ana 

techniques are ex pec te d to produce water with 
s than the maximum permissible concentrations • Agents can be neutralized in canister or

(MPC) of such ag ents as BG and VX. 

The Engineer Power group has recommended a 

program designed to determine if gamma radiation 

is effective in destroying toxic agents and to 

establish dosage r equirements for the detoxification operation. 

If th e gamma irradiation technique if found to 

be efficacious and economically feasible, a portable 

irradiation unit can then be used to detoxify the 

che mical agents at their storage locations. The rig 

could be us ed against chemi cals in steel containment or against batch quantities of th e agents. As 

there would be no r esidual radiation, th e detoxified 

materials and containers could then be disposed of 

by routine methods. This approach also may aid 

t he Department of Agriculture in disposing of 

excess pesticides for which it is now responsible. 

Radiochemical treatment of toxic agents and 

pesticides has a number of potential advantages: 

• It would involve no legal conflicts with 

ederal, stat e, or local regulations. 

• It would require no environme ntal impact 

Latement. 

• Air and water pollution would be minimal. 

volume quantities. 

• Military manpower can be used for the entire 

operation, facilitating contr ol and security. 

• Transportation of age nts would be avoided 

with th e use of the portable ri g. 

Th e ultimate feasibility of this method of 

detoxification will be determined by the Corps of 

Engineers in conjunction with the Surgeon 

General's Office and the Chemical Corps. Its 

initiation at th e Engineer Power Group represents 

one more way in which advanced technology can 

be applied by the Corps of Engineers to me et the 

challenges of guaranteeing a safe and healthy 

envir onme nt for our nation. 

Captain William D. Broum is assigned to th e 

Division of Science and Technology, Defense 

Nuclear A gency in Alexandria, Virginia. He has 

served with engineer construction units in 

Germany and Vietnam and most recently has 

completed the Engineer Officer Advanced Course. 

He holds a B.S. degree fr om the United States 

Military Academy and M.S. and N.E. degrees from 

the Massachus etts Institut e of Technology. The 

captain won th e Henry Larcom Abbot A ward for 

ex cellence in writing during the EOA C based on 

his presentation of "A POSSIBLE SOL UTION TO 

A DANGERO US PROBLEM." 

43 
MANY EM ARE ELIGIBLE 

TO ATTEND NCOES 

MEMBE RS OF TH E ACTIVE ARMY or of a Reserve Component in the grade of E4 with less than 

eight years service or E5 with less than 12 years service who liave demonstrated leadership potential for 

noncommissioned officer positions are eligible to attend the Engineer NCOES Basic Course (ENCOB) 

provided they are qualified in one of the listed prerequisite MOS's, have an MOS test score of 100 or more, 

and 11 months or more of ac tive duty service remaining upon completion of the course. No security 

clearance is required (except 12E) . These are the prerequ isite MOS's for ENCOB: 

12B 41B 51F 51N 52E 62D 62K 81D 83D 

12C 41K 51G 51Q 53B 62E 62L 81E 83E 

12D 51B 5lJ 51R 53C 62F 62M 81F 83F 

12E 5lC 51K 52B 57D 62G 81A 82B 

12F 51D 51L 52C 62B 62H 81B 82D 

35E 51E 51M 52D 62C 62J 81C 82E 

INDIVIDUAL FILES TRIMMED 

FOR OFFICER CAREER BRANCHES 

TH E US MI L1TARY PE RSON N E L CE NTE R (MI LP E RCEN) ma intains two seperate personnel 

files on commissioned officers' military service. One is the Official M ilitary Personnel File (OMP 

frequently yet erroneously referred to as the "TAG File." This file is maintained by MI LPERCEr 

Personnel Actions and Records Directorate (PARD) and used by DA Selection Boards to select officers fo. 

promotion, military and civil schooling, Regular Army appointment, retention, elimination, and recall to 

active duty. The second is the officer's Career Branch Individual File (CBI F) which is maintained within the 

Officer Personnel Directorate (OPD) by an officer's career branch and used by MI LPE RCEN's carrer 

branch managers in their daily functions of managing officer assginments, professional development, and 

other personnel actions. 

Accurately maintaining these two seperate files for each officer has required a sizeable staff of 

adminstrative support personnel. Based on a recently conducted MILPERCEN study to determine where 

duplicative filing between PARD and OPD could be reduced, filing procedures have been revised to 

eliminate all nonessential documents and information from the CB1F. 

Effective immediately, only the following documents will be filed in the CB IF: 

a. Officer Preference Statement 

b. Photographs 

c. Civil School Reports 

d. College Transcripts 

e. Induvidual Flight Records (most recent) 

f . Officer Record Brief 

g. Officer Evaluation and Academic Reports with related official correspondence 

h. Records of Punishment under Article 151 UCMJ I and Courts-Martial, and similar document filed 

under the provisions of AR 600-37 (Unfavorable Information) 

Documents that are not needed in the CBIF are being removed from the file. Original copies of leth

of appreciation and commendation and copies of citations for awards and decorations are being transfer rj'J) 

to PARD for inclusion in the OMPF. Other documents which duplicate those filed in the OMPF are being 

destroyed. 

44 
I 

COMMANDER'S ROLE IN AWARDING 

THE GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL EMPHASIZED 

ALTHOUGH QUAl! FY ING PE R 10DS for the award of the Good Conduct Medal will remain the 

same under revised AR 672-5-1, new changes to paragraph 45 of the governing regulation reemphasizes the 

commander's role in eva luating the character, conduct and efficiency of derserving enlisted sold iers : 

CHARACTE R - The immediate commander must evaluate the soldier's character as above reproach . 

CONDUCT - The record of service must indicate that the soldier has will ingly complied with the 

demands of the mil itary environment, has been loyal and obedient to his superiors, has faithful ly supported 

the goals of his organization and the Army and has conducted himself in such an examplary manner as to 

distinguish him from among his fellow soldiers. While any record of non-iudicial punishment could be in 

conflict with recognizing the soldier's service as exemplary, such record on non -judicial punishment could be 

in 'conf lict with recognizing the soldiers service as exemplary, such record should not be viewed as 

automatica Ily disqua lifying. The commander must analyze the record, giving consideration to the nature of 

the infraction, the circumstances under which it occured and when . Conviction by court-martial terminates 

a period of qualifying service; a new period beg ins following the completion of sentence imposed by 

court-martia I. 

EFFICIENCY - In terms of job performance, the soldier's efficiency must be evaluated as meeting 

a II requ irements and expectations for one of that soldier's grade, MOS and experience. 

) ARMY SERGEANTS MAJOR ACADEMY 

OFFERS NEW NONRESIDENT COURSE 

A TOTAL OF 50 active Army and Reserve Component senior NCOs will be selected to attend the new 

US Army Sergeants Ma [or Academy (USASMA) Nonresident Course beg inning August 15, 1974, according to 

MI LPERCEN's Enlisted Personnel Directorate. 

The USASMA Nonresident Course curriculum closely parallels the Resident Course ; senior NCOs will 

study military organization and operations, world affairs, human relations and military management. The 

total curriculm is approximately 625 hours: 520 nonresident hours, 60 resident hours and 45 hours of 

independent research. 

Students w ill be selected for the Nonresident Course by a DA Selection Board. For this class, 35 active 

army students and 15 Reserve Component senior noncommissioned officers w ill be named. Prerequis ites for 

the students are a PMOS score of 100 or higher; pay grade E8 (waiverable for all E9s); maximum time in 

service of 23 years (waiverable); and secret security clearance. 

Subsequent Nonresident Courses are planned to begin annually each July, with enrollments of 200 

students per class. Appl ications to attend Class Two-which will begin in July 1975, must reach 

MI LPE RC E N not later than October 30, 1974. 

The Nonresident Course consists of approximately two years of nonresident instruction, followed by 

two weeks of resident instruction at Fort Bliss, Texas. Applications from overseas-based senior NCOs with 

more than two years remaining on their current tour assignments will be accepted; those selected, however, 

will attend the resident phase upon their return to CONUS. 

Applications should be prepared in letter format and include the class the student is applying for ; 

name; pay grade; most recent PMOS evaluation score and date; basic active service date; physical profile; 

.. ternent as to whether applicant has graduated from either a resident/non resident advanced NCOES 

statement as to whether applicant has been selected for and declined attendance at a USASMA 

resident course; current mai Iing address and telephone number; copies of DA Forms 20 or 2-1 ; and waivers 

of time in service or pay grade, as appropriate. 

45