Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-09-08
VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN THE
E ARMY.
TO. the Editor of the Army and Nav

TO. the Editor of the Army and Navy
Journal:
"The General Staff of the Army
has been directed by the Secretary
of War, Garrison, to work out a sys-
tenn of vocational training for enlist
ed men of the Army. The President
is highly gratified at the results that
have been accomplished in this d.
rection, in the Nay, and he is anx.
ious that the same policy shall be
put into effect in the Army, as
shown in the Army and Navy Jour
nal, July 25, 1914.
Taking the above at its face value
we can make several deductions.
Regular military training duties are
not sufficient to occupy fully the
working time Of the enlisted men; or
the present term of enlistment is so
long that the enlisted man has time
enough to learn all of his military
work and can also learn a location.
other than the military one.
Either your military instructors
cannot lay out a profitable full day of
military training, or your enlistment
term is longer than it need be to edu-
cate a recruit to be an efficient SOL
der. Now we have it down to two
terms, effective instructors and the
required length of enlistment. This
means the more effective the instruc-
tors the shorter the required length
Of enlistment, or the better the Off
GERS the quicker they can turn re-
cruits into efficient soldiers. Here
you will see no 10 for, vocation
al training. The Bible says some
thing about beating your swords into
plowshares, but it does not advise
you to try and pillow with swords.
There is the old saying, Shoemaker
stick to your last"
We stopped with what is the best
and quickest way. to make soldiers.
With Europe at war, that is a pretty
important question to us. Remember
our responsible officials have said
over and over, "The United States is
not prepared as it should be for mill
tary defense"
The thing most required for nation.
al defense is trained soldiers. In the
Regular Army we find our best meth
cd of training soldiers. Give young
Americans a chance to get this Regu-
lar Army training. Give them a
chance they can accept. If you have
summer training camps with Regular
Army troops present in charge you
can get 300 900 a year to participate
for two months each year. Work
them half a day and let them play
half a day. In two months you can
teach them a lot about drill, tactics,
team work, craftsmanship and COM
bat firing. You can get 100000
young Americans to enlist for a six
months training period, and in that
time you can make ln%fantrymen out
OF them. You can select suitable
men for officers and give them six
months duty and pay with Regulars
and you will turn out many a good
officer.
The Army is said to be dissatisfied.
The diagnosis is that the Army is
suffering from undigested education.
For the last fifteen years officers
have been overstudying and under
working. Establish a short training
enlistment of six months with at
least war strength companies and set
the practical task to the Infantry Of
ficers of translating their military
studies into well trained Infantrymen
in six months.
There are plenty of Regular Off
GERS who know a lot theoretically
about training troops for field work.
There are some Regular officers who
do not know the mechanics Of field
training.-1nfantry.