The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1914-04-07
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AMMUNITION
I. PROBLEM


SCH0FIELD BARRACKS, April g.
Company commanders in the full war
strength regiments Of the Hawaiian Bri.
gade have awakened to the realiza.
tiOn that the present authorized allow.
anee per man for small arms ammuni,
tion with companies filed largely with
unqualified men win prove altogether
inadequate for tine present target sea.
son. r.. ~
Under the new small arms firing reg
ulations, the instruction course Of the
known distance firing requires 1856
rounds per man and for the record
course 62 rounds. should the company
commander desire to have his many
men fire the instruction course Sec
ond time before proceeding to the rec
ord firing, as was customary under the
old regulations and as will certainly be
needed under the new system, he will
be required to expend 382 rounds.
Allowance Not snnfcisnt. s..
The money allowance for the current
year for eaeh infantryman has been cut
20 $7,d5, which, at the present cost Of
rifle bail ammunition, win provide on.
ly 306 rounds. From this allowance Of
$7.65 must also be deducted all other
kinds Of ammunition the soldier uses
in preparing himself for the range, III.
cluding gallery and dummy cartridges,
the gnar,l ammunition he uses during
the year and the blank ammunition Ne
may use in maneuvers and exercises for
the same period.
To this must also be added the cost
of the soldier 3 score book. Add TO this
the ball nmmunition necessary for the
proficiency test required for each Or
ganizatfon and the combat firing, a
feature Of rife practise now recognized
as the most important part of the SOL
dier's instructions and requiring lib
eral allowance of ammunition, and the
problem which company commanders
are now facing is easily apparent. ~
81 Allowance h slashed. Ill
Influenced, no doubt, by the adop-
tron by the war department Of new
system OF firing regulations, congress
proceeded to cut the allowance for
rifle practise from the sum appfopfiat.
ed for the fiscal year 1918 BY the ar
bitrary amount Of $4,000. AT the
same time the strength of'the army has
been increased so that the current year
finds approximately $500 more soldiers
in the army. 4.s .s.N XXI
To provide funds to enable these men
to shoot, estimating at the former
years allowance of $40 in round figures
for each soldier the increase in
strength alone will require an expendi-
.ture of $4,000 TO furnish ammunition
Tor these $500 men. TO Offset this ac-
tual reduction of $4,000 the war de-
partInent has reduced the individual al
lowance Of the soldier. Af...ss
Apparent Reduction Of $I74ooo.
For example the reduction for sol,
.diers of the infantry, Philippine and
Indian Scents and the Engineers
amounts this year to 1913 per man.
( The authorized strength Of these
forces is about 4l,000 men, not inelud.
ing about 1880 unattached to regime nts
and there is made in this instance
saving Of $12,330. In the case of a
cavalry soldier, a saving Of $29s has
'been made on the individual or saw
ing of $4,000 ON the entire cavalry
arm of $0.47 for each coast artillery
soldier or about $1,000 for the entire
Artillery Corps. o. o.. .. AZ
This makes ia round figures an appar-
ent reduction in individual allowances
for ammunition OF $4,000 to Offset
needed reduction of but $S5 900. This
very considerable. reduction has been
made despite a considerable difference
in cost of rife ammunition than in for
mer years. ~ ia, h
1t is possible that the appropriation
will be sufficient to provide for the
needs Of the average Organization with
a normal number Of qualified men of
the several grades, but it Is utterly inn
possible, in the opinion OF many infan.
try officers here, TO meet the required
expenditure for ammunition that the
proper training the large number Of un.
qualified men will demand with the
money allowance as at present author
lied. FL $50