New Britain herald., 1917-09-04
Lesson No. 18. THE ARMY SYSTEM OF, TRAINING

dter. 5. Nine Qualities of a Soldier
 4. Getting Ready for Camp 5. First
 Day in Camp. 6. Cleanliness in Camp 7. Your Health. 8. March ing and Care of Feet. g. Your Equipment and Arms. 10. Recrea- tion in Camp. II. Playing the Game
 12. Teamwork in the Army. IS.
 Grouping Men Into Teams. 14.
 The Team Leaders, IS. Fighting
 Arms of the Service 16. Staff
 Branches of the Servtce-i. IT. Staff Branches of the Service-II.
 IS. Army Insignia).
 The average American who has job assigned to him wants to do it well. He doesn't care to dawdlo over the job and make a mess of it. Nor does he care to make it a halfway success. He is deterimned to make it full and complete success in the shortest possible time.
 It is assumed that you are starting your Army training in this American spirit. Since you are undertaking the job of becoming a citizen soldier you intend to be good one. You don't want to waste any time in the process.
 More than that, if you are ambi- tious and possess fair ability there is no reason why you should ayways re- main private soldier. It is right that you should want to advance, just as you want to advance in civil life. The Army is anxious to have you ad- vance just as soon as you are ready.
 You will not, of course, become a corporal or sergeant or win higher prom otion until after you have thor oughly mastered the duties of a pri- vate. Nor will all the men who would like to win advancement easily obtain it. There is only one way to get ahead in the Army, and that is to follow ocnscieutiously to the end the regular system of training laid out , for everybody.
 Your training will be practically the same as that through which your officers have advanced in the early stages of military training. Every man in the Army must go through it.
 Drill Formations.
 First, you will be instructed in the infantry drill, as set forth in the h. fantry Drill Regulations. This is the foundation of all your training. It is divided into close order drill and extended-order drill.
 "Close order" is defined in the Regulations as "the formation In which the units, in double rank, are arranged in line or in column With normal intervals and distances Ex- tended order, on the other hand, Is "the foramtion in which the units are separated by intervals greater than in close orde1" These tech- nical definitions are clear enough to those who are already familiar with military terms, but probably require some explanation for most of the men who are reading this course. The diagrams below show at a glance what is meant. Figure 1 rep resents a small body of men in double rank arranged in close order
 Figure 1.
 The space between men standing side by side in rank is called the "in- terval." In the American army the standard interval Is inches, meas ured from the elbow of one man to the elbow of the man next to him. This gives room enough for free m ovement and the proper handling of arms and equipment during drill. The space between a man in the front rank and a man directly behind him in the rear rank is called distance" 1 The standard distance Is 40 inches, emasured from the back of the man in the front to the breast of the man 1 in the rear. In practice intervals and distances are. of course, not measured exactly. A well-trained soldier. how ever, soon learns to gauge them with 1 sufficient accuracy and almost uncon- 1 sciously keeps himself properly placed | in relation to the men about him. It is essential that every man should learn to do this in order to maintain reasonable degree of uniformity.
 Fighting Formations. Figure ? represents a body of men in double rank arranged in column. The same intervals and distances are observed as in the line formation.
 ... :.~s
 Figure D.,
 An extended order formation Is 1 represented below.
 
 Figure 3.
 However. this Is only one of an 1 infinite number of extended-order for | nations. Intervals and distances may be irregular. This is the for nation used for skirmishing and at other times when it may be desirable to have each man control his conform exactly to the movements of the other Il men.
 During drill in close order you will retain ''the position of 8 soldier" In l extended order drill you will usually, though not necessarily be allowed to