New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-19
save fifteen minutes when time Is val
liable.
Military Textbooks Needed


liable.
Military Textbooks Needed
A candidate should take along all the
military textbooks he has. Certain
books will be loaned to the students
during the camp, but in the end the
officer will have TO buy his own, so ne
might as we'll begin acquiring his IL
brary now. The drill regulations of
the arm in which he intends to serve,
field service regulations, signal book,
small arms firing regulations, manual
of interior guard duty and text on
military sketching and map reading
one by Captain John b. Barnes. a
Plattsburg instructor, is recommended
, are some that almost every man Will
need. A fountain pen and permanent
notebooks will be useful.
The most valuable lessons to be
learned at Plattsburg will not come
from the pages of books, but from the
military environment and associations
The candidate will come away from the
cantonment a new man and better
one. This process is peculiar.
The change from civilian to military
life will be so swift and sweeping that
at first the untutored candidate will
feel lost and helpless, pathetic strsn-
GER In a strange land. But this does
not last long. Gradually the new
world-the military world-about him
I begins to assume form and proportions
and the recruit commences to orient
himself. With little understanding
CLEANED here and there it begins to
dawn on him what it is all about.
The next stage witnesses the birth
of esprit de corps, without which a man
in uniform is not a soldier or a collec-
ton of soldiers an army. The indi-
vidual feels an almost inexplicable
pride in his organization. His COM
rany is the best company in the regi-
ment, without a doubt! And hs does
his part to keep il so. For time the
individual is thus submerged and the
camp expresses itself in terms of units
squads, platoons, companies and bat
teries.
But the individual energies presently
that is, the man with the officer's
vision does. He energies with a new
zeal and a new confidence and a new
initiative which will claim the stten-
ton of instructors and mark him out as
one of those who will receive a commits
sion. The last weeks of the camp, in
many cases. are the determining fac
tors. The man who westhers this pro-
cess comes out a changed individual.
All his preconceived military notions
are knocked stemwinding. Even if he
isn't finished officer finished officers
are not made in three months), he has
been given the military point of view.
IL Is something not learned from books.
IL is something no man learns unless
he has il born in him somewhere.
Success Is in Discipline
The military point of view is based
on discipline. and sooner or later the
soldier who Is unable TO bow to dis
cipline comes to grief. Captain Sebring
c. Megill, instructor of bomb throwing
at Plsttsburg, related an instance OF
how lack Of proper understanding Of
discipline cost a regular army lieuten-
ant post in the aviation corps.
This young lieutenant had been
designated for aviation from another
branch of the service, at his own re-
quest. He had studied aeronautics pri-
vately for some time and knew lot
about the subject. In fact, he fancied
he knew little bit more than the in
structors at the aviation school who
were teaching him. He was the star
student Of the ground class His
! demonstrated knowledge OF aeroplane
engines and apparatus gave him an