Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1919-09-25

ed States will receive instruction which will in q
double sense fit them for their country's service
If the call ever should come again for soldiers to
take the field the youths who have been given this
trimming will be ready to answer When their
terms of enlistment up they will be fitted for
that particular vocation in civil life upon which
choice has fallen. The entrance into the working
life of the country of these young men who have
finished their vocational training, it is promised,
will benefit the country in the times Of peace, as
their military training will benefit 1t in the pos
Sibe time of war.
At Camp Humphreys, Va, there is now under
development a project known as the New En-
gineer School and Post and College of Military
Research" Admittedly this is a cumbersome title
and one which would benefit by elision in behalf
of breyty This school is wonderfully planned.
This is none too high praise 1t is the heart son
of officers of the army, regulars and National
Guardsmen who have studied the situation. pres
ent and future, from every possible viewpoint of
the service and who have agreed upon plans for
this school of the future In fact this institution at
Camp Humphreys is a school of the present, for
there for long time young men have been under
going vocational and military training =
1t is the intention to make the school perma-
nent in order that every officer and enlisted
man may become skilled in those vacations which
have in them the possibility of double service
army service and civilian service.
One of the faults which men have found with
the regular army service of the United States in
time of peace has been that it has fitted officers
and men only for the life military. There have
been parents who have thought, not entirely
rightly however that an enlistment in the regular
army of the United States in time of peace was
tantamount to time wasted so far as preparation
was concerned for usefulness in civil life. II the
army students of today allowed to have their
way the day soon will come when the boys of the
country can seek the army with a certainty of
n which enable
time of the expiration of their enlistments to
enter the civilian field certain that they have In
them the foundation knowledge of success.
The school at Camp Humphreys will be en-
gineer school, but 1t will supply courses to which
men of other branches of the service can be sent
to get that training which is not supplied by the
schools of their own branches and which help to
fit them not only for the army, but for civilian
employment 1t is the intention of the government
to establish other schools than that at Camp Hum
phreys but that institution probably will be much
larger than any of the others, and in sense be
all embracing.
The site of the school has all the attractions
that nature can give 1t. 1t lies not far from the
city of Washington 1t has the necessary road,
rail and water connections for the Potomac
washes it's shores, and moreover 1t has today on
the ground serviceable material for instruction
purposes in all vocational branches which cannot
be duplicated in any other place In the world.
Camp Humphreys will be the engineer school
of the army. Recently the school at what
known as Washington barracks in the
CITY of Washington was abandoned. So it virtually
certain that the corps of engineers, for 1t must
have n school, will continue its educational work
at Camp Humphreys at Belvoir-on-thePot Potomac,
Credit goes where credit Is due. Col Richard
Park corps of engineers of the regular army,
assisted by Lieut. Col. w. II. flanagan, has had
charge of the preparation of the general plan and
detailed estimates for the establishment of this
school, Maj H. f. Kebbon of the corps Of engl-
neers has been chief of the architectural features
-apts Mark Daniels and J. A. Mclean and Lieut..
J. w. Baston have supervised, and in fact have
lone the landscape work and the modelling SO
ar as the planning is concerned the work Is DONE
md to some extent the execution of the plan al
eady is under way.
In planning the layout of the present Camp
humphreys large portion of the south end of the
1eIvoir peninsula was reserved for permanent
,ost and school by direction of the chief of en-
,neers whose mind long had held plan for the
establishment here of an institution of
he corps of engineers. The secretary of war was
enrtly in favor of such school and was so i'm.
ressed with the natural advantages of the locali-
Y that he directed the chief of engineers to in.
Jude in his plans group of buildings for col
,ge of military research.
Lieutenant Colonel flanagan and Captain Dan
Els who explained to me the functions of the
chool who showed me the beautiful model of the
ompletcd institution who explained everything
! detail and who finally took me into every part
T the beautiful government reservation which is
, be the school site. paid the highest tribute to
10 constructive genius of Col. Richard Park and
Their officers associates with him In the labor OF
repuruton aud execution AS for Colonel Lana