The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1919-09-25


nm Hereafter, again congress will
J5H ing, the young men who enlist
in the regular army of the Unit
ed States will receive instruction which will in a
double sense fit them for their countrys service.
If the call should come again for soldiers to
take the field the youths who have been given this
training 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 it in the pos
sible time of war.
AT Camp Humphreys, Va, there is now under
development 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 brevity. 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
tie service and who have agreed upon plans for
this school of the future. In fact this institution mt
Camp Humphreys is a school of the present for
there for long time young men have been under
going vocational ard military training.
1t is the intention to make the school permd-
nent in order that every officer and enlisted
man may become skilled in those vacations which
have in them the possibility of double service
aimy 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 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
tantamount to time wasted so far preparation
concerned for usefulness in civil life If the
rIlV Stn Of tn1u IN hnv no
way the day will come when the boys Of the
country seek the army with a certainty of
securing training which will enable them at the
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
gineer school, but it will supply courses to which
men of other branches of the service 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 ut 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 give it. 1t lies not far from the
city of Washington. 1t has the necessary road
rail and water connections, for the Potomac
washes its shores, and, moreover, it has today on
the ground serviceable material for instruction
purposes i'm 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 was
ordinarily known Washington barracks in the
city of Washington was abandoned So it virtually
Is certain that the corps of engineers for 1t must
have Il school, will continue its educational work
at Camp Humphreys at Belvoir-on-the-Pot
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. III. f. Kebbon of the corps of engi-
neers has been chief of the architectural features
Capts. Mark Daniels and J. A. Mclean and Lieut.
j. W. Baston have supervised and i'm fact have
done the landscape work and the modelling. So
far as the planning is concerned the work is done,
and TO some extent the execution of the plan al
ready is under way.
In planning the layout of the pesent Camp
Humphreys large portion of the south end of the
Belvoir peninsula was reserved for permanent
post and school by direction of the chief of en-
gneers whose mind long had held plan for the
permanent establishment here of an institution of
the corps of engineers. The secretary of war was
heartily In favor of such school and was so Inn
pressed with the natural advantages of the locali-
ty that he directed the chief of engineers to in
clude in his plans group of buildings for col
lege of military research
Lieutenant Colonel flanagan and Captain Dan
iels. who explained to me the functions of the
school, who showed me the beautiful model of the
completed institution, who explained everything
I'm detail and who finally took me into every part
OF the beautiful government reservation which Is
to be the school site. paid the highest tribute to
the constructive genius of COL Richard Park and
other officers associated with him In the labor OF
preparation and execution. AS for Colonel Lana