Evening star., 1924-11-02
275,60 RECEIVING
MILITARY TRAINING
Period Last Summer Ranged
From IS Days to Three
Months.

received some degree of intensive
military training under War Depart.
ment supervision last Summer. The
exact number shown in reports
now before Maj. Gen. John 1. Hines,
chief of staff. was us. $500 of whom
23.250 were officers and the remainder
enlisted personnel The period of
training ranged from Is days for the
National Guard and Organized Re-
serves to three months of concen-
trated activity for the regulars who
compose the instructor and demon
stration force around which work of
the civilian soldiers was centered.
The bulk of the training was in the
National Guard camps where 156,515
men and officers were in attendance
The turnout of organized reserves
amounted to S.705. of whom all but
492 were officers The Reserve Off
GERS Training Corps contributed
'.o12 to the grand total and the Citi-
zens' Military Training Camps SO, $50,
bringing the total number of men
graduated from these camps since
they were first established on a post
war basis up to 10000.
Sole Replacement Source.
OF particular Importance in the
Summer training to the new national
defense policy is the annual product
-
Corps and the civilian military train
ing camps in second Heutenants for
the maintenance of the officers Re-
serve Corps. These two branches of
the training establishment afford
practically the only source for re-
placements and new blood for the re-
serve officers organization, which
now numbers S2.240 men on War De-
partment rolls.
ir,a bo
Young men must come into the corps
annually as second lieutenantS if it is
I" be kept at adequate strength and the
Reserve Officers Training Corps is
expected ultimately to produce 1000
of these young reserve officers year,
the other 5000 to come from the citi-
zen camps, Regular Army, National
Guard and other sources.
There are in the colleges and
schools of the country 325 units of the
Reserve Officers Training Corps, with
total enrolment at the close of the
last school year of 103.s94 under
training. From this source in the
last five years UP to September of
this year total of 9.Sl7 second lieu
tenants had been commissioned in
the Reserve Corps. The reports show
that in the % civilian training camps
held this year the attendance was
the maximum which could be admitted
and cared for with funds available to
the War Department for the purpose.
The number actually at the camps,
1853 for 80 days. was big increase
over last year, while the number of ap
plcations received amounted to So
900. OF that number $4,000 proved to
have the physical and other qualifi "a
tions necessary for admission, so that
approximately 10000 youngsters were
disappointed in their hope to go
through d training camp course last
Summer.
About 100000 Yearly.
Recruiting for the camps was shut
down some weeks before the camps
themselves were opened and ii is the
Judgment of officers in various corps
aras in charge of the work that
$4,000 applications at least would
have been received except for this
fact. The ultimate goal set IN Army
plans for the training camps is TO put
100. 900 boys year through the
courses and from graduates who at
tend the camps for three successive
years to draw a substantial number
of recruits for the officers Reserve
Corps to supplement the output OF
the Reserve Officers Training Corps.
A phase of the Organized Reserve
Corps work during the Summer to
particular Importance is the applica-
tion for the first time of the principle
of unit training to these organiza-
tions. Under that practice very con-
siderable number Of reserve officers
assigned to specific units of the or
ganiZed Reserve were given the op-
portunity to get together with their
comrade officers of the same units
and to function as a team under their
own officers in dealing with mobiliZa-
tion problems such reception, or
ganization, equipment and preltmin-
AIRY training of the men they would
command in war.
The Defense day test, on the face
of official reports from all over the
country. served to bring out sharply
the benefit of this unit training
scheme, War Department officials say.
The striking success of that test,
from a purely military point of view,
it is stated, lay in the efficiency dis
played by these groups of reserve.
officers in handling the limited mo-
biliZation in their own areas and also
in the great interest they manifested
themselves and succeeded in awak
ening among their neighbors in what
was going on.