Evening star., 1926-12-12

The falling off in attendance in most
of the units composing the National
Guard of the District of Columbia is
causing some concern to the officials
at brigade headquarters. Preliminary
inquiries indicate. officials say. that
some of the falling off in the attend
ance at drills is due to a large extent,
to the merely passive interest which
appears to be shown by some of the
officers. Little. If anything. is being
done by those charged with the duty
of building up the various units TO-
ward making things interesting for
the men. and most of them do not oc-
casionally send out reminders. by let
ter, in an effort to get the men in.
II was pointed out by those familiar
with National Guard outfits over pc
riod of years that many of the en-
listed personnel are just careless. and
ell that is needed to get them down on
drill night is little note jogging their
memories about attending drills anu
maintaining their military efficiency
This fact has been particularly called
to the unit commanders in memo
randum issued by Gen. Stephan.
which says:
Unit comma nders are reminded that
companies which regularly send no.
tees to members Of their comma nds
in addition to using other methods of
contact. appear to have better drill at
tendance than compa MES which fail to
send notices regularly
In an effort to aid the company Off
GERS in raising their percentage. rec
ordS of attendance. the brigade head
quarters is offering to print and send
out these notices for the units. leaving
the company. battalion and regimeutal
do hI,f f1r,.af
the few sentences to be sent oUt to
their men. In the future. when they
attempt to explain their small attend
ance records company officers will
have to furnish good alibi if they did
not attempt to use the facilities pro-
vided by headquarters.
A close check is heing kept on the
attendance, and if il does not show
some Improvement in the very near
future. there is proba abiity that fur
ther action will be taken by headquar-
ters.
Like previous reports for some
weeks back. the percentage report. of
drill attendance last week shows very
small figures for most of the com.
mands, the great ma ajorty showing far
less than so per cent of their enrolled
strength.
Battery 4. 260th Coast Artillery.
heads the list with a percentage of
s0.77. with the others in their rela-
tive order. with percentages. as fol-
lows: Band. 121st Engineers. 71.43:
Company c. 121st Engineers. 65.0S:
Company a. 372d Infantry. 5S.07:
Headquarters and Service Company.
12lst Engineers. 51.29: Battery B. 260th
Coast Artillery, 50.75: Company B,
121st Engineers. 1915: Headquarters
NA41 1<l,, e..
Company T., 121st Engineers. 42.26:
Company r. 121st Engineers. $3.50;
Headquarters Detachment. Special
Troops. 29th Division. $3.50: Company
d, 121st Engineers. 33.SS: Medical De-
tachment, 121st Engineers, 5000: 29th
Military Police Company. $500 and
Company A, 121st Engineers. 1915.
The report this week indicates that
two units. the Medical Detachment,
,121st Engineers, and the Goth Mill
tary Police Company are below the
strength required by the War Depart
nlent for maintenance of Federal
recognition.
A perusal of the attendance per-
centage by battalions gives a clear
indication that the engineer regiment
Is in bad shape from this standpoint.
The Coast Artillery battalion leads the
list with a percentage of 63.S7; with
the 1st Battalion of Engineers second
with percentage of but Ais: the I'd
Battalion of Engineers third with only
a score of 3S.73, and the Battalion of
Special Troops, 29th Division, last
with a percentage of only 34.4i.
Second Lieut.. Frank Coleman. Com
pany A, 372d Infantry. upon his own
request, has been ordered transferred
to the National Guard Reserve.
Private Raymond Ryan. 29th Mill.
tary Police Company, has been or.
dered transferred to the Medical De.
ta:hment, 121st Engineers.
Corp. John j. Cournyn has been or