Evening star., 1936-11-01

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it. is body Of graduate students
approaching middle life which ex-
GELS any similar group in the United
States in physical appearance. There
are no academic anemics at Max
we'll.
Every facility for vigorous outdoor
exercise, with recreation time delib-
erately provided for its use, Is pro-
vided on the 2,200-acre reservation.
There are an 18-hole golf course, ten
mis- courts. swimming pool, riding
horses, bride paths, squash and VOL
ley ball courts.
Riding is the only form Of exer-
else that is on the compulsory list and
the one most difficult, apparently, to
reconcile with the aviation tempera-
ment. Apparently, the transition
from the most progressive form of
transportation to one Of the most
primitive types involves too sharp q
psychologist adjustment.
A MOTHER phase Of the school
= which stamps it as unique among
institutions of higher learning is the
relationship between faculty and stu
dents.
For the most part, the two groups
are of the same age. They have
grown up together since West Point,
the war or at whatever place or time
they acquired their first gold bars.
They have lived side by side for years,
flown together and have been asso-
ciated, on duty and of, for many
years. One could not reasonably ex-
pect a master-and-disciple relation
ship to evolve out of that kind of
human experience. 1t definitely has
not.
Another circumstance that sets the
school apart is that the art, or
science, of military aviation IS not
teachable by standard methods of
pedagogy. In few of its phases, cer-
tainly not those taught in such an
advanced school, does the subject
have the 1xity and finality that
marks those taught in civilian
schools. Aviation changes constantly,
and the instructor who forgot the
fuidity of his subject, even briefly,
might find it slipping out Of his
hands at any moment. Or it might
be torn out of his hands by a student
body vastly more curious and aggres-
sive and above all aware than any
student body one Is likely to meet
elsewhere.
Underneath the veneer of levity that
is inevitable in school where every
one has known every one else for
years, there is a deadly seriousness.
School never really is "out" from one
end of the nine-month term to the
other for those at Maxwell
The schedule calls for lecture at
tendance five mornings q week, from
o'clock until noon, with the after
moons devoted alternately to quizzes
(the four-hour Variety or the prac-
tical testing in actual flight of tactical
lessons learned in the class room. A
midweek half lf-holiday is given We'd
nesday afternoons and the students
and faculty have Saturday and Sunday
to themselves.
This would seem to give the Tactical
School student substantially as much
liberty as is customary in institutions
Of higher learning. But he never really
gets away from his subject, or his SUBJ
jects.
At the officers mess, where many
students and some faculty members
take their midday meals, the subject
always is aviation; a phase of it def
/ initely related to the work Of the
school. Walking between shots on the
golf course, the players limit theil
conversation usually to the subject
which is so major that there is nc
room for minor ones.
ONLY on the bride path" one stu
dent explained, do we get away
from the main theme, and that is moi
that we like aviation less, but hate
horses more"
Under the fiippancy there is q
truth that startles the layman, ever
the one familiar with the tendency Of
the airman to stay with his own kind
and talk shop"
The busy social life which the
civilian is disposed to regard as the
chief activity of the warrior in peace
time is notable for its absence at thu
Alabama post. For all the presence o.
the usual number of wives and chill.
dren at Maxwell, one lives there in Z
thoroughly masculine world-and ar
intense, preoccupied one-from Mon.
day morning until Friday afternoon.
In the interval between, the socia
side Of the aerial warrior and his witt