The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-05
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK

WASHINGTON, Oct. At the army has its
way, thereu be no square pegs in round
holes when the new 'selectees' are indicted
into the service. CThe army never refers to
''draftees" or "conscripts'' or to the draft
or "conscription"-the present program, they
will have you know, is Selective Service and
the men are Selectees).
There are so many different cIassifications
of service that it would take more than the
length of this column merely to list them. To
see that bakers bake and butchers butch and
typists type, the War Department has worked
out an elaborate system of check and double
check tests and missionaries to find just who
is a square peg and who a round one.
World war experience taught the military
men that sorting manpoWer in accordance
with it's most effective qualifications could
become something more than a major prob.
lem. Even after months of service, entire
units were disrupted because it was discovered
that men were doing work for which they
were not best fitted. Men who could shoe a
mare were peeling potatoes and not liking it
a little bit. Expert bookkeepers were building
bridges. The end of it, of course, was whole
sale transfers, wasted time, and frazzled tenn
pers.
There'll Be A Reception
To get around this in 1940-41, the army is
going about it scientifically. The business will
SIdIL Ill IL IlGCSptlOl ASIlIS1o. 41eS 1llSu
sounding names almost have us down.. A
Reception Center is merely a three or four
day clearing house. The Replacement Cen
ter is camp No. l, where the boys will get
their first taste of toughening one-tWo-three-
four, wearing the old uniform, saluting Shave
tail Jones and rolling out for 6:15 reveille.
At the Reception Centers the government
insurance policies will be issued, vaccina-
tons and NEGOTIATIONS given, and the CLASH
f;oo{i@a %oe% anl ;ofar1y;ou, corpp1a4aI
Don't ask me exactly what these tests and
interviews are, because the forms aren't out
yet and the Army these days is not telling
any secrets in advance. They'll consist in OBJ
tanning all the information about a%ptitudes and
experience. If a mans an AL plumber, but
with a real or imagined yen for flying, it'll be
UP to the test commission and interviewers to
find out if he had better stick to his pipes or
soar in the blue.
Double Advantage Cited
The result, the Army thinks, will be two
fold. It'll give some of the boys an opportunity
to shine in positions in which they are best
suited and happiest; and it may straighten out
a lot of misfits in life and discover hidden tai
ents that not even the men themselves SuS-
pect they have.
After they are run through the Reception
Centers, the men will be assigned to regular
lilly uIl1lo, u INdIlOlid1 1udlo ullt VI " ~
placement Centers. Since the Army feels that
the last method keeping the selectees to-
gether and putting them through a few months
of intensive hardening and training in funda-
mentals of Army routine, it is likely that most
of the men who answer the call after October
16 will find themselves in these Replacement
camps.
May Not Tote A Gum
There is one other phase of the whole bust
ness which the Army at present refuses to
discuss and that is that even though Johnny
Doe is one of the 40-to-1 shots called in the
first quota of 400, 900 he has almost an even
chance that he won't be packing a gun.
There are the medical corps, the veterinary
corps, the dental corps, the hospital corps, the
engineering corps, the quartermaster corps,
the clerical forces, the cooks and mechanics
and scores of others. All of these are just as
vital to an army as the men who fire the little
guns and big ones and no army of a million
men could be half prepared if it failed to de-
velop these branches to the fullest. 2