Evening star., 1940-09-01
Extra Training Service Pay
Asked for Guard Members
Funds, If Provided, Moy Not
Be Used If Units Are MobiIized

will be definitely solved for them by
the act authorizing the President to
call out the Guard. Provisions are
pending permitting members of the
Guard below the grade of captain
to resign If there should be gen.
eral acceptance of this loophole by
the men, the ranks Of the militia
here and throughout the country
might be seriously affected. How
ever, the belief was expressed that
not a great number would take ad-
vantage of this provision If it is
finally written into the statute.
Even so it was pointed out, the
national military authorities may
step In to say directly who is to go
and who is to remain in the organ
izations. being desirous on the one
hand Of preventing the occurrence
Of a serious economic upset in the
communities from which the citizen
soldiers are to be drawn.
Aside from the elimination of en-
listed men, the process of selecting
officers fit for field service is one
Of the serious problems. The Guard
units have some officers who are vet
Grams of the World War, and the
question has been raised as to
whether the War Department would
be ready to accept them for field
service under the exigencies of mod
ern warfare.
Officers Of the Guard indicated
that they have not decided whether
they will call all officers up for spe-
cial physical examinations, pointing
out that they are examined each
year. But the War Department has
found that some militia units in the
country have not been as efficient
in their physical tests as the execu-
tive department desires, and this has
been discovered in both officers and
men who have been sent to the Serv-
ice schools. In not a few cases 1t
has been found that where these
have been passed and approved by
Guard officers at the home stations
when they reached the Regular
Army posts where the regular sur
geons conducted the examinations
| it has been found that the Guard
examiners have overlooked some
things. Whether the reports on these
cases have served to put militia med
lcal officers on their mettle has not
been determined, and can only be
determined when the officers are
| inducted into the service, where they
will pass under the regular surgeons
who are strange and unknown tc
them.
The militia officers also will be
faced with the problem of looking
into the so-called leverage" officers
that is officers who are too old fo1
the ranks they hold. For instance
1t was pointed out a captain of g
unit must be very active man, ano
it would be folly to permit one oi
the age of colonel or a brigadieI
general to go into the field to lead
a company. These conditions have
been permitted to go on for years
in the States, largely on account OF
the prestige that the officers have
in their communities for keeping a
small military unit together. Not a
few of the Guard commanders in
the States are in small communities
where they work daily with the mer
under them on drill nights. But in
the preparations for wars on large
modern scale, it was pointed out
there Is no place for such a situa-
ton, and the time to eliminate them
is now.
Promotions in various units Of the
Guard have been announced as fol.
lows: Pvt. first class Joseph w
Malta and Pvt. Alexander S. Marco
| witch to be corporals in the 104th
Ordnance Company. Pvt. Neil M
Goen to be master sergeant in the
Headquarters Company, 104th Quar-
termaster Company, and Sergt
Charles w. Simms to be first SER
geant of Company B, 1o4th Quarter
master Company. Corpl. Harold NJ
Lee to be sergeant in Company B
! 104th Quartermaster Regiment.