The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-10-19

been DrOkeQ anu Bruce Cation men have been taken in so fast that time schedules originally set up for the recruiting drive have been filed in the waste basket.
 Things got started in 1889, when the army set out to grow from 165,- 900 men to 227,000. 1t finished that job in February, 1940. and until the end of May the recruiting service coasted along with nothing much to do but get the normal supply of replacements.
 Then came the big wind, with or ders to hike army strength to 375,- 900 men. Every month since then has seen a new recruiting record set. In July, the army signed up 31 ,960 new men; August. 38.663; September. 42.391-the all-time high topping the best month of World l War recruiting, May. 1917. First half of October ran 2000 ahead oi the first half of September. BIGB-POWERED
 PROMOTION JOB.
 The army still has to get 20,00C men for the air corps. It hasn't gone after them yet, as housing ano other facilities aren't ready. Alter that, it'll probably need another 50,. 1000 to bring all field organization: up to full war strength.
 | Meanwhile, the regular army to. day, with 352,000 men, is bigger thar it has ever been in American history in peace or war.
 (In both the Civil War and the
 World War the bulk of the sol-
 diers were either draftees or dura-
 ticn of the war volunteers.
 Strength of the regulars never got
 above 100000
 Chiefly responsible for the rec ord breaking is Lieut.. Col. H. N. Gill bert, in charge of recruiting. Col onel Gilbert and his aides worked out a campaign that included every imaginable variety of publicity from paper match covers to trailer-unit recruiting stations.
 They put out. news stories, hired newspaper display space, got na' tional advertisers to include recruit. ing plugs in their ads, put on loca and network radio programs, usec direct mail advertising, set up dis lplayS in store windows and theatel Hobbies, used billboards and printed pamphlets, made 16-millimeter mo. vies to show at high schools, helped Hollywood run off feature films or army topics, stuck signs on taxicab. and express trucks. They d1dn'1 call in any high-powered outside ad- visers, either. It was an army Jot all the way.
 ] PATRIOTISM RISING
 AS MOTIVE
 Chief thing that made the drive go over, says Colonel Gilbert, wal | the fact that the army really has something to offer these days. IT vocational training the army car point with pride to courses offered by a great variety of mechanizee units. nI some instances it offer! courses that would cost from $3Ol up, on the outSloe.
 Next most important reason fol enlistment was the age-old desir' for travel and adventure. After tha' came a steadily increasing number of men who wanted to make th' army their career.
 It beats government civil serv-
 ice, by the way. A bright man can
 retire after 30 years army serv-
 ice with substantially over $lOO
 a month coming to him for the
 rest of his life, which is more
 than a civil service job Offers)
 Fourth reason offered for enlist ment was-patriotism. That facto has been getting more importan lately. Colonel Gilbert says he be- lieves it would rank about second if not first, if recruits now signins up were polled.