Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-07-11

Consolidated Features-WNU Service)
NEW YORK.-The army could
I ' use few top-flight Broadway
playwrights, particularly those who
have had war experience. But it
Army Impresario its aie own p Dss
Injects Realism vid Belasco.
Into War Games w onsd;.;nn
our new army of ], 400, 600 men for
real combat now provide the ut
most in dramatic realism. There
are machines to simulate faithfully
the screaming of Stuka bombers;
there will be the roar of gunfire-
with blank cartridges, Of course;
there will be parachute attacks, ma
chine cunning from airplanes, and
every possible device to keep the
boys from forgetting that they're
in the army now"
Gen. Lesley James McNair,
chief Of staff Of general head
quarters, 4 small, keen, alert
man who seems omnipresent IN
the army camps, is the impre-
sario in this the army's biggest
and most serious venture In ap-
piled theatricals. He has had
long experience in war games
and has convincingly portrayed
them as invaluable rehearsAls
for the real thing, mot only for
the instruction impaired but for
the unconscious, reflex eondi-
tioning Of nerves and sensftivity
to the now heightened tumult Of
war.
When the nucleus of a general
headquarters staff was formed July
Is, 1910, General McNair was put
at the head of it. That subsequently
placed in his hands the intensified
and expanded war-training maneu-
vers, far exceeding anything ever
before attempted, and last Septem-
Der he took over the entire training
program of the rapidly increasing
army.
1t is regarded as an undertak-
ing of the utmost importance
and President Roosevelt recent
ly promoted the army Belasco
from major general to the rank
of temporary lieutenant general.
His knowledge of war is by no
means confined to make-believe.
He fought with the field artil-
lery in France and won the U. S.
Distinguished Service medal and
the French Legion of Honor. He
is a native of Minnesota and was
graduated from West Point in
1904.
THIS writer went to the wedding
L of a young woman friend few
weeks ago. The bridegroom was
a tall, loose-geared, bespectacled
Perchance Radio y With an "t en-
Beam Led InUentor chanting grin
To Comely Bride thatcb Of
brownish hair. The bride told US
he was a scientist. We should have
known that he was Russell Varian,
the inventor, with his brother Sigurd
and several other associates, of the
klyStron radio generator which
American technicians say is better
than anything the British have in
their new plane-spotting system and
which has made blind-flying, in fog
or night, like trip around the block
in a baby-carriage.
Russell Varian worked his way
through Stanford, odd-j obbing for the
professors. His brother Sigurd was
a flight captain with the Pan-Ameri-
can Anyways on Mexican and Cen
trail American routes. One day Rus
sell got a letter from Sigurd in
which Sigurd said he was tired of
ramming around in fog and night
and they ought to get together and
work out radio beam which hom-
ing planes could really follow. Rus
sell thought that was good idea,
so Sigurd brought him his savings
of $4,000 and the boys set up
workshop at Halcyon.
Their facilities just wouldn't
do. DR.. David L. Webster, head
of the department Of physics, at
Stanford, provided a laboratory,
gave them effective aid in every
possible way and made them
research associates Of the uni
versity, but the university could
provide no funds. Sigurd's 81 ,oeo
dwindled to S47. The young men
were living sketchily whea tic
Klystron came through. A rep
resentative Of the Bureau Il Civ