Imperial Valley press., 1942-09-16
BY ROBERT RUARKE

| recess Tor loud WhoopS and tn
clicking of heels. Because Army ha
just flashed a bright ray of hope
aimed directly at the 2-B selectiv,
service classification.
Until very recently, no matter
how much valuable experience anc
intelligence might seethe in on
bulging Uranium, if the owners eyes
didn't measure up to officer stand.
ards he was out of luck so far as
an eventual commission was con-
cerned.
Selective service. however,
wasn't so squeamish. Draft boards
snapped up the weak eyed one,
tabled him Limited Service" and
he was in the Army. Although
Joe Astigmatism might have been
Einstein's uncle, mentally, a
sergeancy was his ceiling, and
not SO glorified clerkship was
his fate for the duration.
But Army has just established
three officer training schools, shap-
ed especially for the limited service
draftee. There the fellows who are
not physically qualified for combat,
but who are not sufficiently lame
halt or blind for Al, can go to
school and come out as commits
stoned officers, headed for admin
istrative jobs. They will work as
pest adjutants or personnel Off
GERS, and likely will seep, eventually
into -combatant jobs in all the
various service classifications.
Products of these schools-which,
by the way, are to start classes Oct.
/ at Grinnell College, Florida Uni
versity and North Dakota Agricul-
tural College-will be designated as
::branch in material" officers which
is to say they belong to no specified
section of the Army, but are avail
able for duty in any administrative
field which does not call for high
technical knowledge.
The idea, of course, is to uproot
a lot of seat-polishing officers who
are fit for active duty, and to re-
place them with men who can pol
ish the seat just as well, but who
wouldn't be at home behind a ma
chine gun cmplacement. And the
new program would seem to indi-
cate that Army isn't taking too
kindly to the Army Specialist Corps
which was organized for the same
purpose-releasing line officers for
field duty.
ARMY RESENTMENT
Chief difference between Army
Administrative and Army Specialist
is that the newly formed schools
will pluck their candidates from the
ranks, while the Specialist Corps
was supposed to haul in from civil
liam life such men whose admins
tration fitted them for Army adj
ministration, but whose age and-or
physical qualifications entirely i'm
munized them from selective SER
vice. 1t is likely that men from
both outfits soon will be working
side by side.
However, the suspicion is that
Army never cOttoned to the idea
of the Specialist Corps; that there
was a somewhat natural service
resentment toward taking a civil
ian, arraying him in uniform. and
handing him rank that often
topped men who had made Army
their peacetime career Many were
the pitfalls that gaped before the
Specialist Corps, and thick was
the red tape.
Specialist Corps public relations
said today, in a guarded voice
that I'VE are releasing a number
Of men to Army duty every day
and beyond that point we do no
care to talk" This is something
of a far cry from the earlier day.
of the corps, when public relations
was anxious to tell all.
At any rate, there has been M
noticeable flood of Specialist Corps
men into desk jobs, and no stag
gering exodus of unclaimed regula
officers to field assignments. Hence
the newly formed schools, while no
duplication of Specialist Corps
might we'll be designed to displac'
the civilian outfit. One OF Army
peculiarities in that it likes to hav'
regular Army men doing Arm,
work.
Selection for admission to the ad
! ministrative schools will parallel Sc
lection for regular officer training
After a man has completed his baSi
training, he can apply along regu
lar channels for crack at tn
school. If his education, civilian
training or experience qualities hin
in he goes and pops out with sec
ond lieutenant's bars.
OF course, opportunity is neces-
sarily limited at the moment,
since the three schools accom-
mOdate only some $50 candidates
apiece. But facilities undOubt-
edly will expand as the draft