Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-05-20
Curtai|ing Programs
Worst Thing They
Can Do, He Says
Feors Some Are Getting
Out in Order to Avert
Financial Setbocks
This is the second OF three
stories on the Napys new apta-
ton physical training proor1m)
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
As.1,Sa - DvasR GrCytu Writ ~

Associated Press SpOt1 WrlLer.
The last thing that colleges and
universities should be doing at this
time Is curtail their athletic pro-
grams because of the war, says 1t.
Comdr. Tom Hamilton, head OF the
Nays new aviation physical train
ing program.
Its exactly what we don't want
them to do" said the big, dark man
who once made three drop-kicks to
tie the Army and who coached the
Navy football team with marked
success in 1934-36. For some Of
them 1t Is just a convenient out be-
cause they think they might lose
money.
II can't say too forcibly that 1t is
absolutely essential to the armed
services that competitive sports con-
tinue in the schools, despite flnan-
cial losses; that kids be brought up
In competitive athletics. The prob
lem We face right now-our having
to add five months to our training
period in order to whip our boys
into top physical shape - never
would have arisen If there had been
more hard competitive sports in the
last 20 years"
Hamilton Sets Good Example.
The commander himself is a strik-
ing example Of the benefit Of ath-
letics. At SO he looks as If he still
might play so minutes Of football,
he n,,forna@ NJ q
desk chair while a war is coming on
is about to get him down.
Flying is my business" he
grumbled. I've had Is years Of
training and I've asked them to let
me 60 as soon as the four pre-f1ight
training schools are running
smoothly. and I think they will"
Less than month after Pearl
Harbor, Comdr. Hamilton. then,
operations officer at Anacostia, was
ordered by Admiral j. H. Towers,
chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics,
to undertake the establishment of
revolutionary system of training
flying cadets for the Navy and the
Marine Corps The admiral and
Capt. A. H. Radford, director of
aviation training, had reached the
conclusion that something drastic
had to be done If our boys were to
fight without physical handicap
against the case-hardened Axis air.
men.
In five months Hamilton has pro-
duced system unique in military
training, complete now in every de-
tail and awaiting only the formal
openings.
The wheels start turning May %
at the eastern and midwestern
branches and on June II at the
Southern and Western.
The Naval Aviation Training
Group is not to be confused with
Comdr. Gene Tunney's organ
ization, which is concerned entirely
with the morale and physical fitness
of the Nays enlisted personnel.
1t obviously would be impossible for
Tunney or any one else to under
take the task Of putting hundreds
Of thousands of men through the
fierce, concentrated course awaiting
the boys who report for pre-flight
training at st. Mary's (Calif) Col
lege, and Iowa, Georgia and North
Carolina Universities.
Has Big Staff Ready.
Most of Hamilton's spade work
has been in choosing and training
his instructors. -Four hundred Of
them already have gone through
the one-month ''indoctrination"
course at Annapolis and another 289
are hard at it now. Jim Crowley,
the Fordham football coach who
will be attached to the Chapel Hill
Camp, lost IS pounds in his month
at Annapolis.
Certain of the instructors will fol-
low their pupils right through the
four stages of the training program
from the pre-f1ight schools to the
Naval Reserve training bases to the
huge intermediate training centers
at Pensacola, Corpus Christi and
Jacksonville, and finally, to the
operational bases and on to the
decks of aircraft carriers.
Were not only going to make
these boys hard, but we're going to
keep them that way" said Hamilton
grinly.
tTomorrov-Football is the closest thing
to war, says HamiltonD