Evening star., 1943-01-13
Educators Praise
Aberdeen Traininu
OF Army Specialists
Selectees So Eager to
Learn That They Leove
Glasses Reluctantly
BY MALCOLM LAMBORNE. Jr
Star Staff Corresnondent

otar StaII correspondent.
ABERDEEN. Md, Jan. 13.-Younp
men learning to issue and maintain
everything that shoots, is shot or
rolls" in the Army's new mechanical
forces taking shape here at the
Aberdeen Proving Ground are so
enthusiastic they have to be driven
from their class work shops at night.
This is the message educators from
% colleges of the Nation are having
brought home to them today as they
go into the second day of three-day
tour to learn the Army's teaching
methods in turning out an undis-
closed number of trained specialists
in nine weeks for the maintenance
OF the Army's fighting tools.
DR.. Karl T. Compton, president of
Massachusetts, Institute of Tech
nology, summed up the impression
OF the % college deans and presi-
dents who yesterday visited Army
classrooms when he said that the
Army was doing a fine job of edu-
cation-that is not stereotyped
High Morale Apparent.
From 1t. Col. Grosvenor F. Powell,
chief of the training doctrine
branch, Military Training Division
OF Army Ordnance, came testimony
OF the high morale at this 75,000-
acre replacement center and officer
candidate school. Commented the
West Point graduate during morn
ing session at one of the posts six
theaters:
In night classes teachers have
had difficulty in getting students
back to their quarters. They would
work all night If we permitted
them"
The educators later in the day
found evidence Of this spirit.
There was the case of 22-year-old
Edwin Guldenzoph of Arlington, Va.
He was working in the War Depart
ment, Office of the Chief of Ord
nance, during the day and taking a
defense engineering course at George
Washington University when draft
ed last October.
Pvt. Guldenzoph has just COM
pleted the basic four weeks train
ing given every selectee and now he's
taking his basic shop instruction,
which every man chosen for tech
nical training must go through. His
ability to perform % separate oper-
ations satisfactorily on small cast
iron block viii determine whether
he goes on to further highly spe-
cialized training in mechanical or
maintenance.
Confident Along With Others.
He is confident he will make the
grade, and so are nearly 1000 other
men taking the same course here
at this time.
Pvt. Guldenzoph, who is of Ger
man extraction has only one worry.
He's afraid they might send him out
to fight the Japs, and he is anxious
to go the other way.
In one of the automotive shops
where young man was working on
a tank engine, Col Harold j. Con- .
way, deputy chief of the Ordnance
Military Training Division. who is
serving as host to the educators !
stopped to ask the private what he
did in civilian life.
Il was part mechanic"
What are you doing now?"
I'm learning to be a real me-
ehanic."
That is the story throughout the
post. The men-they might have
been clerks or undertakers in ci- /
Villain life-are raring to 60 and
tapping up all the information the
Army instructors can give.
The Army officers here are salts
fed that the men under them will
do" when they get out to North
Africa or New Guinea.
Ordnance Visit Today.
Today the educators were sched- !
uled to visit the Ordnance School.
where postgraduate" course is given
men specially selected during the
nine-week basic course. Here men
are trained in the intricacies of
antl-alrcraft, fire control, machine
guns and artillery of all types, from
the 20-millimeter cannon to the big
l6-lnch coast defense weapons.
Those big guns will sound off to-
morrow IN special demonstration
planned for the educators as a
climax to their tour.
DR.. H. P. Hammond, dean of en-
glneering at Penn State, reflected
the opinion of all men visiting here
when he said his "eyes had been
opened by what the Army was do
Ing at Aberdeen.
The educators, at a seminar last
night, agreed further with Col. Con- !
way, who told them earlier in the
day that "a gun or tank that can be
repaired and returned to Immediate
service in Libya is worth 1000 guns
or tanks rolling off the production