Evening star., 1946-03-03
Patterson Approves
West Point Reversion
To Four-Year Course

Secretary of War Patterson has
approved new postwar curriculum
for the Military Academy at West
Point, re-establishing the four-year
course which was shortened to three
years during the war and abandon
ing, among other Specifications,
any effort to train qualified aviation
pilots.
The four-year course will begin
when the next academic year gets
under way this summer and will be
required for all new students and
for all cadets with the exception of
the present first class and one-half
the members of the second class,
who will complete their studies on
the wartime accelerated basis. All
branch specialization training will
be turned over to the Army's post
graduate special service schools.
Under the new curriculum, worked
out by a special board of consult
ants, the academy will give cadets
sufficient training to determine their
flying aptitude, but will not try to
make pilots of them as during the
war. Air cadets will be taught only
the fundamentals of aviation and
its part in the modern combat team.
Interferes With Studies.
Experience has shown" the COM
mlttee reported, that the length of
time and the continuity of instruc-
ton required to qualify cadets as
pilots not only depriveS air cadets
OF valuable academic instruction but
seriously interferes with the whole
academic curriculum" Further
more, the committee feels that pilot
training is $50 specialized that it is
inconsistent with the mission of the
Military Academy"
The Board of Consultants. in
working out its program, was guided
by the conviction that the academy
should be an undergraduate insti-
tuition on the collegiate level, giving
common four-year course to all
cadets" and leaving to the special
service schools such postgraduate
studies required to fit cadets for the
various specialization required for
modern war training.
More free time would be desirable
for cadets, the board held, but rec
commended that this should be
gained by reducing the hours of
physical military training rather
than at the expense of the academic
curriculum. The board had inI
mind the amount of physical train
ing the cadets receive in summer
camps and also that in postgraduate
schools they attend.
Foreign Languages Stressed.
Each cadet hereafter will be re-
qulred to concentrate on at least
one foreign language course so as
to obtain reasonable degree of pro-
ficiency. The offering of choice
among a considerable number of |
languages was found by the board
to be in line with the increasing i'm
portance of worldwide contacts by
our armed forces. In former years
the Academy never stressed foreign
languages to the same extent as
many leading colleges.
Steps also will be taken to improve
the quality of officer instructors.
Those who lack postgraduate train
ing will be detailed, year in ad-
vance of assignment to West Point,
to postgraduate training in civilian
universities. Exchange of instruc-
tors between the Military and Naval
Academies was recommended, and
this policy will be broadened to in
clude exchanges with the Coast
Guard Academy and selected civilian
institutions.
DR.. Karl Taylor Compton, presi-
dent of Massachusetts, Institute of
Technology, was chairman of the
board, which included other civilian
as well as Army personnel.