Evening star., 1946-08-04
Army Hard Put to Find
Housing and Personnel
Demobilization and Requirements Abroad Gravely
Curtail Training Program Already Complicated
by Lack of Adequate Facilities
By Wiilian A. MHlen


America is forging a new Army in
keeping with the atomic age, task
beset with many problems which are
not yielding easily to the efforts of those
charged with their solution.
In the forefront of the difficulties are
. serious housing shortage and grow
ing lack of specialized personnel cap
able of meeting the requirements of
modern scientific warfare.
The writer obtained an insight into
the Army's manifold problems during
just concluded 250o-mile airplane trip
which included visits to Fort Bragg,
N c.: headquarters, Sd Air Force,
Greenville, S. c.: Fort Benning, Ga:
Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and Fort
Knox, KY.
The five writer's who made the trip
at the invitation of the Bureau of Pub
lie Relations of the War Department,
were told that at some of these posts
personnel were forced to drive 80 to 40
miles a day to get to work because of
lack Of adequate housing closer to the
military reservations.
Adjacent Areas Congested.
The communities close by the va
rious posts are in the predicament gen.
orally prevailing throughout the coun-
try with serious shortage of housing for
normal civilian populations. Hard put
to meet local demand they have no
room to spare for additional military
personnel. Fort Benning is, perhaps,
lone exception, a housing development
nearby offering quarters for officers and
men with rents graduated according to
rank and pay scales.
Wooden barracks hastily built In
wartime are being converted at some
of the posts into emergency apartments
though considerable work must be done.
Many of these were put up by carpenters
whose preliminary training was
limited to handyman carpentering on
farms and who left the farms to earn
some of the high pay prevailing at the
time. Most of these buildings at pres
ent are considered fire hazards and even
at best are definitely uncomfortable
quarters under the blazing sun of sum-
mer.
The undermining of these buildings
will be expensive, in fact even the nor
NAL upkeep is costly, but the need
for living quarters if the Army is to
reach it's goal is SO urgent that the ex-
penditure is considered justified.
Ten-Year Housing Program.
At Fort Bragg many of the wartime
barracks are boarded up and marked
"Off Limits but the post commander,
Maj. Gen. S. Leroy Irwin, is planning
to make use of them shortly pending
the construction of adequate, perma
nent quarters which will be livable in
summer as we'll as in winter.
The Army has a well-rounded housing
program which it is hoped will be COM
pleted in 10 years. Modern, flreproof
well-insulated buildings will be erected
and as they become available they will
help to solve the problems of the nearby
communities by releasing to civilians
facilities now occupied by the military
A corollary benefit of the building
program will be it's effect on morale
in the service which at present suffers
greatly from the inadequacy of living
quarters, especially as many of those
now irritated by unsatisfactory facili-
ties have as yet not experienced the
civilians frantic search for place to
live.
Serious as the housing problem is to
the Army, it is dwarfed by the per-
sonnel situation.
Requirements in Demand.
The steady return of high-point men
from overseas service keeps up a con-
slant demand for replacements which
puts heavy strain on the experienced
officers available for training purposes.
1t definitely slows down the develop
ment of a permanent, scientific and
highly mobile Army skilled In the en-
ployment of the new weapons and
equipment.
The new system of enlistments for
l year, 18 months or 2 years further
complicates the situation as enlisted
men brought to the point of adequate
skill are then lost to the Army by their
return to civilian life at the end of the
enlistment.
The constant shift of commanders to
meet the training requirements of the
new recruits is damaging to the morale
OF the more permanent units, yet an
Army which is $4,000 officers short of
requirements Is not in a position to
meet all problems in the most efficient
manner.
A brief survey made during the visit
to the five posts gave an indication of
the magnitude of the task ahead of the
Army leaders
The trend toward airborne men and
equipment and the expansion of the
use of self-propelled weapons calls for
greatly increased training in relatively
new weapons.
Train Plane Observers.
At Fort Bragg, for instance, air off
GERS have taken over the instruction OF
artillery officers as spoilers or observers
IN aircraft. Using small Piper planes
the flyers are taking the observers over
the reservation and the scrub pine Gov
cred countryside surrounding it.
At Greenville pilots of the air force
are being taught to fly gliders which
played such an important part in taking
troops behind enemy lines during the
past war and which are expected to play
an even greater part in training Amer
lean forces for any future difficulties.
The development of radar has brought
q new field Of activity for the Army
Men assigned to this work are required