Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1917 — SELF HELPS for the NEW SOLDIER [ARTICLE]

SELF HELPS for the NEW SOLDIER

By a United States Anny Officer

(Copyright. l»lt *>7 th* Wheeler Syndicate, Inc.) THE NECESSITY OF GOING OVER DETAILS. While Allowing the difficult details of squad movements to sink Into his mind, the new soldier would do well at this point to loos back over the ground he has traversed. He should refresh his mind, so far as necessary, upon what he has previously learned, and he will at once discover a difference between his present grasp of military facts and their requirements. The more he learns, the more reasonable, necessary and illuminating becomes that which he has already learned. For example, the new soldier who has been taught how to execute “squad right,” does not need the same amount of explanation for the necessity of discipline and obedience as at the beginning. He realizes by this (time that no squad movement would f>e possible unless each individual •were subject and responsive to discipline. He does not have to be taught the reason for learning to stand properly, since he sees that no squad could come to the position of attention and dress its line,ln a practical military fashion unless each individual first came to attention. —This does not mean that the new soldier —and even the partially trained soldier —will not find it necessary again and again to go over the details of how to perfect himself in these essentials; but it is doubtful whether he would hereafter have to be told why. He has learned how to stand; how to step forward, backward, sideways, the half-step^—and to mark time. He has learned how to face in any direction —right face, left face, about face, and half face, which creates the proper angle for the oblique march. He has learned how to start the “Forward . . . MARCH;” how Xo stop—the HALT, in two counts; how to execute the commands altering the direction of March. He has been instructed in some of the elementary military courtesies, such as the all-important salute, and he has learned the way in which commands are given. He has by this time come to lean on the peremptory command as a necessity and through this his mind and muscles are automatically made ready, In time, for the command of execution. With the exception of a few single commands, such as "fall in,” “at ease,” and “rest”—a special class —he will find that his faculties depend upon the preliminary notification of what they are to do in order to do them precisely at the moment of performance. All this will have become clear to the new soldier if he has familiarized himself with the drill as far as the point of squad movements. He will find that his muscles would subconsciously resist a command of execution, without the preparatory notice of what Is expected of them. This affords them a chance to gather themselvgs into a balance for the most effective discharge of the command, and this balance, operating subconsciously, is a big factor in the making of the good soldier.