Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1917 — HARD WORKAHEAD FOR NEW SOLDIERS [ARTICLE]

HARD WORKAHEAD FOR NEW SOLDIERS

Men Drawn for National Army Will Spend Weeks at Infantry Drill. KEEP NEIGHBORS TOGETHER Training Camps Are Big Schools in Charge of Teachers Who Have Been Through All Young Soldiers Will Have To Do. By EDWARD CLARK. Wahington.—Only a small percentage of the young men drawn into the new National army have entered camp on the first reporting days set for that event, but soon something more than a half a million of them will have begun their training. There seems to be some public misunderstanding concerning the courses of instruction and the order in which they will be given to these young American soldiers. If there Is any young man who thinks that he is to be made at once into a member of a battery of artillery or of an aviation section, or of an engineering detachment, he must think again to get it right. Certainly for some weeks every young man in the camp will be given nothing but infantry drill which includes the school of the soldier, the squad and - the company. Virtually the first thing that will be given the young men on arrival at the camp after they have been “slept”and fed will be an order to appear before the army doctors for physical examination. Every youngster with ambition to serve his country must know that possibly he will not be given the opportunity, for it is conceivable that the civilian physicians may have overlooked some ailment which the army doctors will discover, and it is also barely possible that something may,have put the young man’s running gear out of order between the drafting and reporting time. The lists in the possession of the war department are those of young men certified for service by districts and this means largely, of course, by counties. They will be assigned temporgrily to companies accordingly. Neighbors at home will be neighbors In the camp for some little time, and perhaps for the entire period of the war, although this depends to a considerable extent upon chance and to some extent upon the young soldier himself. Infantry Gets Most. At every camp in the country there will be a bffgadier general into whose charge will be. committed the regiments intended for the artillery-serv-ice. Most of the youngsters will be put into the Infantry for it is the predominating branch in numbers, and in a sense in striking power. If there is time enough before the separation is made into brigades of infantry and artillery, It may be. that there will be a process of selection for service In the big gun arm. It is probable that some men who may express a desire for the artillery will be giyen^a chance to - become cannoneers, but . for the main part companies will be told off to form the artillery regiments without any regard to the specific inclinations of the individuals. This is inevitable because any young man who is intelligent and physically fit presumably will make a good field artilleryman. There are so many artillerymen needed that personal selection would be impossible except where men have applied and have given reasons why they think they are particu'arly qualified for the roaring service. ■. ’ ’ ’

At some of the National army camps the barracks have been built to accommodate companies of 150 men each, while in others the buildings are large enough to accommodate company units of 250 men. It is probable that in the Camps where each set of quarters have room for only 150 men the company temporarily will include only that number, but later the new basis Of assignments will be used and 100 men will be added to each formation. After the young soldiers have been trained to some extent and are ready for distribution among the different arms of the service represented in the camp, an opportunity will be given to those who wish to apply for places in the aviation corps, or any other branch of the service. Men who have had training in mechanics and who seem to be fitted temperamentally for the air service will have their applications endorsed favorably by their company commanders and forwarded through the proper channels to the chief of the signal corps of tfoe army for action. Picking "Non-Coms.” One of the problems of the officers of the new army will be the selection of noncommissioned officers for the various companies. Many ofsthese will be needed. It is true that there will be some seasoned “non-coms” on duty and that other places in the chevroned ranks will be filled by men who took the training at the officers’ reserve corps camps, but who failed to get commissions, but there will be hundreds of places yet to be filled and to appointments to these the privates of the selected army may aspire. As soon as the assignment to companies has been made and the regulations of the camp are established the young soldiers will be given instructions in the care of their persons, in the care of their equipment and in their duties to one another, to the service and to the flag. Nothing in the necessary teaching line will be overlooked, for the morale of an army must be as right rs its material. The training camps are big schools. They are presided over by school teachers who have been trained for the purpose, men who have been through all that the young soldier is required to go through. The West Point graduates have a much harder time at the Military Academy in the first year of their course than any young soldier possibly can have in the training camp. The officers who rose from the ranks have been privates themselves, and the younger officers who have been appointed from civil life have had the hard, grinding training of the officers’ reserve camps. No young soldier will be ordered to do anything which the men who do the ordering have not in their time done themselves.