168 selves as far out of the sight of the Commanding Officer as possible; those who perform their duties without fear or favor, and the bootlickers. In the first class are those who pride themselves, even to the point of boorishness, in striving for the title of antibootlickers. This class's particular aversion is the social functions of a garrison. They are conspicuous by their absence and the last to fulfill their social obligations. I include in this class, also, those junior officers whose inexperience and youth naturally imbue them with a spirit of diffidence and timidity that operates to hide their light under a bushel. The second class are those who have taken an intelligent interpretation of their duties and obligations. By virtue of their oath of office, of the salary they accept from the government and the esprit-de-corps of the service and their regiment, they perform their duties willingly and conscientiously. They expect credit where credit is due, and the measure of their enthusiasm is the intelligent appreciation of their work by the Commanding Officer. To them the salute implies no servility. The third class are the panderers of the service. It is, I believe, an accurate estimate of the will of junior officers to assert, that if an elimination board was ever constituted with all its members junior officers, the first ones eliminated would be the bootlickers. This class are of necessity without an iota of loyalty, since loyalty implies faithfulness to a cause. They serve only themselves. They are organizers of cliques to unseat those whose positions they covet. They transform the deference due one's superiors into the obsequiousness paid one's betters. Fortunately this class is small and the red apple of condemnation from the majority is salutary medicine. Of the first class they possess a false and unfortunate viewpoint. False in that there is nothing commendable in being a boor, and unfortunate in that they are saddling themselves with a tremendous professional handicap in reaching that goal of every true soldier's endeavor-"well done". I be lieve that the majority of these truly regrettable cases could be cured by tactful persuasion from older and more experienced officers. For the young, reticent officer, time and observation are probably their only roads to poise. and understanding. For the other two classes nothing need be said, as it is unnecessary in the one case and hopeless in the other. These classes are types, fundamentally at variance, a variance which is reflected with infinite gradations into their initial bow. I have seen, in the course of a few years, many varieties of initial formal entries into the presence of the Commanding Officer, and I have often wondered at the frequency with which the false note is struck. I have watched the hail fellow, I-amhere type; the stupefying history of my-life-in-one-breath type; the annoying desk-leaning type; the scared-todeath can't remember type and so on ad lib. Many officers seem to be possessed with the idea that they are socially receiving, requiring the conversation to be sustained by them at any cost. They are not. They get their cue for their spoken lines from the Commanding Officer. To keep up the simile they are the spear carriers on this stage and not the prima donnas. An officer reporting for duty is almost invariably presented to the Commanding Officer. He should salute, ac knowledge the introduction in a quiet, dignified manner and "in place halt". If there is an intent to engage him in conversation or a question is asked he should reply briefly and to the point. Where he is asked tc sit down a more extended conversation may be permitted. Some Commanding Officers announce that the interview is over, others intimate it; be sure you recognize the signals. Almost equally graduated in the emotional scale are the first appearances "on the carpet". There are the excuse offering kind, with excuses that were on active duty before they were born. There are the blustering, arguing kind that learn to their amazement that there is absolutely no argument involved. Then there are the sullen, victims-of-a-conspiracy kind. "Carpet" interviews admit of analysis. If you are wrong, admit it, apologize for the oversight, if it were that; take your medicine and leave. Store the admonition for future guidance, but not the grouch. If you are not wrong advise the Commanding Officer in a quiet, dignified manner of those facts with which obviously he is not familiar. Don't take a parting shot at the one who was instrumental in getting you "on the carpet". It isn't good sportsmanship, besides he will get as it should be, you are entitled to credit and it is due you. In the last of the first impressionscommunications passing over the Commanding Officer's desk-,there are few officers who realize the importance and bearing which these written representations have on their future. An officer would grow wrathy over a man of his organization who appeared before the Commanding Officer at inspection with dirty shoes. And yet, soiled and untidy communications of his are frequently being sent up to undergo the same inspection. There are two other damaging bits of evidence which the written communication can furnish for the Commanding Officer's estimate of an officer. One is misspelled words and the other is grammatical errors. A misspelled word is evidence either of ignorance or indifference. Neither redounds to the officer's credit. A grammatical error is more serious in that it is usually the result of ignorance, since a misspelled word may escape the eye, but a faulty grammatical construction is to the educated patently obvious. Spelling and grammar considered of all subjects the most rudimentary, violation of their proper usage is, therefore, proportionally damaging. Besides being a flection of the state of an officer's education, the use of proper and concise English has too vital a place in our professional duties to be thoughtlessly dismissed as an unnecessary refinement. re In all walks of life first impressions will exert their favorable or baneful influence. In our scheme of things they are a factor, not a vital one, but still potent enough to be worthy of a few minutes consideration in every officer's estimate of his personal situation. URING the war many expedients were resorted to in order to turn out the number of trained noncommissioned officers that were necessary for the troops. Maj. R. S. Bratton, Infantry, had charge of such a school at one of the large cantonments and made a great success of it. In his thesis at the Infantry School he advocates the establishment of a central school in each regiment where all of the noncommissioned officers will be given uniform training. His arguments for the system are very convincing and well worthy of serious consideration by regimental commanders throughout the service. Major Bratton says: The following arguments in favor of the adoption of regimental noncommissioned officer training schools, together with a working plan for the same, are offered as a definite means of improving the Infantry service in our Regular Army. (a) The average company commanders of the present day are young men, drawn from all walks of life, of diverse temperaments, education, and ability. Their own characters are being moulded, and such latent qualities of leadership as they may possess are being developed, as time goes on, in service schools, through the exercise of command, and through association with older and more experienced officers. Because of this under-development and lack of experience, they are not the best available instructors, even for their own noncommissioned officers. (b) The present system of shifting and changing commissioned personnel admits of little continuity in instruction of noncommissioned officers, save in a central school, where instruction methods and subject matter taught are laid down in carefully planned programs and schedules. (c) The prestige of corporals and sergeants is immensely increased through general knowledge that they are graduates of the regimental training school, an institution to which only selected men are detailed as students. (d) Self confidence, initiative, aggressiveness, and a sense of authority are engendered and developed in the minds of students in the regimental school, through their realization that they are selected men whose instruction is standard, and along the latest and most approved methods. (e) A graduate of the regimental school, when assigned to fill a vacancy in a company other than the one in which he formerly served-which is the preferable method of assignment under this system-is thrown upon his own resources, and is kept to his maximum efficiency through the knowledge that another graduate is ready to take his place, in the event that he does not prove satisfactory. He may miss his former friends and associates, but is relieved from being constantly im posed upon by them, and feels no call to show partiality to any of his subordinates. (f) A means of eliminating unsuitable and inapt noncommissioned officers and replacing them with competent ones is afforded through requiring all sergeants and corporals in the regi ment to take, in turn, the course of instruction in the regimental school. Those whose work is unsatisfactory therein and who are judged undesirable, are reduced to the ranks and their places filled with men better qualified. (g) The interest and zeal of privates is quickened by the hope that they may be selected to take the noncommissioned officers' course. (h) The calibre of the entire enlisted personnel is improved and enlarged, and a reserve of trained noncommissioned officer material is created which may be utilized, not only by the regimental commander, in filling his own vacancies, but by higher authority, to form the framework of other regiments, in the event of sudden expansion and enlargement of the Infantry of the Army. I Machine Gunners Make Record The Machine Gun companies of the 23d Infantry qualified every man of the organizations as Expert and Sharpshooters during the practice season of 1922. Of the six officers who fired the course, four qualified as Expert and two as Sharpshooter, and of the 140 enlisted men, 86 qualified as Expert and 54 as Sharpshooter. Company "M" heads the list, with all officers as expert machine gunners, and of the 48 men who fired, 35 Expert and 13 Sharpshooters. This is truly a most remarkable performance when is taken into consideration the fact that 73 of the men had never fired a machine gun before this season and 49 men had only received a month's training with the guns. The training methods prescribed by the M. G. Service Regulations were strictly adhered to, and every man was required to make 200 points on the thousand-inch range before going to record practice. 1st Lieut. Thomas D. White, 14th Infantry HE large military personnel required for the protection of the Panama Canal makes it a practical certainty that most officers during some time in their career will serve in the Canal Zone. There are many books and articles treating the scientific and economical aspects of Panama and the Canal but little or nothing outside the War Department files is to be found relating to the homes, duties, and lives of those members of our Army who spend three years guarding this Golden Highway of Commerce. Because of the scant accurate information obtainable many newcomers to the Isthmus receive false impressions of their future home and upon arrival are subject to many disappointments and inconveniences. Thus it is on debarking morning the transport passenger bound for Panama rushes to the deck with the steward's first call. Full of anticipation he arrives on the promenade and joins others who are gazing at the dimly visible blue range of mountains rising out of the sea. As the ship draws nearer to land he is startled to hear a fellow passenger exclaim, while pointing off to the port side: "Oh, there's South America! That's Colombia; don't you remember how that point of land swings out like that on the map?" Of course, in a couple of hours the ship is safely parked in Cristobal Harbor, three hundred miles from Colombia. He has seen a point of land twenty miles down the coast. But then, this happens on every voyage. After six days on the water it is a relief to see land and buildings again. The bright green of tropical jungles on the coast line rising rapidly from the intense blue waters of the Caribbean thrills the newcomer with thoughts of cocoa palms, parrots, monkeys and all the things tropical of which he has heard or read. As the port becomes plainly visible the outline of approaching airplanes is seen. Huge Navy seaplanes and roaring Army De Havilands come to greet the ship. A few swoops between the masts and they are off again. It is rumored about that the fort with the sandy beaches and rows of palms on the right is Fort Sherman, while the circle of quarters and avenue of trees on the left of the breakwater is Fort Randolph, another home of big guns. Farther in from the entrance to the harbor is the Naval submarine base and air station. At the end of the indentation to the left of the bay on the water's edge is France Field, the Army airmen's station. On a point of land extending into the bay, in the midst of the town, is a large stone building with an immaculate lawn and romantic sea wall, flanked by rows of palms. This is the Hotel Washington, operated by the U. S. Government, and in every way modern and convenient. Here are held some |