Armory of Co. E, 135th Infantry, Jackson, Minn. The Armory will be occupied by Company "E," 135th Infantry, the officers of which are: George L. Atkins, captain; Albert S. Svoboda, 1st lieutenant; Keith S. Crawley, 2d lieutenant. The federal inspection of the Minnesota National Guard was held during February, the regular instructors conducting the inspection of units other than those to which they are attached. The Infantry regiments, despite terrific blizzards and snow blockades, seCured average turn-outs as follows: Fifth, 64 per cent; Sixth, 60 per cent; One Hundred and Thirty-Fifth, 72 per cent. The Field Artillery will be inspected during April. Owing to severe weather conditions that prevail during the winter months in Minnesota, an effort will be made to hold inspections hereafter during the late spring or fall months. Governor Preus, General Rhinow General Rhinow and other officers were present and made addresses at the dedication of the new Armory at White Bear, Minn. Headquarters Company, First Battal ion, Sixth Infantry, will occupy the building. Chaplain Ezra C. Clemans, 135th Infantry, of Owatonna, Minn., occupied the pulpit of the Methodist Church in Minneapolis, Sunday, February 25. Col. T. J. Rogers, Instructor with the 135th Infantry, Minnesota National Guard, will inspect the National Guard of North Dakota during March. Florida's New Adjutant General S the successor to the late Brigadier General Charles P. Lovell, Governor Hardee has selected General J. Clifford R. Foster as adjutant general of Florida and chief of his staff. Sixteen years of untiring and progressive work in the service of the Florida Guard as adjutant general gives the new chief unusual prestige in his taking over of the work. General Foster served as adjutant general of the state from 1901 to 1917, and was regarded as one of the ablest adjutant generals in the United States, according to statements made by those familiar with National Guard work. Promotion of Reserve Officers In the development of the Reserve organization since the adoption of the regulations in 1921, it has become apparent to those who have considered the matter carefully that there is a very close connection between the promotion system and the training system. It is recognized that there should be definite standards of qualification for promotion from grade to grade, and if so, it is quite obvious that our facilities for training should be largely directed toward preparing ambitious officers for such promotion. We is based very largely on the principle that citizen soldiers should be trained for one grade at a time. All young Swiss must take the recruit course and qualify as privates. Out of those who qualify as privates, a smaller number who aspire to become leaders attend a short course at a noncommissioned officers' school. If they pass through this course successfully, then they are tested in the actual command of a squad. Out of those who have qualified as noncommissioned officers, a still smaller number of selected men attend a lieutenants' school. Again the theoretical course is followed by a practical test as to the capacity of the candidate to command a platoon. There is a separate course to prepare officers for promotion from the grade of lieutenant to captain, and so on up to the top. No officer can enter any grade in the Swiss Army unless he is definitely prepared for that grade and has been subjected to the practical test of actually commanding and instructing the corresponding military unit. A study of the Swiss system throws a very interesting light on this question. Indeed, an examination of the Swiss system must be instructive to us in every way at this time, because the Swiss have had a century of practical experience in all matters relating to the training of a citizen army and the promotion of citizen soldiers. should not dismiss the Swiss system from practical consideration because it is based upon compulsory military service. It is true that all young Swiss must qualify for service as privates in their national army, but their promotion to the successive higher grades is not compulsory and depends upon careful preparation for each step of promotion, with exacting practical tests of capacity to command in the new grade. In considering the amount of work, extended over a long period of years, which is required of a Swiss citizen soldier in order to prepare himself to become a colonel, we are at first astonished that any busy civilian should bear such a burden of military duty. But when we examine the process and find that the candidate has only been ex The Swiss system of officer training pected to go one step at a time and A that, as we rise in rank, the number The application of this phase of the 562 lieutenants, 165 captains, 51 majors, 24 lieutenant colonels, 9 colonels, 3 brigadier generals, 1 major general. We find for example, that we have 562 lieutenants, and when we consider the arrangements for their future training we should bear in mind that the organization will be satisfied if only nine of them should ever become colonels. We find that a sound promotion system should lie between two extremes. If we should make the requirements for promotion so severe that no citizen officer could qualify for the higher grades, then we would defeat the entire object of the citizen army. On the other hand if we should make the promotion so easy that the numbers in the higher grades will greatly exceed requirements, we would make the citizen army a farce and destroy any real value in the Reserve commission. For example, referring to the table, if we should establish a real hurdle between the several grades so that only about as many officers would qualify as are required, we would approximate to a scientific promotion system. Each officer would go as high as he reasonably could, considering his business and domestic obligations on the one side and his military ambition and energy on the other. When we consider the fact that the average divisional area in the Or ganized Reserves has a population of 4,000,000, it is apparent that the number of officers actually required in the higher grades will justify applying real standards. It is only necessary that this large population mass should produce one major general, three brigadier generals, and nine colonels. In examining the Swiss training system we find that it is based on the idea that there should be both unit training and individual training, and that these are entirely distinct things. When the Swiss unit assembles for its annual maneuvers, all of the time is devoted to unit or team training. When the unit assembles for maneuvers, every officer, from the colonel down to the junior privates, has already been qualified for his position. So a captain of the Swiss army who is not an aspirant for further promotion is not subjected to any more work than is necessary to keep up his relation to the unit in his present grade. But a captain who aspires to be a major must do such additional work as may be necessary to qualify him for the promotion. This suggests an interesting possibility in the development of our own Reserve system. If we presume that the officers in the several grades have already qualified through their war experience to enter into these grades, then a system of training and correspondence courses designed to keep up their interest and to prepare them for the annual training camp would perhaps be sufficient to meet the requirements of unit development. But this alone would not tend to develop and maintain the efficiency of the organization. This can be met by requiring still more work of those who aspire to be promoted and who have the time and energy to make the neces sary preparation under the incentive Examining the table and assuming Appointment in Reserve Corps November 11, 1923, is the latest date that an officer who had service during the World War may get into the Officers' Reserve Corps without a profesAfter that date sional examination. Wearing the Uniform The following are the new regulations regarding the wearing of the uniform by Reserve Officers: Except as otherwise prescribed, a Reserve Officer on active duty will wear the uniform, including insignia, prescribed for officers of the Regular Army. b. (1) Reserve Officers not members of the Regular Army or National Guard, not on active duty and within the United States or its possessions, may wear the uniform on occasions of military ceremony, at social functions of a military character, at informal gatherings of the same character, and when engaged in the military instruction of a Cadet Corps or similar organization, or when responsible for the military discipline at an educational institution. Such Reserve Officers may also wear the uniform when attached to an organization for target practice, when visiting a military station for participation in military drills or exerwhen assembled for the cises, purpose of instruction. or (2) Reserve Officers not on active duty, and outside the United States or its possessions will not, except when granted authority, wear the uniform. Such officers, on occasions of military ceremony or other military functions, may, upon reporting to the nearest military attaché and having their status accredited, be granted authority to appear in uniform. (3) Field clerks, warrant officers, and enlisted men of the Regular Army who hold commissions in the Officers' Reserve Corps may wear the uniform of their grade in the Officers' Reserve Corps as follows: all ex-service men who desire a commission will be required to pass the exams. and they will not be easy. Original appointments in the Reserve Corps will then be made only in the grade of second lieutenant from among selected graduates of the R. O. T. C. and those who complete successfully the three years period of training afforded by the Citizens Military Training The time will pass quickly. Camps. November 11 will be here before we know it. Officers who have friends whom they know to be eligible for the Reserve Corps should make known these facts to them in order that they may have an opportunity to become identified with the Reserve Corps before it is too late. or corps area undergoing voluntary (a) When training designed for reserve officers which they have been authorized to take by their department commanders, and in going to and returning from this training. (b) When attending meetings or Corps functions of associations formed for military purposes whose membership is composed largely or entirely of of ficers of the Army of the United States or former members of the service. The uniform of the reserve grade will not be worn by field clerks, warrant officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army in an office of the Military Establishment, or at places where they would come into contact with troops of the Regular Army, or of the National Guard when called into Federal service except when the wearer is on active duty as a Reserve Officer or is otherwise authorized in this paragraph. (4) The rules stated above will apply also to warrant officers and enlisted men of the National Guard holding reserve commissions and not on active duty as Reserve Officers, when the National Guard is called into the service of the United States; but when the National Guard is acting as a State force these individuals may wear the uniform of their reserve rank as prescribed in b (1) above when not actually on duty with the National Guard, except at places where, or on occasions when, the wearer would come into contact with other members of uniformed troops of the National Guard of his State. Promotion Eligibility for promotion in the Reserve Corps depends first upon your length of service in present grade, and secondly on your qualifications. You must have had a year's service since November 11, 1918, in your present grade and a total of 3 years' service in which your war-time service is counted. double in computing the three years. So much for service qualifications. Your professional qualifications embrace a number of factors in which may be included your practical experience in the war; the number of training camps you have been through; the extent to which you have participated in the correspondence courses provided by the Government; the interest you have taken in the organization of the Reserves and your ability to pass an examination for promotion. In a word, value is given to everything that makes for your probable usefulness and development to an officer of a higher grade in the Reserve Corps. One of the things that the examining board must insist upon is that you demonstrate your knowledge of the various subjects included in the examination for promotion and set forth in detail in Special Regulations No. 43. By exercising reasonable care in the matter of promotions the War Department is building wisely and in so doing is protecting the commission of every Reserve Officer by making that commission a thing of value and not merely an ornament to be had for the asking. Division Chiefs of Staff throughout the service are interested in seeing their officers attain rank as high as they are qualified to hold, so that no officer who has adequately prepared himself for promotion need have any hesitancy in applying for the opportunity to take the examination. After qualifying by length of service the only question that the candidate need ask himself is "Have I prepared myself by study and application for the next higher grade?" If you can conscientiously answer this question in the affirmative you may have no hesi-tancy in applying for the examination for promotion. Meetings Are you turning out for the scheduled meetings of the officers of your unit of the Organized Reserves? If you are not attending these as |