Salt Lake Telegram | 1944-04-08 | Page 2 | Army Says Draftees Can't Expect Officer Commissions Soon

Army Says Draftees Cant Can't Expect I Officer Commissions Soon By James Marlow Manlow and George Zi WASHINGTON April 8 UP IP Hundreds of thousands of men soon to be drafted must be thinking Do I have much chance of q quickly getting an army commission commission commis commis- sion by going to officers' officers candidate school To which the army says Very little chance so long as you are in this country and anyway from now on the number of candidates will be very small Heres Here's why Most of the officer candidates will be men sent back here to school from abroad where they have had overseas experience or seen action The schools reached their peak in December 1942 when they turned out officers They are graduating monthly now between between be be- tween 2000 and 2500 Even that number may decrease as time goes on Why When the army was growing and creating new units it needed officers officers of of- in a hurry and a lot of f them It was an inexperienced army and had to be content with inexperienced officers officer unproved in battle Now the army i. i is complete I Its units unit are formed It doesn't need new officers officer for new units It needs only replacements Now from the ranks of men who have proved their leadership in war theaters the army can confidently pick officer candidates So far about men have been graduated as officers officer from the schools here and abroad Back in 1942 there were 26 schools in th this country four in England one in Australia Now there are only 15 schools here the schools in England have bave been abandoned The school in Australia remains Fifteen thousand men se sent t back here from abroad already have been commissioned Some men but very few are commissioned right ii in the battle zone by their sup superior officers for leadership under fire The army still is commissioning doctors and dentis dentists directly out of civilian life and and in rare cases is commissioning men with wity some special J skill