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Show Off to the Wars THE MOVEMENT of 56,000 regular and national na-tional guard troops Into maneuvers of the Fourth army wartime strength 810,000 is the largest enterprise of the war department since World war daya and Uncle Sam's biggest peacetime peace-time training exercise with units actually in the "theater of war." The general staff has staged larger "paper" wars and larger maneuvers with friendly and enemy troops represented, but these have been principally exercises in grand tactics for the high command a chess game in the grand manner. Tn this, month's operations" everything will as nearly as possible be conducted under actual" wartime conditions, including the dispensations of the gods of the weather, dust or mud, hear or cold and the mileage covered will be real miles traversed on foot or covered by the grinding wheels of mechanized units. It is a teat of manpower, man-power, horsepower without the horses, individual and collect! vi prowess and leadership in all grade and ranks from corporals to generals. Its purpose is to see what we could do if we had to In respect of maintaining the integrity of our westernmost territory in an emergency. This is not play, nor the make believe it may seem. The only sham about it will be the projectiles pro-jectiles and casualtiea. The plot of the drama will not even bo fictitious, but a highly plausible situation that might result if an enemy force shculd effect a landing at a vulnerable point on the Pacific coast and undertake to get a footing there. It is all very real. Past maneuvers of regular and national guard troops have had outcomes out-comes of which the public has been kept ignorant, ig-norant, but they have played a part in the revision re-vision of defense plans drafted by the master strategist and tacticians of the armv- Brigadier General Walter C. Sweeney, commanding com-manding thn regular army's aixth infantry brigade, bri-gade, will command th entire defending force comprising regular army troops. Major General Walter P. Storey, ranking officer of the 40th national na-tional guarr" division, will command the combined com-bined troop constituting the invading forces. Only known fact is that the invaders will move north from their concentration point near San Luis Obispo, approximately half way between Monterey and Los Angeles, while the defenders will move south from Camp Ord to resist their advance. The "crucial" engagement is expected to be "fought" between Little Mono creek in the Chorro Creek valley and San Luis Obispo. The battle orders th commanders of the opposing armies receive next Monday morning will give them their first real inkling of what they are up against and from then on what happens will be conditioned on their own orders and the orders or-ders and movements of subordinate commanders and their troops. Utah's contribution to General Storey' com-i com-i mand will be the 222nd and 145th field artillery regiments. Colonel Albert E. Wllfong of Ogden and Colonel Lloyd H. Duff in. Salt Lak City, re- spectively in command. These motorized units, 1300 strong, with the 143rd field artillery of California, constitute the 65th artillery brigade, j th whole commanded by Brigadier General Carl A. Badger of this city. The 38th U. S. in-! in-! I fantry garrisoned at Fort Douglas is com-' com-' ponent of General Sweeney's force. In all 12,000 men will be engaged in the California maneuver. ' All of it will be gruelling work for officers and men, hardship without danger. Utah' guardsmen guards-men urn praise for their patriotic eagerness to undergo the exactions involved and for their devotion de-votion to their routine training at their home stations in weekly drill and school during the rest of the year. The national guard constitute th major part of the first lin of defense, possibly pos-sibly would have to stand the brunt of the defensive de-fensive task In national emergency, as the regular reg-ular army personnel and the organized reserve were forming and traming the national army in preparation for taking the field. |