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Show West Point at War By Maj. Gen. Francis B. Wilby I (Supt. of Weal Point Academy) licing a newspaper columnist and reporter is a new experience fur me. However, I feel that I can give you a "Reporter's Report to the Nation" from West Point, which should be of interest to every red-blooded American. I wish that everyone could visit West Point for just one day, and see what I see. You would get an inspiration that you cannot help but eel when you see the men of the Corps and what they are doing. They are not only filling themselves for winning this war, but also for winning win-ning the peace, and preventing, if possible, the recurrence of such another an-other world conflagration as we are passing through today. As you know, a cross-section of American youth is' selected from all parts of the country to come to West Point. They are selected by the most democratic of methods, many of them by winning competitive examinations. ex-aminations. Starting with these young men, we aim to develop a rigorously trained soldier-officer, a job which is greatly great-ly facilitated by the fact that the Cadets themselves sincerely desire to make the most of the opportunity j they have here. With the rapidly I changing weapons and" new methods developed in modern warfare, we are constantly working to keep up to dale and give the latest, most accurate information and training to the Cadets. WALTER WINCHELL B a tour oi duty outside Continental U. S. During bis absence, contributors will substitute. 1 The Cadets learned and were doing do-ing everything a thoroughly trained enlisted man ought to be able to do, and before the Summer was over, they looked like veterans. Summer maneuvers don't end the story of tough training at West Point. Summer maneuvers are just a phase of the year-round program which is built to train fighting leaders. Every minute of the 16-hour day (6 a. m. to 10 p. m.) is filled by a tight schedule of instruction, study, and athletics plus tactical training in the arms and branches of the Service. The program is designed to turn out officers schooled in all types of army operation' and each Cadet is familiarized with the use of every weapon from the pistol to the airplane. So one can see the West Pointer Is TOUGH physically and mentally. He has to be. At the close of the Summer, the Cadets came back into the classrooms class-rooms for what we call academics. During the Winter months emphasis is placed upon academic instruction while the schedule in tactical training train-ing is somewhat reduced. A reporter probably would say that we have a highly mathematical and stiff engineering course. Perhaps Per-haps that is right, but the West Point curriculum aims at teaching a man to think, to reason, and to draw sound conclusions expressed clearly and concisely. Mathematics and the sciences provide this training of the mind which we believe is so essential essen-tial in order to produce the finest military leaders. I am happy to announce that this week the West Point instruction is being given a first-hand inspection by some of the leading educators in our country. I have invited Doctor Compton, President of the Massachusetts Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology, and Doctor Hopkins, President of Dartmouth, Dart-mouth, along with the principal military mili-tary experts on training in our Army today. Major General Bull of the Replacement Re-placement Training Center of the Ground Forces, Brigadier Huebner of the Training Division of the Services Serv-ices of Supply, Brigadier General Edwards of the Training Division of the War Department General Staff, and Colonel Schlatter of the Flying Training Command of the Army Air Forces, to meet, confer and review our plans for the new 3-year course at the Military Academy. With this course we propose to produce a graduate of West Point who will have the finest education and training it is possible to afford in the time available. By constantly keeping abreast of the latest developments, we aim to do the job which America and Americans have asked us to do. In the days of Robert E. Lee and U. S. Grant, West Point produced men to meet the challenge of that era. John J. Pershing fulfilled his task in the days of the Kaiser. During the past Summer over 2,000 West Pointers went through the most rigorous field maneuvers that have been held in the history of the Academy. Acad-emy. Every phase of combat training train-ing was given the Cadets. They worked, ihey sweated, they maneuvered maneu-vered over the hills and through the rivers of northwest New York State, as well as here at West Point. They had a good taste of how modern campaigns are fought. During these maneuvers some of the toughest combat probiems were carried out by the Cadets. |