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Show Trainees' Morals Guarded Jealously 1 & ! UMT Stresses Integration Of Youthful Personalities By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. (In Ibis, the third of a series on universal military training, further differences dif-ferences between this system and previous training methods are discussed.) WASHINGTON. Aside from the loss of his freedom, which I discussed in a previous column, the young men called upon for military training object to having their schooling interrupted in-terrupted or the securing of a job postponed. The national security training act would answer those objections this way: (a): The trainee gets educational and vocational advantages under UMT which in many cases he would not otherwise have; and (b): He literally earns while he learns. i ! . Let me quote from the November issue of the Army Information Digest: Di-gest: "Each trainee during the first Dhase (and if he elects to take a sec- ,) So much for the first six months. After that period, there are a number num-ber of options which the trainee can exercise. He can remain for an additional addi-tional six months' training in the national security training corps; he can enlist in the armed services, the national guard, or the enlisted reserve corps with assignment to an organized unit; he can enter one of the service academies; take specialist special-ist or technical work at an approved ap-proved college, or exercise other alternatives. For those who cannot accept any of the above-named options, there is enlistment in the enlisted reserve corps for six years, with active duty requirements of not more than 30 days a year. The first experimental unit at Fort Knox has just about completed the second cycle of its training, the first cycle having ended in July. ond six months) would receive a $30 cash allowance allow-ance monthly. If he is the chief family support, he would qualify for a dependency allowance which would be paid wholly by the government. This allowance would be $50 a month for one depend-I depend-I ent and $65 a S'." If 1 ' ! ' Baukhage month for two or : S i more dependents. ! During initial training, the trainee j 1 would be entitled to benefits of the soldiers' and sailors' civil relief act i of 1940 and to the death and dis- ability benefits furnished civilian i employees of the government, i , As to the educational factor, the I j report of the sub-committee on edu- cation, a division of the UMT civil- i ian advisory committee which vis- its the Fort Knox experimental unit i regularly, set forth the principle ! that UMT should be so flexible "that a man could return to school or to ! his civilian occupation without a j i loss of considerable time; and there- I J fore, it is more advantageous to i 1 1 maintain the six-month period of j 1,1 Initial training with a minimum of i i i i . education than to prolong this pe- I ' riod of training and permit inclu- : J i I sion of a comprehensive educational i , ' program." j , To ensure that the trainee does i not lose sight of his life objec- ; J tive, a well-planned counselling program is recommended. It , would be conducted by an edu- i cational stall including a trained J i psychologist. 1 1 The six-month training period i i where the accent is on the military i ' is by no means ALL military. Bay- : ': onet practice and "dirty fighting" i i j have been eliminated, and out of the j ' entire six months only 880 hours are ; i devoted to actual training, the rest I 1 to "processing and orientation." " There is a once-a-week lecture on " . citizenship and morality, and gen- :' j eral information is included in the 1 regular troop information period. In UMT program centers on a selective se-lective schedule of instructive military training. Since last January, a civilian advisory ad-visory committee of 34 men and women has served continuously, visiting vis-iting the unit individually and in groups. They have observed the trainees at work, at play, on leave in and around Louisville. This committee, by the way, represents' a fair cross-section of the parents, educators, religious religi-ous leaders, newspapermen and public officials whose interest, either personal, professional or patriotic, makes universal training important to them. This committee says that as a result re-sult of this year of training the boys have benefitted by definite spiritual and moral training, self-expression through individual hobbies, training for leadership, and respect for authority au-thority and the rights of others, as weJ as gaining military skills which are taught under "discipline, not regimentation." As one man from Louisville put it to me: "It's an entirely different thing from ordinary G.I. experiences. The boys themselves are the best witnesses." wit-nesses." . . . According to the 20th Century fund, cotton supplies more than three-fourths of all fiber consumption in the United States. Now I know what they put into my breakfast-food. breakfast-food. The housing problem seems highly high-ly explosive. Frank Creedon, who recently resigned as housing expediter ex-pediter to join an atomic energy project, probably finds splitting atoms safer. They have a national letter writing writ-ing week, I understand. Letter writing writ-ing makes me weak any week. : rv "V K? t ." . : 'm j 1 I , . v: ! . Ii Apprentice training in plastics and other vocations are some of the extra duty activities offered I by UMT experimental unit at Fort Knox. the experimental unit at Fort Knox, says the Army Information Digest: "It is not uncommon for the officer of the day, while inspecting a rifle at daily guard mount to ask the trainee: 'Who is the secretary of war?' or 'Who heads our diplomatic ! mission to Moscow?'" ; The relationship between ' trainer and trainee, according to the Digest, is not that of ser-y ser-y geant and recruit, but rather of instructor and pupil. Nearly 50 per cent of the men at : Fort Knox participate in the off- ' duty educational program, and some have completed graduation from high school by this route. According to the Digest report made in June, "the barracks smell" i . of profanity and obscenity does I not exist Without in any way sac rificing virility, the Digest claims that "a new way of looking at things has been created." Sex has its place r in instruction. The trainee gets a I healthy understanding of the normal nor-mal place of sex in raising a fam- Ifly, is taught that the only sure way to avoid venereal disease is continence. contin-ence. Plenty of entertainment Is provided at Fort Knox, includ-! includ-! ing a canteen where soft drinks and snacks are available, but no J . alcoholic beverages are sold. : |