Show new face on m OW army arr my universal Traill training 0 mg program called modern democratic by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator why should universal military training be necessary at all how flow does the IMS present re ens plan differ front from the draft this is the second in in a series of articles 0 on this perti pertinent neni subject washington what is universal military training the more I 1 learn about it the more I 1 am convinced that most of the people both supporters and hopponen opponents s have very little idea of what it really is im more interested in the people who oppose because I 1 think they are doing themselves and their children a great injustice by allowing their thinking to remain out of focus id be willing to be bc that nine tenths of the general public who discuss the question are looking past the object of disc r cassion cus u s sion s i 0 n their i ideas focused on something tom ething which j no longer exists they have not examined what is actually in front of t them h e m and therefore are arguing from a completely wrong hypothesis old id ideas stick in other words Gau khaZe baze many people do not realize what Is NOT it Is NOT anything like the military service conscription which some of us knew from personal contact in the past and others knew from hearsay as proposed in the national security training act Is totally different in many essential principles from the draft under the selective service system first why Is it necessary let me quote the reasons given by thi the house bouse of representatives armed services committee as digested in the november issue of the army information digest which article should be read in its entirety tor for a real grasp of the subject 1 the united states has tradition ally depended heavily upon the civilian reserve components in every major war the regular forces have constituted less than 10 per cent of the total strength these wars have been fought by citizen soldiers directed and organized by a small email nucleus of professionals in the past geographical isola 2 uon tion has provided adequate time for training and equipping large numbers of americans fresh from civil life and unskilled in the art of war before it was necessary to send them into battle in any future emergency however no such inch cushion of time can be expected there must be sufficient trained corces in being on any future emergency day 3 the regular forces today consal tute no more than the traditional a nucleus of professional military skills furthermore they are spread thinly over a large area of the world engaged in occupation duties in the circumstances the size and degree of readiness of the reserve components lecome become matters of the most vital concern for if these reserve components are not adequate the overall military strength of the united states is a hollow shell the reserve components are far 4 below their authorized strengths strenge hs and are without hope of filling their quotas by voluntary means alone these authorized strengths represent the barest minimum estimate of manpower requirements 5 the national guard is at irately 16 per cent of its authorized strength the organized units of the organized reserve corps at 14 per cent and the unassigned reserve pool at 35 per cent summer of 1947 the members of the unassigned reserve pool are merely names on paper untrained and unorganized 6 would build up the reserve components to their authorized strengths and would achieve a stability and an increased efficiency of our ready forces that do not now obtain the alternative would be a regular army of about consideration was given the 7 claim that future warfare would be of the pushbutton variety requiring only a handful of scientists this claim Is a dangerous illusion if there is another war it will be more total than the last and win will involve a greater number of human beings without any hope of distinguishing gui shing the combatant from the noncombatant the war in all probability will come into the cities and the homes of the people of the united states in such event the survival or recovery of the nation might well depend on the presence of well disciplined and able bodied men in every community the foregoing then were hornc of the reasons which guided the armed services corn com of the house to vote out a national security training act the act would set fet up tour four agencies NATIONAL SECURITY TRAINING CORPS consisting of au all young men to be trained although these yo young g men legally would have military status they would not be members of the armed forces would be subject to no duty other than training and would become members of the military establishment only in a national emergency NATIONAL SECURITY TRAINING commission which would set the policies standards substance and character of the training program the commission would consist of three paid members appointed by the president two members including the chairman to be civilians and one to be from fro the armed forces GENERAL ADVISORY BOARD which would provide the commission with the best technical advice on the moral religious and educational phases of the program the board of 10 to 25 members would be composed largely of civilians serving part time with pay but would include at least three members of the armed forces it would have no policymaking policy making authority SELECTIVE TRAINING SYSTEM similar to the selective service system of world war 11 II which would register examine classify assign defer deliver and maintain records of men registered under As you note although military training in the modern sense which is more than ever training in ma many y valuable civilian givihan skills is the basis sis of the national security corps it is devoid of many factors which have made universal service in the past traditionally objectionable to the american people in these days any military training insofar as it involves killing is objectionable to the balanced personality sona lity but since we have not I 1 some of the teenagers from all state abo are trying a six month udit experiment at fort knox eliminated the predatory forces in the world have not even isolated them certain measures of self pro lection like UNIT are necessary what are the features of military training chich stick slick la in the craw of the he average free american probably the first the thing that used to overwhelm me at certain moments in my early months in the army is the lack of freedom no longer was I 1 a free man whose liberty could be curtailed only after a jury trial and the judgment of my peers suddenly I 1 was confronted by the articles of war the court martial system and in some cases although I 1 personally never suffered much from it even in wartime the petty tyranny of a superior in rank but the trainee under the proposed national security training act is not subject to the articles of war at all during the first phase of his training and only conditionally during the additional six months of service depending on which option he may elect |