OCR Text |
Show Murdock Replies On Air Corps Unit The army air forces considered "relieving the national railway system sys-tem of unnecessary burden" and ''other factors" in deciding which college training detachments should be eliminated, according to a re-, port forwarded to Cache county commission members by Senator Abe Murdock. The commission had written to Senator Murdock to inquire about the 318th college training detachment detach-ment at Utah State Agricultural college will be discontinued when present students compelte their work. The senator forwarded a report given to him by the army air forces headquarters and described his work relative to the order. "I am sorry that the response to our appeal has not been more favorable," he wrote, "and if there is anything else that you know of that I may be able to do to as sist in the retention or reestab-lishment reestab-lishment of this fine training, kindly advise me. I shall keep in touch with the air forces in this matter and if any new developments develop-ments arise. I shall adivse you immediately. The air forces repart said that it has become neseccary to reduce the number of colleges in the training tr-aining program and quoted General Gen-eral H. A. (Hap) Arnold's statement state-ment that "as the war continues, emphasis will naturally shift from training of vast numbers of new men to the training of replacements and to increasing the technical knowledge of the men already in service." "The method of bringing about a reduction of such magnitude as is now required is rendered most difficult by the fact that we have such a large percentage of institutions insti-tutions with excellent performance records," the report said. '"The army air forces wishes it to be clearly understood that the elimination elim-ination of any particular college or civilian contract school does not in any way reflect dissatisfaction dissatisfac-tion with the performance of this school. The splendid work of the civilian schools concerned . is sincerely sin-cerely appreciated, and nothing but the highest commendation can be expressed for the splendid patriotic pat-riotic work that they have contributed con-tributed during a most critical period of our training. "The army air forces college training program has of necessity been established on a flow-chart basis, whereby there are trainees traveling every month from basic training centers to colleges, from colleges to army air forces pre-flight pre-flight schools, and from pre-flight schools to civilian contract schools where the trainees receive their primary flying instructions. "Consequently the overall policy adopted by the training command at the direction of the war department depart-ment in determining the particular eliminations to be made has been based on the principle of relieving reliev-ing the national railway systems of unnecessary burdens and at the same time effecting a large saving of travel funds and military man hours lost in transit. Other factors fac-tors affecting suitability for the specific needs of the training command also were considered." |