Show importance OF 01 TRADES AND HOBBIES WITHIN THE ARMY it must be remembered that a modern army is a cross section of our specialized mechanized civilization and that it rates special skills higher that they are rated in civilian life most of us think of an army as a group of riflemen and machine gunners but right now every executive officer is crying for more male stenographers teletype operators business machine operators cooks etc the same shortage applies to radio men and photographers when the recruit is interviewed for the information to be placed on his soldiers qualification card at the reception center he is asked to state his first second and third best occupations later the interviewer begins digging into the mans hobbies to determine skills skill talents and interests in order that he may receive further training along the lines where he has specific experience or preferences naturally every recruit will get a certain amount of basic military training drill discipline and courtesies one in every seven soldiers is a skilled specialist and a muan lucri greater ratio fall in the semi skill ed category for when all is said and done there are no unskilled workmen in a modern army those who already have a trade that is useful to the army are retrained in that work under military conditions A telephone lineman for instance may know all about constructing and maintaining lines with good poles and elaborate e cuip equipment ment but in the army he will bo be taught to string lines across open country with few tools and makeshift equipment by the samp sam token the apan man who was a short order cook in a roadside diner is likely to be retrained at the post mess or in one of the cooks and bakers schools when he finishes that schooling he will probably be a chef and not just a hamburger dis dh As soon as qualification cards are filled officers will start combing them for skilled specialists in no less than different trades some of the important army crafts are as follows blacksmiths railroad conductors cooks coppersmiths railroad dispatchers pat chers trainmen yardmasters yard masters locomotive engineers foremen fabric workers horseshoe rs telegraph and telephone linemen and maintenance men lithographers meteor radio operators pharmacists photographers xray x ray alioto grap hers pressmen rotary lithography radio plant chiefs repairmen camera instrument and signal saddlers shoemakers cable stenographer typists mechanical ch technicians wire chiefs canvas workers cordage workers |