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Show If Utahn Describes Unique Ft. Einox Soldier Training "An entirely new type of soldier," is how Lt. Col. James R. Barker, Utah State Extension specialist, describes the 17 and 1 18-year old boys at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, who are participating I in the army's experimental mili-I mili-I tary training program there. I Col. Barker, an officer in the U. S. Army Reserve, recently re-I re-I turned from a week's training I at Ft. Knox, where he witnessed the experimental, program in i military training. "Approximately 1300 regular army volunteers, all 17 or 18 years old, from every section of the United States including seven boys from Utah . have been brought together at Ft. Knox in a 'grand "experiment to see if boys., can be trained without with-out the profanity and abuse customary cus-tomary in army camps," Col. Barker explained. ' "v- "I visited and talked with the boys, and what I saw and heard was certainly a revelation to me. The men were anxious to learn and happy with the training they received and it's no wonder they w?re when you saw how things were 'run at the camp. ''No Qne is ever gllowed to bawl them out or swear at them. Their mistakes are corrected by showing them the correct methods. meth-ods. If the trainees are caught swearing or using obscene language, lan-guage, they are given extra duty but only when found guilty at a fair trial by a jury composed of fellow soldiers. "The training week consists of 44 hours plus an attendance at church or a lecture on Sunday. The boys are not forced to attend at-tend churphv but 80 per' cent of them do so tp get out of attending attend-ing the lecture. They may attend at-tend any church they desire, even off the post. It was found that among the 1300 boys six per cent had never been to church before in their lives," the extension official reported. "The post exchange, where it is customary on army posts to see boys gorging themselves with beer, has an entirely different atmosphere here. I was surprised to see everything clean and wholesome. The boys were shin-ed shin-ed and proud, and all were either eating ice cream or drinking soft drinks, because no beer is allowed. al-lowed. "I consider the greatest thing this type of training has done has been the change in attitude toward morals. The entire program pro-gram is built around the premise that to be a good soldier one must have bood morals, besides being efficient in the use of weapons. wea-pons. (The use of the bayonet and dirty fighting are not taught.) The fact that only three cases of venereal disease have' developed during the past six months and two of these came with the boys attests to the fine moral training the boys are receiving. |