The purpose of this article is to acquaint the Naval Service with the progress being made in the education and training of officers of the Military and Naval Services.
Brief summaries are given of the educational programs in the various bureaus and departments of the Army and Navy. Similar departments are discussed adjacently, and the parallelism existing is immediately apparent. Where necessary, the particular needs of the Service concerned are recognized in the scope of the respective courses. For instance, the personnel of the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy and the Ordnance Corps of the Army study general ordnance subjects. Those studied by the naval officers are adapted to the peculiar and particular needs of the Navy, and correspondingly, those studied by the army officers are suited to their requirements.
EDITOR'S NOTE. In these days when both the Army and the Navy are confronted with what might almost be called a struggle for existence, it is of vital importance that both services should work together. The first step in such a direction is mutual acquaintance.
It goes without saying that the officer personnel in both services comes, in general, from the same source. No vast or vital difference exists between the training at West Point and that at the Naval Academy. It is in the subsequent training that the differences are more marked. Perhaps the greatest point of difference is in the number of Service Schools existent in the Army, and the extent to which all officers attend these schools.
There has recently been advocated, in the PROCEEDINGS, the establishment of a Gunnery School for the Navy. It may be that from a study of the Army method the way can be found to establish that, or some other school, that will be helpful to the Navy. In that connection, the percentage of officer personnel which it is found desirable, and practicable, to employ at any one time in attendance at these schools, is of interest. A careful investigation and study of the whole subject cannot fail to be of benefit to the Navy.
Immediately following the presentation of the educational programs of the various branches of the services, there is a general discussion as to what the writer believes the tendency of education and training will be in the future. Before plunging into the detailed outlines of educational programs, attention is invited to three paragraphs below quoted from the Bureau of Navigation News Bulletin No. 20, April 4, 1923.
It is an accepted principle that all officers should be ready for examinations at all times. The number of failures to successfully pass the examinations has increased since the Navy Department Examining Board, in its effort to standardize the requirements for promotion of all officers, has been sending out the questions for supervisory examinations of officers not stationed in the vicinity of Washington or Mare Island. The records show that recently nearly twenty per cent of the officers so examined failed on supervisory examinations and were consequently required to appear before Statutory Boards for reexamination. Failure before the Statutory Boards, either on examination or reexamination, entails suspension from promotion to the next higher grade for a period of six months with consequent loss of numbers. Of the officers thus reexamined before the regular board, thirteen per cent have failed to pass.
The subjects in which failures have occurred cover the entire scope of examinations but were noticeably great in navigation and engineering It, therefore, behooves officers to prepare themselves in all subjects. Examination papers are filed with the permanent records of officers, and it is desirable not only to pass but to pass good examinations.
There is little doubt but that any officer can pass the examinations if he has worked to prepare for them; the failures above noted are therefore due to one cause, namely, failure to prepare themselves. While the passing of a creditable examination for promotion is more a matter of particular interest to the officers themselves, yet the Bureau feels that the interest of the command in which the officer is serving is also promoted by a record of no failures. It is, therefore, requested that commanding officers give every assistance to officers now and hereafter due for examination for promotion. At the conclusion of the examinations now pending a table will be compiled showing numbers and stations upon which serving, but not names of individuals, of failures. This table may be useful in indicating the cause of failures, and if so it will be published to the Service.
The above paragraphs should be remembered when reading the conclusions of the article.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF VARIOUS SERVICE BRANCHES
Infantry, U. S. Army
Officers of the Infantry Service are obtained from West Point, or from civilian life by examination. Concurrently with troop duty, each officer takes a one-year basic course in the Unit Schools of the command in which he is serving. Selected National Guard and Reserve officers also take a three months' course.
The Infantry School is located at Fort Benning, Ga., and all infantry officers and selected National Guard and Reserve infantry officers, and certain general officers take courses at this school. Captains and below take the officers' course which lasts for one year, and field officers and selected senior captains take the Advanced Course which is also for one year. Certain general officers who are likely to command Infantry Brigades take a refresher course which is of three months' duration.
About half of the infantry officers take the Tank School Course at Camp Meade, Md., which is of one year duration for regular officers, and three months for selected National Guard and Reserve officers.
Infantry officers are sent to other service schools, such as the Signal Corps Schools at Camp Vail, N. J.; Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal, Md.; the Motor Transport School at Camp Holabird, Md.; the Engineer School at Fort Humphreys; the Air Service School at Langley Field; the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kan.; the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Okla.; the French Tank School at Versailles (four months' or one-year course) ; the Ecole de Guerre (two-year course), and the Naval War College.
The Infantry Branch is also allowed to send two per cent of its officers to civilian technical institutions in order to prepare them for particular. details. In the past, Yale, Illinois, Chicago, Colorado, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas, and others have been used.
Senior Infantry officers(X) are also sent to the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, and to the Army War College later in their careers.
NOTE (X):
Section 5 of the Act of June 4, 1920, provides for officers of the General Staff. Officers of the various branches of the service take the Command and Staff School Course at Leavenworth, and upon satisfactory completion of the same, and upon the recommendations of the Leavenworth School and a Washington Supervisory Board, they are eligible for General Staff duty with troops only. After the Army War College Course has been successfully completed, officers automatically become eligible for any kind of General Staff duty.
Cavalry, U. S. Army
Up to 1921, officers obtained from West Point or from civil life, for assignment to the cavalry service, were given the Basic Course of Instruction at the Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Kan. This course was one year in length, but now it is given concurrently with field duty with troops. After this training, the Troop Officers' Course at the Cavalry School is taken, and this is one year in length.
At this point in the officer's career, he may, upon application, be sent to Yale for the Communications Engineering Course, to Princeton for languages, or to the Signal Corps Communications Course at Camp Vail, N. J. Each of these is for one year.
Upon reaching the grade of captain, officers generally take the Field Officers' Course at Fort Riley, which is five months in length. When the grade of major is reached, or maybe before, officers are sent to the Command and Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for a one-year course, and if their previous record, and the record made at this last school warrant it, they then become eligible for the one-year course in the Army War College.
Coast Artillery, U. S. Army
Officers are obtained from West Point, or from civilian life after examination, and during their first year are given the basic course concurrently with their troop duty. As soon as possible after this, they are sent to Fort Monroe, Va., for the Battery Officers' Course which lasts for one year. Incidentally it might be pointed out that in 1924 this service school will be one hundred years old, and it is claimed that it is the oldest service school in existence. Upon reaching the rank of major, the advanced course at Fort Monroe is taken, consisting of studies in command, artillery staff work, logistics, etc. After the completion of this one-year course, officers are sent upon application and selection to the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth. After the satisfactory completion of this one-year course, and if recommended, they are sent to the Army War College.
In addition to the above service education, the Coast Artillery Service is allowed to send two per cent of its officer strength to civilian technical institutions. The subjects studied in the institutions selected are listed below.
University of Chicago—Ballistics.
Harvard University—West Point Instructor Course.
Columbia University—Radio Engineering and Fire Control.
University of Iowa—Acoustics.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Electrical Engineering.
Yale—Communications.
Officers of the Coast Artillery Service are also sent to the Naval War College, and to the Ecole de Guerre (two-year course).
Field Artillery, U. S. Army
Officers obtained from West Point, or appointed from civilian life (after examination and assignment to the field artillery service), are during their first year given the basic course in field artillery while on regular troop duty. As soon as possible after the completion of that course, they are sent to Fort Sill, Okla., for a one-year Battery Officers' Course. They next have troop duty for several years. Upon reaching the rank of major, the advanced course at Fort Sill is taken, consisting of studies in command, artillery staff work, logistics, etc. After the completion of this one-year course, they are eligible to apply for the Fort Leavenworth Command and Staff School Course, which also lasts for one year. They then have an interval of troop duty, and those making the best record at Fort Leavenworth are eligible for further instruction at the Army War College.
In addition to the above service education, the Field Artillery Service is allowed to send two per cent of its officer strength to civilian technical institutions. The university selected depends on the subject to be taken, and the following have been used in the past.
University of Chicago—Ballistics.
Yale University—Communications Engineering.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Automotive Engineering.
University of Iowa—Acoustics.
Signal Corps, U. S. Army
The personnel of the Signal Corps is obtained either from West Point, or from civilian life. Civilians entering the Signal Corps take the general examination for entrance into the Army and then a special examination for entrance into the Signal Corps. The basic course of one year duration is given concurrently with troop duty, and the Company Officers' Course in Communications is given them as soon as possible after the completion of the basic course. There is under preparation an advanced course of one year duration, which will also be given at Camp Vail, N. J. Field Officers are eligible for the one-year Command and Staff Course at Fort Leavenworth, and upon satisfactory completion of that course, and if recommended, they next are sent to the Army War College.
Certain officers are designated to attend the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, where they take a special course outlined by the office of the Chief Signal Officer, which is called Communications Engineering. It is planned to put all officers through the Camp Vail course, and certain designated officers through the Yale Communications Course, and the Iowa University Acoustics Course.
Medical Corps, U. S. Navy
Officers of the Medical Department, U. S. Navy (including both medical and dental officers) are selected after examination, from recent graduates of Class "A" Medical or Dental colleges of the United States. Immediately after their appointment, if they have had no hospital experience, Medical Officers are detailed to one of the larger base hospitals of the Navy as internes for one year. They are next sent to the Naval Medical School for a four months' course which is followed by two years of sea duty. The Naval Medical School Course is a postgraduate course in Naval Medicine and Surgery, and includes a study of the latest developments in laboratory work, hygiene, internal medicine, military surgery, and aviation medicine. Dental officers take a similar professional course at the Naval Dental School.
After their first cruise, officers who show special aptitude in any medical specialty, such as surgery, dental surgery, x-ray, etc., are given special courses of instruction in those specialties at the various larger clinics in the United States. These include Mayo Brothers' clinic at Rochester, or clinics at Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Francisco.
Certain medical officers are detailed to Mineola, L. I., N. Y., where they receive special instruction in aviation medicine. Other officers are detailed to Edgewood Arsenal, Md., where they take the Chemical Warfare Service Course. In order to prepare for duty with the U. S. Marine Corps, officers (medical and dental) are sent to Carlisle, Pa., where they are given instruction in field service under the supervision of the Medical Corps of the Army. Certain officers are detailed at times to institutions in order to prepare themselves for special duty, and the London School of Tropical Medicine, among others, has been used in the past.
Certain senior medical officers are detailed to the Naval War College each year for the one-year course at that institution.
Certain dental officers are now undergoing specialized training for dental laboratory and prosthetic work at the Navy Dental School which will be continued until all dental officers are conversant with this specialty.
Medical Corps, U. S. Army
NOTE: Under this heading will really be considered four different corps: viz., Medical, Dental, Veterinary, and Medical Administrative Corps.
Medical Corps Officers are selected from graduates of Class "A" Medical Schools who have had one year of interneship. They are examined, and upon successfully passing, are commissioned in the Reserve Corps, serving four months in that corps, at the end of which they are commissioned, if acceptable, in the Medical Corps. The Medical Corps also takes graduates of Class "A" Medical Schools immediately after graduation provided they are recommended for commission by the faculty, and stand high in their class. They are then sent to serve as internes in Army General Hospitals, and at the end of one year's interneship enter the Medical Corps without examination.
The Dental Corps demands that its officers be graduates of a Class "A" Dental School and have in addition, two years of practice.
The Veterinary Corps accepts graduates of Class "A" Veterinary Schools plus one year of professional experience.
The Medical Administrative Corps is open to former enlisted men in the Medical Department. They must have had two years of enlisted service, however, and after a competitive examination are commissioned as second lieutenants, and reach the grade of captain after ten years commissioned service. The members of this corps are limited to the rank of captain.
The Medical and Veterinary Corps appointees are given a basic course, the first part of which consists of the medical Field Service Course, which is the same for all three branches, of four months' duration, and is taken at Carlisle, Pa. The second part of the course, of six months' duration, is really a Postgraduate Medical School of Military Medicine, in the particular profession, .and these follow:
(a) Army Medical School, Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C.
(b) Army Dental School, Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C.
(c) Army Veterinary School, Chicago, Ill.
After the completion of these courses, officers are available for general service.
By preference of the individual, his efficiency ratings, and his superior officers' recommendations, certain officers are selected for special or advanced training in the following fields:
Aviation Medicine, 4 months, Mitchell Field, L. I.
Chemical Warfare, regular school course, Edgewood Arsenal, Md.
Command and Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., one year.
Army War College, Washington, D. C., one year.
Advanced Course in Public Health Work, four months, Army Medical School, Washington, D. C.
In addition to the above, certain officers are sent to civil technical institutions each year. The following have been used in the past for Medical Officers: Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Foundation, Pennsylvania, Harvard, Vienna, Berlin, and the London School of Tropical Medicine.
Dental Officers attend the Dewey School of Orthodontia at New York City, and Veterinary Officers attend Cornell and the Colorado State Agricultural College.
United States Marine Corps
Officers of the Marine Corps are now obtained from Naval Academy graduates, or graduates of recognized colleges where military training is included in the curriculum. Non-commissioned officers, after successfully completing a preliminary examination, are given a special seven-months' course at Washington Barracks followed by another examination, which if passed, is followed by a commission.
All newly-appointed officers are sent to Quantico to the Marine Corps School where they take the Basic Course of four and one-half months. Tactics, Infantry Auxiliary Weapons, Naval and Military Law, Topography, etc., are studied. After an interval of troop duty, they take the Company Officers' Course of one year duration, which in general, is an elaboration of the basic course, and prepares them for company command.
After another interval of troop duty, field officers and senior captains return to Quantico for the Field Officers' Course, which is also a one-year course.
Later, certain selected officers are sent to the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, the Army War College, and the Naval War College which are each of one year duration. In addition to the above, certain selected officers are sent each year to the Fort Benning Infantry School where they take the officers' course, and the advanced course as outlined under Infantry, U. S. Army. Other officers take the one-year Postgraduate School Course at Annapolis, and then attend a civilian technical institution for one year in order to prepare themselves in special subjects. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Cornell have been used in the past.
The Marine Corps also sends officers to the following service schools:
Signal Corps School, Camp Vail, N. J.
Motor Transport School, Camp Holabird, Md.
Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal, Md.
Air Service School, Kelly Field, Tex.
The Tank School at Camp Meade, and the Engineer School at Fort Humphreys are also under consideration.
Marine Aviators are trained at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla., where they take courses as outlined for naval aviators under the Bureau of Aeronautics.
Chemical Warfare Service, U. S. Army
The commissioned personnel of the Chemical Warfare Service is obtained from U. S. Military Academy at West Point, appointed from civilian life, or by transfer from the other services. At the present time the greater proportion of their officers have been obtained by the last named method. These officers have, with a few exceptions, had considerable duty with troops and have completed the basic, and in many cases the advanced courses of the school of the arm from which they were transferred.
Upon transferring to the Chemical Warfare Service, all officers are sent to Edgewood Arsenal for a three months' course in the Chemical Warfare School, and as a rule do duty with gas troops or technical work at the Arsenal before being assigned to duty in Washington, or in the various corps areas. All officers of field grade are sent to the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and later to the Army War College, with suitable duty in the Chemical Warfare Service between these two courses.
In addition to the above, it is customary for officers who expect to attend the Service School at Fort Leavenworth to spend a year in the advanced school of some line arm, in order to take a refresher course prior to entering the Leavenworth Schools.
Two per cent of the officers of this service are eligible for detail as students in civilian institutions, and at the present time a course is being outlined at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to which it is expected to send all the officers who receive such details from this arm. During the past year, such a course has been held at the University of California.
In order to complete an officer's education in a practical way, officers are detailed from time to time for duty at various industrial plants, such as Dupont and National Aniline and Chemical Companies factories.
Construction Corps, U. S. Navy
Officers are selected from the line after two years of sea duty, and after spending one year at the Postgraduate School at Annapolis, are sent to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a two-year course in Naval Architecture, the first year of which corresponds to the senior year of the naval architectural course, and the second year corresponding to postgraduate work. The subjects follow: alternating currents, alternating current machinery, business law, electrical engineering laboratory, internal combustion engines, marine engine design, marine engineering model making, naval architecture, political economy, shipyard practice, steam turbines, theory of warship design, aeronautics, business management, merchant shipbuilding, rigid dynamics, structures, warship design and thesis.
This work is supplemented by a further education program acquired in navy yards and shipbuilding plants.
Certain naval constructors are designed to take a six weeks' course at the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. The fundamental chemical principles and properties of the various chemical agents used, offensive and defensive materiel and their relation to tactics, etc., are studied during this course.
Judge Advocate General, U. S. Navy
Officers apply for a three-year tour of duty in the office of the Judge Advocate General. Concurrently with this tour of duty, a law course is taken at one of the local universities. Most officers take this course in the morning, and a few in the evening. After the completion of the law course, bar examinations are taken. Officers may or may not ever again be assigned to the office of the Judge Advocate General, but they are available with their specialized knowledge for duty on various court-martial proceedings, and in other capacities where legal knowledge is essential to a naval officer.
Bureau of Engineering, U. S. Navy
Certain officers, after five years of sea duty, upon submission of request, showing their desire to take postgraduate courses, and accompanied by letters of indorsement from officers under whom they have served, are selected for postgraduate courses in subjects under the cognizance of the Bureau of Engineering. The course covers the following sub-divisions: turbines, reciprocating engines, internal combustion engines, electrical design, electrical ship propulsion, and radio (including sound).
This course comprises one year at Annapolis where the students are given ground work in the Postgraduate School which will enable them to take their places along with the university students who are usually sixth-year men. The Annapolis course is followed by one year at some university where the courses are arranged with a view toward the specialty selected. The summer periods are taken up with temporary duty at the most important inspection offices, manufacturing plants, and at the Bureau, where they become familiar with manufacturing conditions, inspection, and routine work of the offices and the Bureau. The university selected varies at times, depending upon the nature of the studies desired, and the character of the courses offered. Columbia, Harvard, and Michigan have been used in the past, and Yale, Iowa State, and others are under consideration for future assignments.
Air Service, U. S. Army
Officers for this branch of the service are obtained from West Point graduates or civilian life. As soon as they are assigned to the Air Service, they are given a course in flying (heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air) concurrent with ground work, since the National Defense Act provides that Air Service personnel must qualify as observers or pilots within one year after being so assigned. The heavier-than-air course consists of primary training followed by advanced training, the former consisting of three months ground work and five months flying, and the latter consisting of eight months advanced training at Brooks and Kelly Fields respectively. The lighter-than-air course consists of nine months training at Scott Field, Ill. They are then released for general service, and are given troop duty one year out of every five, this duty, however, being with Air Service troops.
Fifteen officers are permitted to attend other institutions each year, and the majority are given the Aeronautical Engineering Course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Others are sent to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale for a course in Radio Engineering, and still others take Business Administration courses at Harvard University or the University of Pennsylvania. In general, these courses are two years in length.
Bureau of Aeronautics, U. S. Navy
Officers of the Navy or Marine Corps are selected for the Naval Aviation Observers' Course, which is of three months' duration. This course includes aerial communication, aerial navigation and map reading, naval and aerial strategy and tactics, meteorology, photography, review of naval gunnery and fire control, bombing, and aerial fire control. In like manner selected officers are given a six months' Naval Aviator's Course at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola: Fla., which at present is a Training School for Naval Aviators. This course includes ground school work, primary flying, bombing, gunnery, aerial navigation, aerial radio, fleet duties, and preliminary advanced courses in combat, spotting and torpedo duties.
Certain naval aviators after five years of general duty become eligible for a postgraduate course in aviation engines, and power plant equipment. Upon selection, they are sent to the Postgraduate School at Annapolis for twelve months, and then to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for one year in Aeronautical Engineering. They also take a summer course of which six weeks are spent at the Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia, Pa., and another six weeks at the Wind Tunnel and Engine Testing Laboratory at the Navy Yard, Washington, D. C., or private naval engine contractors for practical instruction in their shops. They are then released for general service.
At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the postgraduates take courses in advanced calculus, theoretical aeronautics, laboratory work in mathematics, aeronautics and advanced aeronautics, mechanics, theory of elasticity, metallography, advanced wing theory, airplane, airship, propeller and advanced airplane design, and advanced airplane structures.
Certain line officers who have completed the regular postgraduate course in radio and ordnance specialties are assigned to the aeronautical organization for duty in connection with Aviation Radio equipment and Aviation Ordnance equipment.
Certain officers of the Construction Corps, after completing the Naval Constructors' course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology which includes aeronautics, are detailed to the aeronautical organization for the purpose of specializing in aeronautical structures, both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air.
Quartermasters' Corps, U. S. Army
Officers are obtained from civilian life after entrance examination into the Army or from West Point. All officers are given the nine months' course at the Quartermaster Corps School, Philadelphia, Pa., where they are trained for quartermaster duties, studying administration, military organization, logistics, transportation, procurement, warehousing, construction, law, salvage, finance, and care of animals. Various textile and other manufacturing establishments are visited during this course.
Certain officers upon application are designated to the Quartermaster Corps Subsistence School at Chicago, Ill. Here they study production, manufacture or preparation, purchase, grading, inspection, storage and transportation of subsistence, supplies and forage, as well as the sanitation involved. During this eleven-months' course, the student officers visit packing houses, various flour and cereal mills, grain elevators, canning factories, etc.
Certain other officers after application are designated to attend the Quartermaster Corps Motor Transport Training School. There are three such schools, one of which is at Camp Holabird, Md. During this nine-months' course, the operation, maintenance and repair of motor transport equipment, allied trades, automotive engineering, and motor transport formations are studied and the student works in the shops and later makes convoy trips of several hundred miles. Industrial plants such as oil, steel, rubber and tire companies, and the Bureau of Standards are visited.
Certain higher ranking officers are sent to Fort Leavenworth for the one-year course at the Command and Staff School, and others to the Army War College for one year.
At present, officers are attending the following several technical institutions, California, Cornell, Michigan, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for various special courses. At the invitation of the French Government, certain Quartermaster Officers are attending the Ecole de l'Intendance, which is the French Quartermaster School, and the Haras du Pin, which is the French Remount School. Each of these latter courses is for two years.
Supply Corps, U. S. Navy
The junior officers of the Supply Corps are being given opportunities to attend the Supply Corps School of Application. This is a four-months' course, and lectures are given by various people, professors of economics and finance, bankers, business men, etc. Other officers attend Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, or New York University where they take special business courses. Some attend during the day, some, when assigned to duty in the vicinity of the university, attend school at night, and some attend both day and evening courses. Courses in law, banking, business, accountancy, ocean and rail traffic, etc., are taken by various men who are really specializing within their specialty. Still others are assigned to the Department of Agriculture in order to obtain experience in food stuffs, which will enable them properly to provide the Navy's food supply. Some are assigned to textile establishments in order to cover that portion of the Navy's purchasing field.
As an example of some of the special activities, a bank was established by a supply officer in Guam. No previous facilities had existed, and this bank is meeting with wonderful success, and has been sponsored by the commandant of the station. Those officers who fill such positions as financial advisers to Haiti, Virgin Islands, etc., take actual work in large banking institutions for months in order to prepare themselves for their positions.
Finance Department, U. S. Army
Officers for the Finance Department are obtained from West Point, from civilian life after examination, or from transfer from the line. They are given basic and advanced courses at the Finance School at Fort Hunt, Va. Here they study the laws and regulations governing the disbursement of public funds, the handling of public vouchers, Treasury Regulations, and the decisions of the Comptroller General.
After an interval of field duty, officers become eligible for selection to fill the annual quota at civilian institutions of learning, and there take such courses as business administration, accounting and economics. This is a one-year course, and more or less designed to fill the requirements of the Finance Department. Leland Stanford and Harvard Universities have been used in the past.
In addition, officers in the vicinity of Washington are assembled periodically to hear lectures given by various men prominent in the field of banking, economics, business administration, etc.
A correspondence school course, originally designed for reserve officers, is now given all officers and takes for completion one year of study.
Senior officers are also sent to the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, and later to the Army War College.
Ordnance Department, U. S. Army
Officers of the Ordnance Department are obtained from West Point graduates, or those officers who have been commissioned after examination from civilian life, and who are graduates of recognized technical institutions. As soon as possible after officers have been assigned to the Ordnance Department, they are given two years of work, either of which may be taken first. One year is spent in the Ordnance School Course at Watertown Arsenal, Mass. Here they work on all sorts of machines in the foundry, in the gun forging plant, and in the erecting, smith, pattern and projectile shops. In addition, they study administration and take special courses in steam, power and compressed air at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They also spend about twenty-five per cent of their time in the chemical and testing laboratories where excellent courses in metallurgy, metallography, and testing materials are given.
The year spent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology extends for the entire year, including a summer session. They study the theory of elasticity, with special application to gun design, heat engineering, ordnance engineering, chemistry of powder and explosives, and work in the gas engine, power, general chemistry, explosives and electrical engineering laboratories. After this general education in ordnance engineering, officers are trained further within their specialty, there being an artillery design course at the Rock Island Arsenal, other similar special courses at other arsenals, and special work at commercial establishments handling ordnance contracts.
Bureau of Ordnance, U. S. Navy
Officers become eligible for the postgraduate course in Ordnance after five years of sea duty. Selection is made from those officers who apply for this duty, and is based on their fitness reports and other submitted data. Officers so selected are sent to the Postgraduate School at Annapolis, after which they are sent to various universities, according to the specialty selected.
There follows a list of the specialties studied at these universities:
Torpedoes and Ordnance Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Fire Control at Columbia University.
Explosives at University of Michigan.
Ballistics at Chicago University.
Metallurgy at Carnegie Institute of Technology.
The third year is spent several weeks or several months at a time in various manufacturing plants supplying ordnance material, in the Navy Yard, Washington, D. C., or at practical work in industrial plants.
Engineer Corps, U. S. Army
The Engineer Corps of the Army obtains its officers from West Point, or by assignment after having taken an entrance examination into the Army from civilian life. Graduates of technical colleges with a degree are given the five months' basic course at the Engineer School at Fort Humphreys, after which they take a year or two of duty with troops. They then return to the Engineer School for the Company Officers' Course, which lasts one year, and at a later time in their military careers, may be sent to civil technical institutions for additional technical education.
U. S. Military Academy graduates are also given the Engineer School Basic Course, after which they have a period of troop duty, and then return to the Engineer School for the Company Officers' Course, or to a civil technical institution for postgraduate work in engineering. After a preparatory course at a summer session, they enter the institution selected with the senior class in the fall.
After ten years of service, officers may be assigned to the Field Officers' Course at the Engineer School, and later to the Command and Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and upon satisfactory completion of that course to the Army War College. Each of the latter two courses is one year in length.
Civil Engineer Corps, U. S. Navy
Officers are selected either from civilian life or from the line of the Navy. Those selected from civilian life have a specified amount of technical experience and an engineering degree from a recognized university, and after taking a five or six-day entrance examination, are generally given a short period at the Naval Academy to acquaint them with the Naval Service. It is planned to send officers selected from the line (after not less than one year of sea duty) to the Postgraduate School at Annapolis for one year, and then to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for a two-year course. After completing the first year at Rensselaer, these students will obtain a degree in civil engineering, and a master's degree at the end of the second year.
The following subjects are among the subjects studied: surveying, railroad location, architecture, steam and electric railroads, steam and electrical engineering, materials of construction, plain and reinforced concrete, masonry foundations, earth works, masonry, timber and steel structures, (bridges), hydraulics, water power, water supply and purification, sewers, irrigation, dams, aqueducts, piers, quay walls, harbor development, highway engineering, heating, ventilating, and refrigerating.
In addition to the program for Naval Academy graduates above, it is planned to send the younger officers to universities in order to broaden out their education or prepare them for a particularly special class of technical engineering. It is also planned to send all officers for short periods of duty on inspection, to steel manufacturing plants, and other places of interest to a construction engineer.
Certain other officers are assigned to take the Engineer Officers' Course at Fort Humphries, Va., under the supervision of the Engineer Corps, U. S. Army. Certain senior officers are detailed to the Naval War College yearly.
CONCLUSIONS
There is only one reason for discussing the subject of Education and Training of Officers, and that is to improve the efficiency of the military department in which they serve. The appropriations granted by Congress to military departments at present when the Government is seeking by every means to limit the expenditures and enforce drastic economy are necessarily and rightly as small as is possible and consistent with proper protection of the United States in cases of emergency. We are, however, much more fortunately situated financially than other countries when compared on the basis of national debt per capita.
Assuming that the number of officers and men is unaffected and remains constant, decreased appropriations mean simply one thing, that there will be less money available for experiment, and for the improvement of existing weapons. A further conclusion would be that if existing personnel were sufficient to handle the development and improvement of weapons of warfare with normal appropriations, there would be a superfluity of personnel with decreased appropriations. How then can progress be made in spite of decreased appropriations? Only through additional education and training for military personnel. It should be noted here that this additional training and education may be indirectly considered as economy to the Government since the efficiency of the officer being trained will be increased. The cost is insignificant compared with that of the same officer acting as project manager in the development of, or experimentation with some military necessity.
It is well to call attention to the fact that the Conference for the Limitation of Armaments recently held in Washington may set a precedent for additional conferences, and that in the future the 5:5:3 ratio may be gradually extended to cover auxiliary naval vessels, strength of Army, and many other military features. It is, therefore, possible in considering military establishments, to assume that personnel, materiel, etc., of various governments are equal or at least comparatively equivalent when distances at which war may be waged are taken into account.
History in the past has shown that there has been competition existing between the various countries in the development of sizes and speeds of capital ships, armor protection, increased sizes and ranges of guns, etc. In view of the limitations of the Conference, and the possible limitations of other future conferences, how then will the competition between nations develop? It is only possible to conjecture upon this question, but a reasonable guess would be that it would develop into a race for refinement of all sorts of material, the development of vastly superior matériel, and the improvement and increased efficiency of existing personnel.
In order to improve, develop, and refine matériel, it will be necessary for the officers in charge to receive additional specialized education. Then they will be able to co-operate with the various institutions of learning and the research organizations of large manufacturing companies throughout the land in order to encourage the development of the Navy's needs.
The improvement of personnel will have to be accomplished by detailing them to these same institutions and manufacturing establishments in order that they may become competent to realize the scope and difficulties of the particular problem confronting them, and co-ordinate efforts within the Navy with those outside the Navy. It may, therefore, be seen that personnel is indirectly involved if matériel is to be bettered and directly concerned where personnel is to be improved. There is nothing new or novel in either of these propositions and as may be observed from the resumés given above, it is being done today in a measure by both the War and Navy Departments. The present program, however, will have to be increased and intensified in the future.
Ultimately, however, one change will be made. It is as follows: Those duties now purely extraneous to the development of the line officer, and which in no way increase his efficiency for command afloat will eventually be eliminated from the character of duties assumed by him. Attention should be invited at this point to the paragraphs quoted above from the Bureau of Navigation News Bulletin No. 20, April 4, 1923, which might be taken as indicating that the limit of assimilation of the line officer had been reached in view of the fact that twenty per cent of officers fail on supervisory examinations. Finally the average amount of shore duty will probably be increased through the establishment of intensive courses of training for officers of every rank and every corps at the Naval War College, or civilian technical institutions, and instead of a comparatively few officers attending the Naval War College, as at present, there will probably develop a university which would correspond to a postgraduate school where tactics, strategy, and perfection of the utility of naval weapons will be studied, and where research will be carried out.
In support of this belief, the following is offered. There are two reasons why enlisted men are kept in their special ratings throughout their service in the Navy. One is that their terms of enlistment are relatively short, and even at present too much time has to be spent in training them for their particular duties in proportion to the time spent in the performance of the same. The other reason takes into account the amount of education previously received by each enlisted man. In other words, the limit of assimilation of various tasks is quickly reached in enlisted personnel, but not so quickly in officer personnel. With the competition, however, in the future, it will be realized that the limits of individual assimilation of officer personnel have been reached, and if we are to have the most efficient Navy afloat, it will of necessity be a Navy of officers specially trained in their particular function, and continuing throughout their naval careers in that function.
It is, of course, realized that this intensive training of officer personnel may be carried to a harmful extreme, and result in making each officer ignorant of all activities in the Navy except his particular duties. His training, therefore, must include with it a proper perspective of the co-ordination of all naval activities. The proper co-ordination of activities is a matter of Navy Department organization, just as the proper co-ordination of the various arms in land warfare is dependent upon the General Staff evolving the plan of battle.
To put it concretely, given equivalent matériel, etc., a Navy of trained men can defeat a Navy of untrained men. This admits of no argument, and a reasonable corollary is that a Navy of functionally trained personnel can defeat a Navy whose personnel spend portions of their time in different functions some of which have little or no value in increasing the efficiency of the officer in his duty afloat.
Let us hope that it will not be necessary to have a war to demonstrate military inefficiencies and what should be done—but that improvements will take place in personnel through further education and training and in material through improved personnel.