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Image provided by: New York State Military History Museum
THE WADSWORTH GAS ATTACK a n d RIO GRANDE RATTLER 3 FINDING OFFICERS IN THE RANKS Survival of the Fittest is the Rule at the 0. T. C. By W . A. Davenport, O. T . C., Co. B. It was back in those weak, piping tim es of universal peace w h e n the m o st im p o r tan t news item on the front page of the evening new spapers was the final score at the Polo Grounds. Peace reigned even in Mexico; even in the Balkans. I forget the Coloners name. But he was one of the speakers at an im p ressive affair at the W aldorf. A pre-Hoover dinner had been indulged in. I happened to be there for the sam e reason several other reporters were. “The tim e is approaching,” the Colonel said, “when we m u st num b e r our arm ies by m illions and not by thousands. W h e n th a t tim e arrives we shall find the soldiers but not the officers. The task of finding officer m a terial in the ranks is alm o st an im p o s sible one; th a t of gathering it in the gen eral field of civilian life quite im p o ssible.” That, in correct substance, is w h at the Colonel said. He said other things irrele vant. To enter upon argum e n t w ith the Colonel now would not only be a trifle un fair, a bit im p e rtinent and quite aside from the spirit herein set forth, but the recollec tion of his pessim ism fetches us to the point. The Fittest of the Fit. On A pril 5th, or thereabout, the Twenty- seventh Division Officers’ T raining Camp, here in Camp W adsw o rth, will add its pro test to the ever-growing refutation of the Colonel’s prediction. General O’Ryan will then be able to tell the W a r D e p a rtm e n t w h e ther or not Sergeant Blue is or is not at his zenith as a non-com missioned officer. H e will be in position to tell his superior officers th a t Corporal Black and Private W h ite have or have not those qualifications th a t m u st be, necessarily, those of the lieutenant who can lead men to victory through the medium of efficient m ilitary training. In this Officers’ T raining Camp there are m ore than 500 men—-two companies of in fantry and a battery of artillery. W ith the exception of few er than a score of retired officers selected from the reserve list and now m aking splendid efforts to get back into harness, the camp personnel is com posed of non-commissioned officers and privates from the ranks of the New York N a tional Guard. The students w e re chosen from a likely- looking lot of 5,000 candidates. General O’Ryan, assisted by Lt. Col. W illiam A. Taylor, Com m andant of the Training Camp and other officers, m ade the selections. To recall the M ajor G eneral’s im p ressive, God speed address to the students, there were m any men disappointed bitterly; there may have been m istakes in the selections; b e t ter men may have failed of selections. But, to quote the M ajor G eneral further, they were honest and inevitable m istakes—m is takes th a t will assert them selves. Influ ence had ju s t as much to do with those se lections as the Cuban Navy will have to do w ith the final result of the war. It was a clean-cut case of being shown the goal and being turned loose to attain th a t goal. It was up to the student dis tinctly and still is. We started fiat from the scratch. T h e re w ere no handicaps. W e started right down at the bottom —the school of the soldier. Then the school of the squad. The pro gression goes forw ard in just such regulation succession. W h e re Privates Drill Toppers. It was som ething for the half-scared pri vate to behold—those first sergeants and sergeant m a jor and platoon, supply and mess sergeants, not to overlook a platoon or so of keen corporals, learning w ith vast dili gence and not infrequent blunder, the jolly business of squads east and w e st and so on and on. Even more illum inating it was, albeit hugely disconcerting to the aforesaid p r i vate, to see him drilling his erstw h ile first sergeant and an ex-regular or so in the m anual of arm s, and, to enlarge upon the marvel, drilling them “by the num b e rs.” R e m a rkable it was to see these embryo officers step forth before the company and become utterly panic-stricken when told by Captain Max Juffe, com m anding Co. B, In fantry, to explain left turn or right face or squads right. Men who had drilled rookies from the m o st hopeless verdancy to an agreeable finish-tone, becam e tongue-tied and brain-bound vThen called upon to ex plain the sim p lest axioms of the I. D. R. to men of equal rank or, possibly, superior knowledge. The som etim es forbidding gulf th a t yaw n s betw e e n the private and the ser geant and corporal, lasted ju s t about one week under the system under which the school is being conducted. For one week and no more there still rem ained th a t breach th a t is often more m a rked in the relations of the non-com and the private than betw e e n the officer and his men. It was wholly unnecessary to build bridges for these chasm s. They disappeared as did the m eals, w ith a rapidity th a t left us quite careless of the fact th a t they ever existed. The curriculum is one w a rranted to m ake or break. The daily schedule is one cal culated to produce results. A Strenuous Schedule. Comes reveille a t six-thirty, breakfast at seven, first call to drill a t seven fifty-five, r e call at eleven-thirty, m ess a t noon and at one o’clock the mill starts grinding again to stop for oil at five. W e stand retreat, rush to mess a t five-thirty and at seven launch forth upon two hours of study and conference, a period th a t brings you face to face w ith the appalling tru th concerning your ignorance. Each day two of the students—one in the m o rning and one in the afternoon—become company com m anders. E v ery day a new set of lieutenants lead th e ir respective pla toons. Each day sees new first sergeants and guides. Every man, be he experienced sergeant w ith grand assurance or the be nighted private w ith no assurance at all, m u st get out there and pilot the company hither and yon through the intricacies of close and extended order. M oreover he m u st explain in good I. D. R., ju s t why each comm and is given, how it should be executed and when. One of those things th a t are not included in the component parts of a day of personal unity, peace and concord, is th a t business of getting out there and telling 150 quite efficient non-coms ju s t how squads left about should be executed to the satisfaction of the General Staff. Every Friday night the students are sub jected to a com p rehensive w ritten exam ina tion covering those topics taken up during th a t current week-—field service regulations, m u sketry, grenades, the bayonet, court m a r tial, the engineering m anual and so on and forth. Inspections fall upon you w ith an unex pectedness th a t electrifies. Saturday in spections are rigorous and searching. But nothing is quite so am azing to the student him self as the fact th a t things are generally ready for inspection. Ju s t w h e re the tim e came from is one of life’s cavernous and abyssm a l m y steries. T h e re are am o n g st us men who came from their companies w ith reputations of being considerable s o l d i e r - snappy, rapid, certain, keen. W ell, one needs to be in the school but a day or so before he recognizes the fact th a t an entirely new T. N. T. brand of speed and efficiency was injected into the system th a t prevails there. George Ade figured th a t the only p a r t of a hog th a t was w asted in the Chicago stock yards was the squeal. T h e only portion of a m inute that is not utilized in this Officers’ Training Camp is the tick. Inspecting the Thought-Factories, It was during the second week th a t we underw e n t the psychological tests. W e were m arched into m e ss shacks, seated four a t a table and told by the psychiatrist-lieutenant (Continued on page 25)
