The Army will never be any better than the quality of the young Americans who compose it. It is an established principle of ground warfare that success in battle depends upon the proper combination of firepower, mobility, and able people. The final and decisive element in warfare is not the weapon, not the equipment, but the men who operate and use the weapons and equipment.

While a ship may symbolize the Navy and an airplane the Air Force, the only adequate symbol of the Army is the combat soldier. He is like the cutting tool moved by a great machine behind him. It is the quality of the cutting edge the combat soldier-which determines the performance of the entire machine. He must be a little better than most people, a little tougher-not in an unruly sense, but in the sense of having more character, stamina, fortitude, and discipline-to assure that our Army will be victorious in the future, as it always has been in the past.

Therefore, two most vital questions about the Army are: how its personnel are obtained and how they are trained. The question of training and education is covered in chapter 8. This chapter deals with the procurement, and subsequent promotion, of officers and enlisted men.

Broadly speaking, there are two reasons for a man joining the Armed Forces: because he volunteers or because he is required to by law. In securing officers we have relied on the volunteer system. That system has also been used, throughout our national his

tory, for procuring enlisted personnel; but at various times, and in varying degrees, it has had to be supplemental by legal coercion.

The most comprehensive possible scheme of the latter sort is true universal military training. It is based on the concept that every adult male citizen has a non-transferable obligation to serve his country directly, in peace as well as war. and that (with certain common-sense exceptions) he will be trained to that end. The concept has never been fully accepted and executed in the United States; instead, a number of compromises have been tried. The most recent is the selective service system, which was brought into being during World War I, was used in World War II and the Korean War, and is still in effect. It is based on the principle that all men are liable to be called. A drawing by lot determines which ones actually will be.

The law which governs selective service is Public Law 51, an amendment (adopted in June 1951) to the Selective Service Act; and by this amendment, the act was renamed "The Universal Military Training and Service Act." Thereby our nation gave official approval, for the first time in its history, to the concept of universal military training, even though, in fact, we do not today induct and train all our young men. Thus the ultimate obligation of citizenship-the bearing of arms in defense of the community-is now explicit. It has always been implicit.

Under current legislation and regulations, including the Reserve Forces

Act of 1955 and the most recent Army programs based thereon, there are several ways in which a young man can fulfill his military obligation in the Army

a. Enlistment in the United States Army for a period of 3, 4, or more years of active duty, incurring a 6-year military service obligation. Upon completion of a total of 4 years' active duty and Ready Reserve, the enlistee is eligible for transfer to the Standby Reserve for the last 2 years of his service. Individuals who at the time of enlistment are over age 26 do not incur a Reserve service obligation. 2

b. A 6-year enlistment in the Army Reserve. After 2 years of active duty and 2 years of service in the Ready Reserve, such enlistees are eligible for transfer to the Standby Reserve for the final 2 years of service."

c. Induction into the Active Army. Inductees incur a 6-year obligation. Upon completion of 2 years' active duty and 2 years' Ready Reserve service, inductees are eligible for transfer to the Standby Reserve for the final 2 years of their enlistment.

d. Enlistment prior to age 181⁄2 in the Army National Guard or in the Army Reserve for a period of 8 years. After performing 6 months' active duty for

training, and after satisfactory participation in Army National Guard or Reserve duty training for 3 years, he will be eligible for transfer to the Standby Reserve for the remaining 41⁄2 years of enlistment.

e. Enlistment in the Army National Guard or Army Reserve of individuals in the age group 181⁄2 through 25. Such enlistees incur a 6-year obligation, which they satisfy by performing 6 months' active duty for training and by participating satisfactorily in the Ready Reserve for the remainder of the 6-year term.

f. Enlistment in the Army National Guard or Army Reserve of individuals in the age group 26-35 for a period of 3 years. Such enlistees perform 6 months' active duty for training, and must participate satisfactorily in Ready Reserve duty training for the remainder of their enlistment term.

Things to be remembered about the Reserve Forces Act of 1955, as amended,

are

a. It was designed to correct the inequity of some men serving repeatedly and involuntarily in the Armed Forces, while many others did not serve at all.

b. It was designed to insure that the maximum number of young men were trained prior to war.

In a broad sense, selective service is one of America's oldest institutions, even though the term was not used until World War I and the modern techniques have developed greatly since Colonial times. Moreover, fully to trace the "ancestry" of the selective service idea would require going far behind early American history, back to Biblical days, for it is recorded in the first chapter of Numbers that Moses and Aaron registered and classified 603,550 men as available for military service.

COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. The American colonists brought with them the English militia system, founded on the principle that every able-bodied citizen

was obligated to keep himself armed and ready to fight the common foe. The "selecting" process consisted of assigning virtually every male citizen-ablebodied or no-to a definite duty, whether that duty consisted of going out to repulse the Indians or staying at home to guard the women and children.

Between 1607, when America's first permanent settlement was established at Jamestown, and 1775, when the first guns of the American Revolution were fired, more than 600 laws and ordinances were passed by the Colonies and their political subdivisions providing for conscription in one form or another. Typical of these laws is the following, enacted by the Virginia

General Assembly during the 1623-24 session:

It is ordered that every commander of the several plantations appointed by commission from the governor shall have power and authority to levy a partie of men out of the inhabitants of that place soe many as well be spared without too much weakening of the plantations and to imploy those men against the Indians, when they shall assault us neere unto our habitations, or when they in their discretion shall deeme it convenient to cleare the woods and the parts neere adioyning when the Indians shall bee a hunting or when they have any certaine knowledge of the Indian's aboad in those places. And if there shall be cause that the commander in person can not attend these services, then in such cases, and in his absence hee is to appoint his deputie.

So far as the new Plymouth Colony was concerned, the following is an excerpt from minutes of the 1633-44 session of the General Court held the second of January, "in the ninth Yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraigne Lord, Charles, by the Grace of God King of Engl., Scotl., Fr., & Ireland, Defendor of the Faith, &c." That was during the 1633-44 session of the General Court. It was ordered:

That all & every person within the colony be subject to such military order for trayning & exercise of armes as shall be thought meet, agreed on, & prescribed by the Govr & Assistant.

The following minutes of "a court of assistants, holden at Boston, April 12th, 1631" are likewise characteristic of the times and show that it was not wise to skip training:

John Finch is fined for wanting armes for his man, and for being absent himself for traineing.

Henry Lynn is fined ・・・ for absenting himselfe for traineing.

There were similar enactments in all other Colonies..

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: One of the first acts of the Continental Congress was passage of a measure which recommended "to inhabitants of the United English Colonies that all ablebodied, effective men, between 16 and 50 years of age be formed into companies of Militia." That reaffirmation of the citizen's obligation to bear arms was made 18 July 1775-a time when few men foresaw a Declaration of Independence, let alone the formation of a United States of America.

George Washington's experience with the Militia during the Revolution was far from happy. The fault lay not in the theory on which it was based, but rather in its application. The militia

system assumed that every male citizen was liable for military duty in defense of his community or colony. The militia system adherents also recognized, even though vaguely at times, that a reservoir of trained men must be available to meet emergencies. However, so poorly was the system applied that the Revolution, which conceivably might have been concluded in a matter of months, instead dragged on for seven long, desperate, and discouraging years. The greatest military strength used against the Colonies by Great Britain in any one year was 42,000, while we employed a total of nearly half a million-10 times as many as the enemy! It is interesting to note that the Joint Army and Navy Selective Service Committee, in a report made in October of 1939, recalled that even with offers of large cash bounties, voluntary enlistment in the Regulars during the Revolution unsatisfactory and that Washington therefore had to call constantly on the States for Militia. The Army was in constant danger of disaster; for example, on 14 March 1777 Washington reported from Morristown, N. J., that he had but 1,000 Regulars, and 2,000 Militia whose engagement expired that same month, to face over 20,000 British in and around New York.

was

Anxious that the nation benefit from the manpower procurement experience of the Revolution, George Washington urged the first session of Congress to enact legislation which in many respects was similar to selective-service legislation in effect during World Wars I and II.

To avoid calling forth indiscriminate levies, of all ages and without training or discipline, Washington proposed to classify the men by age and physical fitness; to segregate the fit men between 18 and 25 years of age into separate tactical units; and to give them special training by selected instructors. Presidents Jefferson and Madison likewise urged legislation patterned closely after Washington's recommendations. However, effective legislation was not enacted.

WAR OF 1812. During the War of 1812, Congress authorized an Army