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teaching methods and a sound testing program.

There are four categories of classroom instruction at the Centers, all of them free to the students

Preparatory Instruction. This is primarily for career soldiers whose educational level is below that of elementary school graduation. Being adult education, it is not geared to elementary grade levels. There is one course, composed of five subjects: English, U. S. history, and geography, arithmetic, general science. To complete the course the student must pass end-of-course tests in all five subjects

High School Level Courses. These are offered to persons desiring to continue their high school education. They are often given in preparation for the high school level tests of the General Education Program. A student who passes such tests with standard scores may receive a high school equivalency certificate from the Department of Public Instruction or from a local high school of his own State, since the tests are widely recognized by public school systems throughout the country. Many colleges also accept the certificates in lieu of actual high school graduation. College Level Courses. These mostly at junior college level, and are given to those who wish to take them. The test scores of the courses are accepted by many colleges for academic credit.

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Instruction Related to Military Occupational Specialties. This instruction is for persons who need, or wish, to take it before starting their MOS training. It also includes instruction in spoken foreign languages and in English. It is given without reference to the student's school grade levels or academic credits.

USAFI. The U. S. Armed Forces Institute is a field agency of the Department of Defense. It supplies educational material, such as texts, tests, and correspondence courses, to personnel in the Armed Forces. The central service and supply agency is at Madison (Wis.). Here also are kept the records of all USAFI courses and tests completed, which are made available on request, for accrediting purposes, to schools and other civilian agencies. USAFI branches are located as follows

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APO 958, San Francisco, Calif.

Officer-in-Charge

USAFI, Japan

APO 613, San Francisco, Calif. Background. At the beginning of World War II there was a need to provide educational opportunities for the millions of American youth entering the Armed Services. Just 17 days after Pearl Harbor, on 24 December 1941, the War Department authorized the establishment of the Army Institute, the forerunner of USAFI. The response of service personnel was immediate and enthusiastic, and about 4 months later the Institute was formally opened at Madison. In September its facilities were made available to the Navy. In February of 1943 the name was changed to the present title.

Supervision. USAFI is under the direct supervision of the Office of Armed Forces Information and Education in the Department of Defense. However, it is essentially a civilian type educational organization, and its policies and procedures result from recommendations made by the Defense Advisory Committee on Education in the Armed Forces. This Committee is made up of 7 military and 14 nonmilitary voting members and one nonvoting member, as follows

Military members

Director, Office of Armed Forces Information and Education, OASD (MP&R)

Chief, Education Division, OAFIE, OASD (MP&R)

Army representative

Navy representative

Air Force representative

U. S. Marine Corps representative U. S. Coast Guard representative

Civilian members ex-officio

President, American Council of Education

Executive Secretary, National Education

Association

Director, Commission on Accreditation of Service Experiences, American Council on Education

U. S. Commissioner of Education, or someone designated by him

Other civilian members: there are 10, selected on a nation-wide basis with consideration given to geographical areas. Each represents a particular educational field, as follows

Elementary education
Secondary education
Junior college education
Higher education

University extension education

Adult education

Vocational education

Teacher education

Science and engineering education
State school administration

Nonvoting member: the Director, USAFI

A civilian agency, the Commission on Accreditation of Service Experiences of the American Council on Education, makes credit recommendations as advisory service to schools and colleges desiring to grant credit for USAFI courses and tests.

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The texts for these courses are used as the basis of instruction in classes conducted in Army Education Centers. Those on the high school and college levels are also arranged as both selfstudy and correspondence courses. Selfstudy courses consists of texts and selfteaching aids prepared for individual study, no lessons being sent in by the student. Correspondence courses are prepared with individual lessons which the student sends to his nearest USAFI branch for correction.

The first enrollment in a USAFI course costs $5.00. Further enrollments are free as long as the student does satisfactory work.

In addition to correspondence courses offered by USAFI, 44 cooperating universities offer some 6,000 correspondence courses on all subjects, through the agency of USAFI, at reduced rates. Classroom Instruction in Civilian Educational Institutions. Many high schools, colleges, and universities near Army

installations offer evening courses to Army personnel, who thereby may begin or continue their high school or college education. Congress provides funds to meet part of the cost. Currently the Army pays a maximum of 75 percent, not to exceed $7.50 per semester hour or $5.00 per quarter hour.

In order that selected officers may meet the residence requirement for the baccalaureate degrees of accredited colleges and universities, the Army has established a Final Semester Plan. Officers must have completed enough of their education so that they will be able to obtain a baccalaureate degree within six months. Final selection is made, on a best-qualified basis, by the Chief of Services or the Chief, Officers Assignment Division, The Adjutant General's Office, in coordination with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. Officers selected receive their pay and allowances but no per diem, and must pay for travel (for themselves and their dependents), tuition and other fees, textbooks, and materials. They must agree to remain on active duty for 4 years subsequent to the training.

Some American universities have gone overseas to provide education for military personnel; not correspondence courses, but in-residence courses with full academic credit toward a degree. The offers University of Maryland courses, leading to a baccalaureate degree in military science or general studies, in the European and Far East Commands. The headquarters of its program for Europe, the Near East, and North Africa is at Heidelberg, Germany. There are 160 University of Maryland centers, from Scotland and Norway to Turkey, Libya, and Saudi Arabia; in Greenland and Iceland; in Japan, Korea, and Okinawa. Florida State University offers courses in the Caribbean Command, leading to a baccalaureate degree. The Army assists its personnel to pay for these courses.

EXTENT OF GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM. In fiscal year 1957, courses were completed by Army personnel, under one or another agency of the program, as follows

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Under what is known as its Civil Schooling Program, the Army uses our institutions of higher learning for the specialized training of selected personnel.

In applying the program in any particular field, it must first be determined that a need exists for the skill or knowledge in question. This is done by various command echelons, which analyze the positions under their control whose incumbents need special training in order to do their jobs properly. It must further be determined that such training is not available at any of the Army's military schools. Individuals then volunteer, and are selected on a competitive basis, to attend civilian educational institutions and pursue the courses of study for which the requirements exist. Courses are mostly at the master's degree level in one or another of the social or physical sciences. Training merely to raise the student's educational level is not authorized. However, most of the students qualify for a master's degree, and receive one.

Regular commissioned officers, warrant officers, enlisted men, and officers of the Reserve components on active duty are eligible if qualified. Age limitations for entry into the program, which apply regardless of grade or status, are: 32 for undergraduate level, 37 for master's degree or equivalent

level, and 42 for doctor's degree or equivalent level. The student must agree to remain on active duty for a minimum of four years following completion of the training, and to serve in a utilization tour for a period of three years.

Current retirement provisions for Reserve officers dictate that they must have completed more than four and less than twelve years of service at the time of selection. Enlisted personnel are separated for the convenience of the Government and reenlisted for a period of at least three years. Their training time cannot exceed 50 percent of their enlistment period.

All tuition expenses, matriculation and enrollment fees, laboratory and library fees, and other routine charges normal to such a curriculum are paid by the Army. Students are also authorized up to $80.00 per fiscal year reimbursement for textbooks and supplies, and $50.00 to defray some of the expenses of preparing a thesis when one is required to qualify for a degree.

The program in its present form had its inception in 1946. For the period 1946 through fiscal year 1957, over 3,100 officers completed their training under the program. The present enrollment averages about 500 officers per year.

Chapter 9

THE ARMY'S WEAPONS

From the dawn of history, men have devoted themselves to the creation and improvement of weapons wherewith to impose their will upon their fellows. Improvement has come slowly and at long intervals, but in the past few generations it has been progressively speeded up. Today we have arrived at the point where it will shortly be possible, by pushing a button, to launch a missile that can travel halfway

around the world and at the end of its flight destroy a great city and kill millions of its inhabitants. Most of this immense and portentous technological progress has occurred in the short span of our national history.

The Army's weapons of war are collectively called ordnance, and the Ordnance Corps is the Army agency charged with their development, production, issue, and maintenance.

EVOLUTION OF ARMY ORDNANCE

At the close of the 18th century ordnance development in Europe and America had made some progress. Gunpowder was in universal use and the need for varying the size of the grains had been discovered. Cannon were made by boring a hole in a solid metal casting. Both breech- and muzzle-loading were in use, the former at an elementary stage. The type of case shot known as shrapnel, very effective against personnel, was widely adopted. The handgun with stock, which had come into existence in the late Middle Ages as the "harquebus," had been developed through various stages to the flintlock musket, which was the standard infantry weapon in 1800 and for many years thereafter.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. This century, and the ensuing years up to the outbreak of World War I, saw revolutionary advances in the fields of ammunition, artillery, rifles, and machineguns.

Ammunition. Smokeless powder was

invented and became a far more efficient propellant than gunpowder. High explosives came into use for the bursting charges of shells, greatly increasing their destructive effect. Various types of fuses were developed; combinations of fusing and shell design made possible a shell which would penetrate deeply into the earth, or pass through armor plate, before exploding.

Artillery. Nineteenth century developments included the perfecting of the rifled cannon (adapted to our weapons at Springfield Arsenal in 1848); the use of elongated projectiles for such cannon, in place of the older spherical types; and the general adoption of various systems of breech-loading. Two inventions, which greatly aided in the improvement and scientific design of artillery and ammunition, were the chronograph to measure the velocity of projectiles and the crusher gage to estimate the pressures within a gun tube. By World War I the Ordnance Department had standardized the model 1902

3-inch field gun, and had developed guns and howitzers of 3-inch, 3.8-inch, 4.7-inch, and 6-inch caliber.

Rifles. The flintlock musket was replaced in our Army in 1842 by the percussion-ignition musket. The first breech-loading Springfield rifle was the model of 1866; with improvements, it was adopted as standard in 1873. Next followed the 1905 Springfield, an adaptation of the German Mauser. As early as 1900 the Chief of Ordnance proposed the design of a semiautomatic rifle, and during the period 1901-1916 effort was expended on various experimental models, both foreign and American.

Machineguns. Many attempts were made during the 19th century to develop small arms with high rates of fire. The first practicable machinegun was invented by Dr. Gatling of Chicago in 1862. This weapon employed a number of barrels, usually ten, which revolved around a central axis in the form of a cylinder. It was used to a limited extent during the Civil War and was the forerunner of the present-day Vulcan which is used in aircraft.

In 1884 Sir Hiram Maxim, a British American-born engineer, produced the first truly automatic machinegun. It employed a single barrel and utilized the force of recoil to obtain continuous and automatic functioning as long as the trigger was held down. The soundness of its principles of operation stimulated the development of other types. It also revolutionized combat tactics for machineguns.

In 1890 Mr. John M. Browning, an American, brought out the Colt machinegun (gas-operated) which utilized a small portion of the expanding powder gas to actuate the bolt mechanism. Later he developed the .50 caliber machinegun which was standardized by the Army in 1917.

Rockets. In the early 1800's an Englishman is credited with developing a rocket which served as an auxiliary to artillery. Our Army used rockets to a limited extent in the Mexican War, but thereafter interest in them subsided.

THE PERIOD 1914-1945. Between the outbreak of World War I and the close of World War II, the already rapid tempo of our Army's ordnance development was further accelerated.

Rifles. In January of 1936 the Garand (M1) semiautomatic rifle was adopted as the primary weapon of the infantry soldier. This rifle, and also the carbine and the Browning automatic rifle (BAR), are in use today. However, they will eventually be replaced by the Springfield M14 and M15 rifles, recently standardized. These are light weapons with a high rate of fire, using the 7.62mm cartridge which is standard for the NATO countries.

Machineguns. Improvement in existing machineguns and the testing of new ones was accomplished between World Wars I and II. The machinegun has evolved, through the series of Brownings used in World War II, up to the present M60 firing the NATO (7.62mm) cartridge, which will replace the current types of ground machineguns, cal. .30. This evolution has provided weapons with improved rates of fire, lighter in weight, and using ammunition which is interchangeable with the M14 rifle.

Tanks. The first appearance of tanks in combat occurred on the Somme on 15 September 1916. At the battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1916, the usual prebattle artillery barrage was dispensed with and tanks proved themselves to be an effective tool of warfare. When the United States entered the war, the Mark VIII 37-ton tank was standardized for production but the war ended before these tanks were available. From 1918 until shortly before World War II, tanks and other armored vehicles were developed little beyond the planning boards.

Our tanks in World War II were mostly of the medium type. The General Sherman, 35-ton, mounting a 76mm high-velocity gun, saw much service. Toward the end of the war we had the 45-ton General Pershing, mounting a 90mm gun. Both of these were used in the Korean War, together with the General Patton M46 (medium) and the General Chaffee (light). Among the improvements in tank design made in this period were larger caliber highvelocity cannon, with stabilization to improve accuracy and penetration of fast-moving targets; and improved suspension systems, transmissions, and standardized engines. (See also chapter

18.)

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