S By Technical Sergeant HERMAN LEVY, Kelly Field, Texas ERIOUSLY, when I make a statement that the service man gets the most out of life, I believe I know whereof I speak. I was sitting one evening at a gathering of old-timers and in the midst of their conversation one old warscarred veteran struck me as just about what I wanted, and I says to him: "Jim, was there any time in your Army career that you ever felt sad, or that you were not getting the most out of life?" To which he replied: "Nope, the happiest days of my life have been spent in the Army, and if you will give me the floor, I will tell you about it. "From the first time I ever lifted my right hand twentyfive years ago and took on my first blanket, I have always made it a practice to follow Benjamin Franklin's rule, 'Be sure you're right and then go ahead.' In time of peace I helped beat our swords into plowshares, in time of war I trusted God and kept my ammunition dry. Absorb that, son, as you will find it a wonderful maxim," he said. "Well, if there is anyone present here or elsewhere who has gotten more out of life than yours truly I have yet to see him. "I have traveled from the sun-kissed mountains of California to the three-mile limit off New Jersey. I have tried lady luck at Monte Carlo, and I have bucked the tiger at San Migil. I have wined and dined with the highest and the lowest. I have filled my full with Bevo and Jolo, and say, son, did you ever drink champagne from the brushes at Vera Cruz? I have fished in the streams of the Susquehanna, and I've bathed in the cool cascades; I have smelled the fragrance of the purple rose of Belgium, and the polecat of the middle west. I have eaten the fist of the little brown brother. I have broke mattzos on Baxter street, and I've bitten your prickly pears of Texas. I have burned myself out with Mexican euckaladas and inhaled your yok-omi. I have rubbed elbows with the best of them, danced on the floors of the Astor, and the Hole in the Wall at Wide Travel and Many Experi- married in Texas. I have ridden every ences Are the Lot of Soldiers in the U. S. Army kind of a vehicle from a Jinrikisha to a Martin bomber, the thrill of Mills and the famous goat in the 8th degree of the Red Rooster. I have read your tales of "Arabian Nights" and what equals in fascination to such lives as those of Franklin, Morse, Goodyear, Edison, Bell and a score of others representing some great idea. I have been arrested by Japanese police at Nagasacki, by gobs at Vera Cruz and an M. P. at Toul. Manila. I have rowed on the English Thames, and driven jar-heads on the Erie Canal; hunted wild game in the Smokey Mountains, and froze my feet in Alaska. I have walked post from the Alamo to the Marne, the tomb of Lincoln and the old Libby Prison. I fell in love in Illinois, broke a heart in Bagio, and got LIEUT. GENERAL NELSON A. MILES, U.S.A., RETIRED "I have visited the Pyramids of Courtesy Infantry Journal. According to official records, General Miles is 84 years old; has been wounded many times in the service of the United States; was once carried from a battlefield of the Civil War as dead, yet today he is as active in mind and body as a man of 40. This photograph of this distinguished soldier was made this summer when he visited the 5th Infantry on the occasion of its organization day at Camp Devens. General Miles commanded this regiment from 1869 to 1880, during which time it engaged in some of the fiercest Indian campaigns in the history of the country. Egypt, the leaning tower of Pisa, the Steppes of Russia, and the boiling spring of Hawaii. I've had the dobey scratches of the Islands, the cooties of France and the hook worm of the States. I have been baptised by fire at Santiago and St. Mihiel. If you want to get the most out of life try a hitch in the lonely island of St. Kilda, where a white man other than soldiers is as rare as an Indian in New York or Chicago. "I have burned the candles at both ends, brother, and I have tasted the bitters as well as the sweets. If I haven't got the most out of life while I was in the service I would still be back home voting for Bryan every four years. As it stands today, "I went, I saw and I conquered." And in turn, "Jim," I ask, "what did you give for all this?" and he replied, "strict obedience to orders and respect to my superiors. As a recruit I took discipline as a nasty medicine; today it's the nectar of the Gods and indispensable." My story is told, the cards are on the table. Take a set of scales and put twenty-five years of civil life on one side and twenty-five years of Army life on the other side, then let your conscience be your guide. New Second Lieutenants The War Department is slowly obtaining Second Lieutenants which are so sorely needed throughout the service. As a result of the examination held June 25, 1923, 114 commissions have been issued. STANFORD, UNIVERSITY, CALIF 1 A BULLETIN OF RECRUITING INFORMATION ISSUED BY DIRECTION OF THE ADJUTANT GENERAL OF THE ARMY President Coolidge's Thanksyiviny Proclamation T HE American people, from their earliest days, have observed the wise custom of acknowledging each year the bounty with which Divine Providence has favored them. In the beginnings this acknowledgment was a voluntary return of thanks by the community for the fruitfulness of the harvest. Though our mode of life has greatly changed, this custom has always survived. It has made Thanksgiving Day not only one of the oldest but one of the most characteristic observances of our country. On that day, in home and church, in family and in public gatherings, the whole nation has for generations paid the tribute due from grateful hearts for blessings bestowed. To centre our thought in this way upon the favor which we have been shown has been altogether wise and desirable. It has given opportunity justly to balance the good and evil which we have experienced. In that we have never failed to find reasons for being grateful to God for a generous preponderance of the good. Even in the least propitious times, a broad contemplation of our whole position has never failed to disclose overwhelming reasons for thankfulness. Thus viewing our situatic n, We have found warrant for a more hopeful and confident attitude toward the future. In this current year, we now approach the time which has been accepted by custom as most fitting for the calm survey of our estate and the return of thanks. We shall the more keenly realize our good fortune, if we will, in deep sincerity, give to it due thought and more especially if we will compare it with that of any other community in the world. The year has brought to our people two tragic experiences which have deeply affected them. One was the death of our beloved President Harding, which has been mourned wherever there is a realization of the worth of high ideals, noble purpose! and unselfish service carried even to the end of supreme sacrifice. His loss recalled the nation to a less captious and more charitable attitude. It sobered the whole thought of the country. A little later came the unparalleled disaster to the friendly people of Japan. This called forth from the people of the United States a demonstration of deep and humane fueling. It was wrought into the substance of good works. It created new evidence of our international friendship which is a guarantee of world peace. It replenished the charitable impulse of the country. By experiences such as these, men and nations are tested and refined. We have been blessed with much of material prosperity. We shall be better able to appreciate it if we remember the privations others have suffered, and we shall be the more worthy of it if we use it for their relief. We will do well, then, to render thanks for the good that has come to us and show by our actions that we have become stronger, wiser and truer by the chastenings which have been imposed upon us. We will thus prepare ourselves for the part we must have in a world which forever needs the full measure of service. We have been a most favored people. We ought to be a most generous people. We have been a most blessed people. We ought to be a most thankful people. Wherefore, I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, do hereby fix and designate Thursday, the 29th day of November, as Thanksgiving Day, and recommend its general observance throughout the land. It is urged that the people gather in their homes and their usual places of worship, give expression to their gratitude for the benefits and blessings that a gracious Providence has bestowed upon them, and seek the guidance of Almighty God that they may deserve a continuance of His favor. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the United States. Done at the City of Washington this 5th day of November, in the roar of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-eighth. CALVIN COOLIDGE. Extracts from Adjutant General's Report Emergency Officers in Service Of the 44 emergency officers still in the service on June 30, 1922, all of whom were undergoing treatment for physical reconstruction, 35 were discharged and one died during the year. leaving eight emergency officers still in the service on June 30, 1923. By grades they were as follows: Major, one; Captains, two; First Lieutenants, two; second Lieutenants, three, and were from the following branches of the service: Infantry, five; Air Service, one; Quartermaster Corps, one; Veterinary Corps, one. Instruction of Adjutants General In April, 1922, the policy was inaugurated of creating an organization of officers permanently commissioned in the Adjutant General's Department to supplant the shifting force of officers detailed from other branches of the service. The result has been a marked gain in the efficiency of the department's administration. Prior to this there was no school in the Army, except that of experience, where officers could receive instruction in administration and office organization. The Adjutant General's Office is now being used to provide instruction to Adjutants General along these lines. All officers on reporting for duty are required to thoroughly familiarize themselves with the respective duties of every division of the office, to follow communications from the mail room to the different divisions and back to their completion and to study the office organization and procedure in every detail. In addition, lectures are delivered from time to time by the officers in charge of divisions to the assembled officers and clerks. Copies of these lectures are sent to officers of the Adjutant General's Department throughout the service in order that they may be familiar with the organization and procedure of the main office. This plan has been found both helpful and instructive. In addition it is planned to rotate all officers of the department in tours of duty in the main office. All principal clerks are also required to serve Officers' Training Corps units has exceeded the existing supply. The same condition exists with reference to officers called for duty with National Guard and Organized Reserve units. It is true that the War Department has succeeded in furnishing the number of officers required for training the young men attending the Military Training Camps, but only by depriving many officers of their leaves. The instructors at civilian educational institutions suffered especially in this respect, for as soon as the academic year closed, their duties at the Training Camps began and lasted until the schools reopened in the fall. In this connection, under existing conditions, whenever through sickness or other circumstances, an officer is compelled to absent himself from duty, his work can only be performed, if at all, by casting this additional burden upon his fellow officers, whose hands are only too well filled. Recruiting for the Army On June 30, 1922, the Army was practically at authorized strength. The number of enlistments and reenlistments during the year, however, failed to offset the losses. As a result of the series of laws, beginning with the Act approved February 7, 1921, the General Recruiting Service had been disbanded but, when the enlisted strength became reduced below the authorized 125,000 it became necessary to build up a recruiting machine to replace the constant losses. In view of the high rates of pay offered by industrial and commercial concerns, as compared with those provided by law for enlisted men, the problem of securing suitable enlistments in sufficient numbers became a very serious one. It became necessary to increase the number of recruiting stations and on June 30, 1923, a total of 79 leased stations were in operation. The system of Corps Area recruiting was also fully developed, and in addition to being charged with the duty of recruiting the organizations stationed within their own Corps Areas, the more thickly popu(Continued on Page Twelve) O F the units of the Citizens' Military Training Camp held at Camp Knox this summer, none was pointed to with greater pride by the young students or their officers than the Candidate Band, the first of its kind in the country. Within three or four days after the opening of the camp this organization, fifty pieces strong, was functioning. But once during the entire training period was the Regular Army called upon to furnish music for a ceremony, that being on the occasion of the administration of the oath two days after the camp was under way. The formation of C. M. T. C. bands in each of the corps areas in coming years is a subject well worthy of study, the success which attended the organization of the Camp Knox band being entirely feasible in each of the larger training centers in the country. The first steps in the organization of the band of the Fifth Corps Area were taken during the recruiting campaign when Col. John Conklin, U. S. A., Ret.. Professor of Military Science and Tactics of the Cleveland, Ohio, high schools, canvassed the R. O. T. C. units of the high schools of the four states for potential members for the C. M. T. C. band. The result was that upon the arrival of the candidates at Camp Knox thirty names were the roll of the band leader. on The nucleus for the band consisted of nine members of the R. O. T. C. unit of West Technical High School of Cleveland. From this school came Mr. P. F. McCormick, musical director of the school, who had charge of the training of the band during the camp and Drum Major Elwin W. Splitstone, an Advanced Red. Within a few days after the opening of the C. M. T. C. some twenty additional candidates with musical inclinations enrolled for the band. With the thirty original candidates the organization was thus brought to the strength required to make a well-rounded band unit. The band was quartered in its own barracks and was carried On the camp roster as a distinct unit. Its schedule called for three hours' work each day in infantry drill, band formations, calisthenics, and lectures, followed by two hours of rehearsals. The music for formal guard mount, evening parade, retreat formation, church on Sunday, and evening concerts served to give additional training to the bandsmen candidates. Sev By Captain H. W. CAYGILL, 34th Infantry Candidate Band Organized at Camp Knox Last Summer Was First of Its Kind in Country eral concerts were given at the Service Club and the band likewise functioned effectively on other occasions such as at the American Association baseball park at Louisville when all the members of the various military units at Camp Knox were invited to attend a league game as guests of the management. A C. M. T. C. band, such as that of the Fifth Corps Area, serves its purpose in more ways than one. It exerts a great influence on camp esprit and morale. A C. M. T. C. parade at Camp Knox was in every sense a "candidate" affair. With the exception of the commissioned officers and one Regular Army bugler none but camp attendants were in the formation. It is planned for the summer of 1924 to form a bugle corps which will obviate the necessity for using even so much as one bugler from the permanent establishment. The advertising features of such a band can well be appreciated and need little comment. Suffice it to say that, according to newspaper reports, the largest Saturday baseball crowd in the history of Louisville loudly applauded the Camp Knox band as it marched across the diamond. en The youthful bandsmen were abled to receive excellent training under competent instruction. Averaging from three to four hours a day of rehearsals and ceremonies noticeable progress was made by each member, commensurate with the progress in the strictly "doughboy" training of their companions in the line companies. By no means the least factor to be considered was the fact that the already hard-worked bands of the Regular Army regiments at Camp Knox were entirely relieved of any additional duty as a result of the training of the candidates at that post. Colonel Peter Traub, the C. M. T. C. commander, was keenly interested in the success of the Camp Knox candidate band. In speaking of the Fifth Corps Area's inauguration of the C. M. T. C. band idea he stated: "When Colonel John Conklin proposed the idea, I jumped at it, for, having commanded the C. M. T. C. last year, I realized the important influence that good music has on morale-not merely music once a day at parade, but music in the morning. afternoon, and at night. "Our band consisted of the Band Leader, Mr. McCormick, 1 Blue, 4 Whites, 28 Advanced Reds, and 18 Basic Reds, a Regular Army officer of musical ability being in command, giving and overseeing the ordinary instruction and training. The influence of a band on good snappy marching is very apparent, so every morning at 7 o'clock the band played for about ten minutes while the companies marched from their barracks to the drill field, and it assembled again at the drill field and played while the troops were finishing their drill and were finally marched off. "To encourage progress and efficiency, I gave a medal to the best bandsmen 'for Excellence'-the award being made by a board consisting of the officer in command of the band and the band leader. The medal was presented at the final parade when all other medals and prizes were distributed. was "Each bandsman's rating noted on his Form 220 A and on his Military Training Certificate, and in addition a special letter was written to each high school principal about his particular member or members of the C. M. T. C. Band. "With the publicity given this C. M. T. C. Band there should be no difficulty in securing one hundred suitable bandsmen from the various high schools next year, so that a band can be formed for each Camp Knox C. M. T. C. regiment of infantry. These bands can be united for parade and other ceremonial purposes. "The C. M. T. C. Band should be organized as a separate unit and given its own distinctive training, just as the Regular Army bands are organized and trained. During the first week a Regular Army band leader and drum major should give instruction in their respective specialties. The band then will rapidly shape up and by the middle of the camp will conduct itself after the manner of a Regular Army band. "Marching and playing at 128 to the minute is a little difficult for them at first, but they soon get it, and hold it. Changing time as they get warmed up in playing is another little difficulty that soon is overcome. All that these young, intelligent men need is to be shown what is wanted and how it is (Continued on Page Eleven) |