Military school

“ I am far from desiring to see this country destitute of a Military Academy; but I would have it a school of practice, and instruction, for officers actually in the service of the United States; not an institution for educating, gratuitously, young gentlemen, who, on the completion of their term, or after a few months’ leave of absence, resign their commissions, and return to the pursuits of civil life. ”

“ The institution of military exhibitions or scholarships at civil schools, and of military degrees at the Universities, has been also suggested. By some witnesses these proposals are advocated with the special view of inducing public schools to adopt a system of military instruction; by others with the more general object of holding out increased encouragement to enter the service to candidates who have had the advantage of a public school education. ”

“ If it was singular that the original advocate of the proposed school seemed not to have looked at all to the United States Academy at West Point, it was altogether natural that those upon whom devolved the difficulty of organizing the second governmental military school in the country should take for its model, as closely as differing conditions would allow, the military school of the United States, which had already taken rank with the best military schools of the old world. ”

“ The age of admission is the same as for the Polytechnic School, and pupils are entitled to partial or entire state aid if they need it, as are also those of the Polytechnic. The course of instruction is two years, at the end of which time the more promising students pass to the Staff School, and thence, after a thorough course, to the état-major of the army; the remaining students pass as subalterns into the cavalry and infantry, selecting the arm of the service in which they desire to serve according to the order of merit in which they graduate. ”

“ The few 728 who now remain have seen more than half a century’s service in useful employments. Perhaps it should be mentioned to the advantage of the Military Academy, as a school of physical education, that at the end of half a century, twenty of its pupils out of eighty-nine, should be yet alive. ”

“ A military school was created, where young men from all the departments were habituated to the exercise of arms and the life of a camp. It was called L'École de Mars. Its object was not to form officers, but intelligent soldiers, who, spread in the French armies, should soon render them the most enlightened of Europe, as they were already the most inured to the hardships of war. ”

“ But of the ninety-six, forty are preparing for the Engineers or Artillery, and twenty for the Line. The subjects taught in the military division are the same as at Cheltenham, except fortification; and the head-master (Rev. Dr. Benson) claims, in his evidence before the Commission, that his graduates are as well trained in the same subject as the pupils of Sandhurst or Woolwich. He advises the establishment of exhibitions in the Military School, open to competition to the pupils of all the public schools, and regards the modern side as an essential feature in all public schools. ”

“ We are inclined to believe that the usefulness of the Military Academy at West Point,—which has furnished so large a proportion of the best civil engineers, lawyers, physicians, and divines, as well as the soldiers who and who alone have conducted our armies to real glory,—we are inclined to believe that this justly celebrated school owes all its triumphs to its rigid laws and independence of popular clamor.
Discipline is every thing. ”

“ To select high-school pupils for this training is open to the same objection as would be a plan of selecting adults for actual military service solely on the basis of their occupations or professions—a plan which would receive no consideration. ”

“ It has never appeared to me desirable to add to the school curriculum any military subjects whatever, and I am convinced that no greater mistake could be made, seeing that schoolmasters are universally agreed that the curriculum is already overloaded and requires to be lightened, and that the best preparation that the school can give for making a boy likely to be a good soldier when grown up, is to develop his intelligence and physique as far as the conditions of school life admit. ”

“ In the first instance the function of the elementary and secondary school should be to adhere to the purposes for which they were created. The function of the higher technical, vocational, and trade schools should be to prepare the skilled students to take the places of those who are called to military service; to give scientific training, indispensable in war; to assist, through courses for the blind and crippled, in the reëducation of those disabled in war service,—that is, our technical schools may be schools of special preparation and industrial readjustment. ”

“ A more practical knowledge of the common studies,—of geography and national history and the whole science of public economy and the martial resources of the empire, must be gained before the special military instruction begins. Admission to the higher military schools must be given only to aspirants of mature age, of high moral qualities, and of thorough intellectual activity—ascertained by careful examination and tested by at least one year’s service in connection with a regiment. ”

“ And, perhaps, a wise foresight should induce our State to provide, that it should have within itself such military knowledge and skill as may be sufficient to organize, discipline, and command armies, by establishing a military academy or school of discipline. ”

“ Suggestions received from a number of Professors of Military Science and Tactics show conclusively that local conditions as to average age and aptitude of students, interest taken in military training by the student body, support given by the school authorities, etc., are so different in different schools that it would be impossible to write a book for general use that would, in amount of material, arrangement and otherwise, just exactly fit, in toto, the conditions, and meet the requirements of each particular school. ”

“ There is no national system of education in the United States, and the general government exercises no control over public schools and makes no regular provision for their support, except that the military academy at West Point, N. Y., the school of artillery at Fortress Monroe, Va., and the naval academy at Annapolis, Md., are wholly supported and controlled by the government. Officers are also detailed by the government to give military instruction in certain colleges. ”

“ Although it is now possible to secure a commission through the ranks almost as quickly as through the military schools, a preliminary liberal education is absolutely necessary, especially in the cavalry and artillery, as most difficult examinations have to be passed, and the successful candidates must then spend one year in a special military school, as St. ”

“ We must not therefore be content to educate up for the army a physically healthy set of young men by elevating the social conditions and the whole method of life of our people, but we must also endeavour to promote their spiritual development in every way. The means for doing so is the school. Military education under the present-day conditions, which are continually becoming more severe, can only realize its aims satisfactorily if a groundwork has been laid for it in the schools, and an improved preliminary training has been given to the raw material. ”

“ It is not easy to justify the selection of the high-school pupils of the state as the only young people who shall be the recipients of military training. The report of the New Jersey commission appointed to study military training in its relation to high schools covers this point admirably. ”

“ The advanced military studies course, roughly comparable to the US National War College is open to selected army and air force general officers, admirals, and high-ranking civilians in government service. The joint staff course, somewhat comparable to the US Armed Forces Staff College, is offered to selected majors and lieutenant colonels of the army and air force and to lieutenant commanders and commanders of the navy, all of whom must be graduates of a service staff school. ”

“ But not only should there be such special military schools—one in every State, but there should also be institutions where a sufficient number of young men can get the preliminary education necessary to fit them to enter the schools of officers—an education which, beside being as complete and thorough a literary one as officers ought to have, should also be such in point of military discipline and instruction as shall lay a good foundation for building themselves up and perfecting themselves as officers by subsequent instruction and experience. ”

“ Military schools will derive a new importance in our country; they will be patronized by high and low, and most of our institutions of learning will, ere many years, have a military as well as a scientific and classical department. ”

“ The object of the War School is to give Officers of all arms an education for higher duties, especially for those of the Staff and of the Upper Adjutant Department.55
Any Subaltern Officer of the active army, without distinction of arms, may claim admission into the War School, provided he is above twenty-one and under twenty-six years old, is unmarried, and has served as Officer uninterruptedly and with distinction two years at least with the troops, and, provided, finally, he has passed the prescribed preliminary examination. ”

“ The courses would last a minimum of three years, during which students would be considered to be on active military duty and after which graduates could continue in the service as noncommissioned officers. If an individual did not go on with a military career, he would be credited with a completed secondary school education and also with the completion of his regular required military service. Under any but exceptional circumstances, however, graduates would be obligated to serve in the armed forces for at least ten more years. ”

“ In 1901 Root announced a comprehensive system of officer education in which the Military Academy, post schools, five special service schools, and the General Service and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth would train officers in combined arms and staff positions in large units; and what became the Army War College would do advanced planning at Washington Barracks, D.C. The special service schools were the Artillery School at Fort Monroe ”

“ They are educated for the Technical Academy, and to provide good non-commissioned officers for the Artillery and Engineers. They enter at 14 and leave at 16 years of age, at the end of their third year’s course of study. Those enter the Technical Academy who have most distinguished themselves; the others are sent either for a two years’ course to the Division Schools, or else to the Artillery Officers’ Aspirant Schools.
3. The Military College.
The course is for two years. This is chiefly intended as a preparatory school for the Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt. ”

“ If the Academy can be relieved of the large amount of merely elementary general education which every graduate of the common schools of the country ought to have received, and which in a few years every aspirant to the privileges of this school would contrive to get, if the law made its acquisition necessary as a preliminary to a competitive examination—then the whole general scientific course could be mastered in two years, with a large amount of military and naval tactics, as well as of practical seamanship in the two summer cruises. ”

“ Nor can too much trouble be taken properly to prepare persons to fill the responsible position of officers. Each State should have its military academy. In the meantime much good can be done by instituting a school for the instruction of persons (especially those who have had some experience in the service) who may have the requisite capacity and zeal to serve their country with advantage. ”

“ As the School is expressly intended as a nursery for the army, all the ambition of the students is made to bear upon that point: extraordinary application, or regularity of conduct, is recompensed by a step of military rank; and thus, should the intention of the authorities ever be borne out, a youth of talent and good conduct may hereafter quit the college as an officer, and thus commence his actual career of life, where many of his predecessors have terminated their’s. ”

“ The Commissioners referred to, recommend that a Normal School for the Navy be established at Greenwich, similar to that for the Army at Chelsea, that the present pupil-teachers who are above the age of eighteen form the nucleus of this school, and that others to the number of ten at first, be admitted after examination; that the course of their education be adapted to their future calling, and that at the close of their career they be examined, and receive a certificate of qualification. ”

“ The experience of Europe, and particularly of France and England, has led to the abandonment of juvenile military schools, as nurseries for officers; and the very common practice of nominating candidates who exceed the legal age, expresses the convictions of our own people that military studies now require more maturity of mind than was deemed necessary in the early history of the Academy. ”