Training ground

“ Whenever practicable, training and instruction should, in whole or in part, be imparted on the ground, as this gives the instruction a practical aspect that is most valuable, and enables the soldier [Pg 254] to grasp and apply principles that he would not otherwise understand. Knowledge that a man can not apply has no value. ”

“ If the instruction and training is being given on the ground where the application of the principles of any given subject is varied so much by the type of the ground and the nature of the situation, each type of ground affording a different solution of the problem, it is thought the best results can be obtained by finishing each subject before proceeding to the next, thus not losing the "atmosphere" of one subject by switching to the next, and also confusing the minds of the men with different principles. ”

“ The thousands of young men in colleges and universities offer a field for the development of such a force of trained men in a way that would entirely revolutionize our educational as well as our defensive system.
As our athletics are conducted to-day, a few picked men have trainers, coaches, rubbers, and waiters for the purpose of preparing them for a conflict with a correspondingly small group of similarly trained men from other institutions. The remainder of the student body, which makes this training possible, is meanwhile physically utterly neglected. ”

“ Each subject or subjects upon a knowledge of which depend the proper understanding and mastering of another, should be studied and mastered before taking up the other subject, and the elementary and simpler aspects of a given subject must be mastered before taking up the higher and more difficult phases of the subject, which means that individual training and instruction must precede, and provide a sound foundation for, collective training and instruction—that is to say, for the higher tactical training and instruction of the company as a unit. ”

“ The basis of the whole system of training is careful individual instruction, and gradual progression from the simple to the more difficult.
During instruction in elementary principles companies should act alone, or against a marked enemy and the company commander should concentrate his attention on the individual instruction of his men; but in many of the advanced exercises an opposing body gives not only increased interest to the practice, but also makes it more instructive. ”

“ Special courses were instituted at these training centers for men who wished to advance and broaden their capacity by gaining a knowledge of allied branches of work. Most of the yards organized training departments of their own which utilized all the assistance they could get from the training centers and also made use of skilled and capable mechanics in their own employ by having men trained in teaching methods instruct them in the art of showing others how to do things and then putting unskilled men into their charge. ”

“ We have established a school for vocational training, appointing an instructor in each department who takes direct charge of each new employee. Through this system we have placed many women on work which was entirely operated by men heretofore. ”

“ When we have a large number of employees to train in some one line of work we establish a separate organization for them with a view to training them to carry on very efficiently and become skilled employees as soon as possible. ”

“ In these circumstances the recruits are too numerous and the time available is too limited for the work of training to be committed to a few selected instructors, and every officer has therefore to instruct his own men. ”

“ It is no exaggeration to say, that, by introducing such a system of drill into our schools, we can obtain for the whole boy population some of the most important advantages of the West-Point training,—the early habit of obedience and of command, together with the alphabet of military science. ”

“ When a man completes his training he is 74 assigned to a plant in accordance with his qualifications as indicated by his previous experience and his record at the school. Further plans for training the inspector after he has been assigned to the field have been proposed but have not yet been put into effect. Many of the candidates for this training are instructors in vocational training.3
The opportunity for promotion of skilled workers was never so great as at present, and the opportunity for schools to train them will never be greater than at present. ”

“ Regularly, during the week, the learners are given general lectures, talks and instructions on matters that relate to their training, that they may be more generally fitted for the line of work into which they are to be transferred. ”

“ This discipline is administered in three ways. They are put to school; they are put at work; they are prescribed minute and severe rules of conduct, and in the latter training is included military drill.
The school and the workshop are both primarily for discipline and the formation of new habits. Only incidentally are the school and the workshop intended to fit a man for an occupation outside of the prison. The whole discipline is to put a man in possession of his faculties, to give him self-respect, to get him in the way of leading a normal and natural life. ”

“ Throughout life, from boyhood to old age, every one was subjected to the most rigorous training. From seven years of age the drill continued, and everyone was constantly being trained or seeing others under training. ”

“ Prior to 1900 an Army system of individual education did not exist; individual training was accomplished primarily within units. In most cases, Army schools were local in attendance and were designed to improve the academic education of the new officer as well as his professional military education. ”

“ In track and field athletics, the pleasantness and informality of English methods of training reach a climax. In America we place the welfare of our teams in the hands of a professional trainer, who, through his aide-de-camp, the undergraduate captain, is apt to make the pursuit of victory pretty much a business. ”

“ Occasionally take them to a shady [Pg 64] place and instruct them orally, explain the objects sought and the reasons for doing things in anything that is part of their proper training.
Do not keep at one class of work until the men are tired of it; vary the work. You can keep a company interested for four hours a day if you will only vary the instruction and put some soul into it. Give very little place rest; for a rest change the work. Combat exercises must be frequent. They are entitled to a large share of the time; the work of the firing line must be a habit. ”

“ The formal portion of the program initiated in 1968 consists of a schedule of premilitary training, obligatory for all young men and women between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. Facilities for it were made available in schools for those who were students and at cooperative farms, enterprises, or anywhere that groups of working youths were employed. Young army officers on active duty and reserve officers in the local area were made available for classroom and field instruction. ”

“ Important as this farm-cadet service has been in the matter of looking toward increased production, a more significant work to be developed by the Bureau of Vocational Training is that of interpreting the spirit and purpose of the amendment already referred to, which states that provisions for the military-training requirement may be met in part by certain types of vocational training or vocational experience. The whole program of physical, military, and vocational training is most significant, 173 wholesome, and far-reaching. ”

“ Many a fresh, and valuable bit of training has been due to some individual officer struck with a new idea, and patiently working it out. The special "schools," which are now daily increasing the efficiency of the Army, if you ask how they arose, you will generally be able to trace them back to some eager young man starting a modest experiment in his spare time for the teaching of himself and some of his friends, and so developing it that the thing is finally recognised, enlarged, and made the parent of similar efforts elsewhere. ”

“ When the word goes forth from our intensive trainers and sham battle heroes that it takes nearly a year to make of such a man an efficient engineer in the field, when for practical road building, rough pioneer work under fire, and all round resourcefulness he could give many of our West Point graduates "cards and spades", most of such enforced training, which the writer has knowledge of, is a disgrace, and the would-be trainers should be "canned" before they reach a battle line. ”

“ Figure 2 is a diagram of an educational program which, starting with preparatory training in the early years of the secondary school, continues through a period of cooperative part-time training which combines education in the school and on the job, until full-time employment assures continued opportunity to study progressively on three training levels of increasing difficulty and responsibility. ”

“ Although careful and continuous training can do much to develope and strengthen the qualities referred to, the records of the Academy and of the service, as well as the present appearance of many of the cadets, show that sufficient regard has not been paid to vigor and elasticity of physical constitution, in the original appointment, or the entrance medical examination. The regular military drill and evolutions, the small arm and other exercises, in which the whole corps participates, the professional practice in gunnery and seamanship, all help to supply these deficiencies. ”

“ Method of instruction.—The duty of the officer commanding the battalion is to supervise the training of the company and give company leaders the benefit of his experience, but he should not lay down the method to be employed in the training of companies. The training must be carried out by the officers of the company without undue interference on the part of superiors. It is only when the methods are manifestly wrong, and would work harm, that there should be interference. ”

“ Some new method of training had to be devised that would quickly prepare green men for capable and efficient service. The same idea of intensive training that proved successful in the preparation of officers for the army and of instructors and workers in many branches of war effort was applied to the shipyard problem. Training centers, which finally averaged two for each of the eleven ship-building districts, were established, each with a staff of instructors composed of men who had had both technical and practical experience and also training in effective teaching methods. ”

“ There are hundreds of thousands of men and women, with a desire to serve, that cannot go to the training camp. We have throughout the country to-day a splendid expression of the desire to serve.
I believe that every citizen of this republic, male or female, and of any age after childhood, should have a regular scheme of duties, a regular enlistment for service of a definite nature suited to his or her status of capacity, which he must be prepared to render upon demand, and which he or she must keep in training to deliver. ”

“ It is nevertheless true that soldiering, like any other trade, takes time and experience to learn—that though there may be many who, being engineers, or advocates, or business men, or farmers, learn soldiering with great aptitude, the great bulk of any body of men, call them regular soldiers or citizen soldiers, require a deal of training under the best instructors, if they are to draw the full advantage from the ever varying conditions of the battlefield. ”

“ To work out the plans for such service for men and women alike, whether in motor corps, red cross camps, health service, or in many other ways, may well be the charge of citizens’ defense organizations, but they should be related to the civilian training camp to maintain standards and methods and unity. ”

“ The training for senior cadets consists of physical drill, company and some battalion drill, field training and musketry. An excellent provision secures good work on the part of the cadets. At the end of each year’s training an inspection takes place, and all who fail to satisfy the regular officer responsible, lose the value of their year’s work, as the Act requires an additional year’s training for each failure of the inefficient. ”

“ These courses promise much for the future, however, though during the University year the work is confined to technical training, with the [323] drill to come in the annual summer camps which every man enrolled must attend. Not only will men be continually in training as reserve officers, effective at once in an emergency, but also they will form a nucleus around which a really effective training corps for the general student body can be built at any time when the necessity arises. ”

“ Company administration is a very broad subject and can be really learned only by experience. However, this chapter will attempt to point out a few suggestions and practices that may prove of some assistance, particularly to the new officer. We shall treat briefly of the first organization of the company; then we shall try to reproduce in some slight measure the actual work of a day in camp (more particularly of a training camp such as Plattsburg) ”

“ 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. ”