[Suggested talk]

YOUR COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL DEFENSE

When our forefathers organized this country, they organized it on the theory that the security of the country should be based on a relatively small Regular force and a large civilian force.

When George Washington finished his second term of office, he stated it a little more clearly. He said that the security of the country should be based on a relatively small Regular force and on a large, organized, trained, and equipped Reserve, this Reserve to be organized, trained, and equipped in peacetime in order that their services would be available in times of emergency.

However, it took Congress more than 100 years before they placed on the statute books a law that provided for organizing, training, and equipping the Reserves in peacetime. In between they passed some legislation bordering on this subject.

For instance in 1860 they passed the Morrill Act. This law provided that if the great State universities of our country would put in a course of military instruction, the Government would grant them a certain amount of land. This is why these great schools are known as landgrant schools and colleges to this day. The product of these schools were to a great extent the officers who served in the Spanish-American War.

In 1900 Congress placed on the statute books the Dick Act. This law provided that the Federal Government would pay the 15 days' active duty training pay for the National Guard, then known as the militia. In 1908 the first Reserve Act was placed on the statute books. This law provided that the Medical Corps could commission doctors in the Medical Reserve.

However, it was 1916 before Congress finally placed on the statute books a law which provided for organizing, training, and equipping the Reserves in peacetime. This was known as the National Defense Act of 1916. This law deals with the Army and Air Reserves. The first Naval Reserve Act was put on the statute books in 1924.

One of the strong provisions of these laws was providing a procurement source for Reserve officers by establishing the ROTC system.

In 1940 when this country started to mobilize, we had approximately 150,000 Reserve officers in all of the services who were ordered to extended active duty. These officers had been procured and trained in peacetime. The fact that they were available made it possible for us to take the small Regular services of a few hundred thousands and expand to over 11 million within 4 years' time.

The weakness of these two Reserve laws was the failure to have a provision for the procurement of enlisted personnel. Consequently, our Reserve in the prewar was an officer Reserve.

After World War II, when we attempted to reorganize our Reserves, we found the same inherent weakness in the laws that existed prior to World War II.

It is true that Congress in 1948 passed the Selective Service Act of that year which was modified and amended and became the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1951.

These laws provide that every young man between the ages of 1812 and 35 has an 8-year military obligation, a minimum of 2 years on extended active duty and 6 years in the Reserve. However, there was

no provision which required that an individual who had served 2 years on active duty and who was placed in the Reserve was required to participate in a training program.

Consequently, while there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of these reservists who have completed their 2-year active duty obligation, unfortunately, they are not in Reserve units. Consequently our Reserve units are not fully organized.

When President Eisenhower signed the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 on the 9th of August 1955, Congress for the first time in the history of this country placed on the statute books a law that provides this country with a procurement system for enlisted personnel.

I would like to digress and state that the ROTC program in our schools during the first 5 years of its operation was not too popular, but today all of our citizens are extremely proud and interested in our ROTC program.

I sincerely believe that within 5 years the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 will become just as popular and will be as well supported.

Under the provisions of this act, each young man in this country between the ages of 1812 and 26 acquires a military obligation. He can pay his military obligation either by duty in the active duty forces or by serving with the Reserves. First, I will explain how he can pay his military obligation through the active force.

An individual in this age group can go on active duty for 5 years with any of the services. Then he can request being transferred to the Standby Reserve for 1 year, and his military obligation will be paid.

Or he can go on active duty for 2 years. Then he must participate with a Reserve unit for 3 years, and then 1 year in the Standby Reserve, and his obligation is paid.

Or he can take 3 years' active duty, 2 years participating in a Reserve program, and 1 year in the Standby Reserve.

Or he can take 4 years' active duty, 1 year participating in a Reserve program, and 1 in the Standby Reserve.

Now the law further provides that he can pay his military obligation by serving with the Reserves. There are two plans. The one used by the Navy, I will explain first. The Navy plan operates as follows: Any young man between 17 and 182 can enlist in the Navy for 6 years. He will immediately start training once a week with the unit to which he is assigned, for which he will draw 1 day's pay. He will take 15 days' active duty, for which he wil receive 15 days' active duty pay during the summer, and then after graduating from high school, he will be placed on active duty for 2 years.

Assuming that he was 17 when he entered, graduated from high school at 19, he would have 2 years of his military obligation out of the way by the time he graduated, and then he would go on active duty for 2 years. He would then return and join a Reserve unit, participate for 1 more year, and then transfer to the Standby Reserve.

The other plan is called the 6-month plan. It is used by the Army, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the Air National Guard, and the Coast Guard. I would like to state that for you students who have definitely made up your mind what you are going to do, that is, that you are going to college or that you are going into a certain trade or profession, this 6-month route offers you the best opportunity for you to pay your military obligation with the least interruption in your lifework than any other plan that is open to you.

Under this plan, if you are between the ages of 17 and 181⁄2 you enlist in the Reserve for 8 years. You will immediately start attending drill with 1 of the Reserve units 1 evening a week, for which you will receive 1 day's pay.

You will be placed on active duty for training for 15 days each summer, for which you will receive 15 days' pay, and when you graduate from high school, you will be placed on active duty for 6 months. At the completion of this 6 months, if you return to this community, you will be placed in the same Reserve unit and continue your training. If you go to college, you will be transferred to a unit in that community.

Assuming that you were 17 when you entered the program and graduated at 19, you would have 2 years and 6 months of your obligation behind you when you enter college.

If you participated for the 4 years that you were in college, you would have 6 years and 6 months of your obligation behind you when you graduate. By being transferred to a Reserve unit wherever you locate in the business world and participating for a year and half more, your military obligation is paid.

I know that some of you young mean, and some fathers and mothers, say that under this plan you will miss a semester from college. That is true. However, in my opinion, you gain more than the time you lose.

First, during this 6 months you are going to mature. You will pass from boyhood to young manhood. Consequently, when you enter college, you will have more poise and be better equipped to meet and mingle with your fellow college students.

You will also have learned a valuable lesson. When I was a freshman in college, the president of my college, addressing the freshman class, made a statement which has stuck in my mind throughout the years, and that statement was:

You young men who are entering this college as freshmen this year, I want to impress on your mind that 50 percent of the education you receive from this college is not what you get out of your books but learning how to live and mingle and get along with fellow human beings.

By having 6 months of learning how to live and mingle with fellow human beings before you get into college, you will find that you will fit into college life so much easier.

You are also going to learn some lessons that will be valuable to you in your business career. You will learn to carry out orders from higher authority. No matter what business you get into, what trade or profession, you will always have someone over you, giving orders, and if you have not learned the lesson to carry out orders from higher authority, you will not go very far in the business world.

You will also learn how to adjust yourself to different personalities. You are going to have officers who are easy-going, easy to get along with, and you are going to have the hard-boiled type. However, both types of officers have the authority to order you to do certain things, and you must learn to adjust yourself to these personalities and carry out these orders.

You will find when you get in the business world, you have the same problem, that is, some foremen, supervisors, managers, and so forth, are going to be easy to live with; some are going to be very difficult.

Two other things which you will learn, I think, will be of greater value to you in your success in life than these other lessons. One is, you are taught to be careful. And why? Because a careless soldier, sailor, or airman will not only cost his life but will cost the life of his buddies. You will learn to be prompt. You cannot go for 6 months at this formative period of your life, getting up at the same time each morning, eating your meals at the same time, and attending formations at the same time without learning the value of promptness.

Why do I mention these two things? Because the 2 things that have caused more business failures in this world than any other 2 things are carlelessness and procrastination. If we can help you eliminate these two habits from your life, we have done you a service that will be of value to you.

You will be taught the value of neatness.

You will be taught the value of looking after your health. And we provide the best of spiritual guidance since we do have outstanding chaplains from each of the faiths.

Why has it been difficult to get sufficient volunteers to keep our active duty forces as to the strength required, and why has it been difficult to build this Reserve force of ours? I think I can answer these questions by telling you an experience I had a year ago this winter. In January 1955, I accepted a speaking engagement to the Reserve Officers Association chapter in my old home at Atlanta, Ga. I was to speak to 600 or 700 Reserve officers that evening. I arrived at 12 o'clock on a plane, was met by the president of the chapter, and taken to the hotel.

At 2 p. m., a young reporter from the Atlanta Constitution called on me for a story. After he had gotten his story, he said:

Colonel, could I discuss a very personal matter with you?

I said, "Certainly, what is it?" He said:

Colonel, I graduated from college 3 years ago. I was almost 21. I am 24 now. I took journalism at the University of Georgia.

I was deferred from the draft because I was in the upper third of our class, scholastically speaking.

Immediately after graduating, I went to the Atlanta Constitution and got a job as a reporter. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to get in the newspaper business. So my first job was in the line of work I had picked out.

He continued:

Shortly after that, I got married. I have a wife and one child, and we are expecting another. Three days ago I got a notice from the draft board to report to the Army for 2 years of active duty.

Colonel, I don't mind serving on active duty if I could just understand the reason for it.

I said:

Son, maybe if I talked football to you, I could get the idea over. Bobby Dodd out at Georgia Tech has had a pretty good football team each fall. Suppose when he calls the team together for its first practice this fall, he says, "Boys, we are going to work harder than we have ever worked. We are going to get our timing and our teamwork better than we have ever had it, and we are going to get in the best physical condition we have ever been in, but I am sorry to tell you that I haven't got a game scheduled, but I will try and get one before the season is over."

Son, I think you can understand what would happen to the morale of that team, working that hard with no game scheduled. However, that is what is

happening in this country today.

war on.

There is no game scheduled. There is no

So the average citizen cannot understand why it is necessary to keep this active duty force up to full strength, or why it is necessary to build up our Reserves.

Son, the difference between Bobby Dodd and this country is this: All Bobby Dodd would do would be to lose a football game. All this country would do would lose this type of government and this type of life we so much enjoy. Why is that true? Because the time element which he had in the past is no longer with us. When and if the communistic world decides to start world war III, and God forbid they do, they are going to attempt to pulverize the great manufacturing sites of this country from the air, hoping to hit us such a blow for manufacturing the sinews of war, that we will be whipped before we get started.

So, son, that is why you have got to serve your 2 years on active duty, why these boys have got to serve their time, and why we have to build a Reserve. He was gracious enough to say:

Colonel, I am going to spend my 2 years much more cheerfuly than I anticipated, for now I see a reason for serving.

In summing up, I would like to point out to you young men that you have a right to select the time you pay your military obligation. You may decide to take your chance with the draft, but if you read the recent issue of the U. S. News & World Report, you will find that very few escape the draft except those who are physically disqualified, and when are they serving? They are serving when they reach 24, 25, 26. They have already graduated from college, they have already established themselves in business, and so it is the worst time for them to take care of their obligation.

or

Second, it is a patriotic thing to do. It is a patriotic thing to serve your country and your community.

And third, by serving through the Reserve forces, you are not only taking care of your obligation, you are not only being patriotic, but you are learning certain things that will be helpful to you in whatever business or career that you select for yourself.

Thank you.

SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF COL. C. M. BOYER UN

OPERATION SUMMIT

I returned to Akron on the 27th of November and remained there until the 15th of December.

During this last visit, I had the opportunity to become better acquainted with the recruiting sergeants who were selected for this particular job. I found that, except for 1 or 2 who had had some experience in recruiting for the Regulár service, they had received no prior training in recruitment but went to the field and had to more or less "work out their own salvation."

Some were brought to Akron on the strength of the outstanding Reserve recruiting jobs they had done in other areas; others were given training after they reported to the Akron Reserve Center. All in all, the performance of these recruiters is worthy of the highest commendation.

It sounds very easy to say to members of a unit-"every man get a man.” Unfortunately such a plan does not work, mainly because the average member of a unit, which includes many of the officers, does not know how to sell. Consequently, he approaches a prospective member in a negative manner and receives a turndown because his approach invites such a reply.

It must be recognized that in addition to selling the 17- to 181⁄2-year-old youths, the parents of these young men must be sold. In many cases the recruiting people would get the young men sold, but when they went to see the parents, they were not successful in overcoming their objections.

During the last 2 weeks in Akron, I had the individual recruiters give me the names of any parents who would not give their consent to their son becoming a