NOTE.-Courses in subjects named above and in other subjects of general education will be developed so far as practicable at all posts and stations. 7. On account of shortage of funds, instructors, and special equipment, as well as of military personnel, it is at present impracticable to open at any one camp or post satisfactory courses in all of the subjects named in paragraph 6. Each commanding officer will, however, open or continue such of the courses as it is practicable to teach at present, and such other useful courses as it may be practicable to carry on with the training facilities already existing or which can be obtained. The desires of the enlisted men as to courses should be given full consideration and every effort made to meet reasonable requests. All educational and vocational training at any camp or post must be under the entire control of the commanding officer irrespective as to how much assistance is or has been received from welfare organizations or other civil institutions. Eventually all civilians employed as educators or for camp activities will be paid for by the Army within the limit of funds available. Courses in educational and vocational training should be coordinated. Each man taking vocational training should be encouraged to take also a related educational course and should be helped to make a proper choice. The development of suitable courses tending toward raising the general education of the soldier will be given special attention. Each man who successfully completes a course will be given a certificate by the local commanding officer or school officer, indicating that he has “satisfactorily completed a course in at" A standard War Department certificate will not be adopted for general use throughout the service until such time as it will represent, for each vocation, a certain definite degree of proficiency, uniform throughout the entire service and fully meeting the requirements of civil life as well as of the Army. The standards adopted will be such that a discharged soldier, character "excellent," with a War Department certificate showing that he has qualified, for instance, as a "carpenter," will need, when seeking civil employment as a carpenter, no further proof either of character or of proficiency. Similarly, War Department certificates covering educational subjects will, it is expected, be accepted by civil educational institutions as evidence of proficiency in such subjects. 8. The divisional camps are the places where the greatest variety of courses can successfully be taught. It is intended that eventually all courses listed in paragraph 6 will be taught at each such camp. Training programs will be framed on the basis of such ultimate extension. At each divisional camp, in addition to providing instruction in as many as possible of the nineteen departments named in paragraph 6, one or more of these departments will be designated by the War Department as the camp's special field of experiment, with a view to working out for such departments courses and standards that may serve as models for the entire service. Civilian technical and educational experts have been employed by the War Department to assist in this experimental and constructive work. These experts will be sent to camps to study the educational work, and on request of commanding officers, will be assigned as much as is possible to camps to cooperate in the development of courses and methods of instruction. Preference in the assignment of experts will be given at present to the camps at which divisions are now stationed. In addition to developing to an especially high degree the training in the particular department or courses in which the camp specializes, as above, the matter of training instructors in each such specialized course will be considered. It is intended that eventually the greater part, if not all, of the instructors needed throughout the service will be graduates of the special courses given at selected divisional camps, training centers of the line, and schools and shops of the technical service. All chiefs of services will be called upon to cooperate in determining the necessary standards of training in courses which pertain to their respective services, in developing satisfactory 10 methods of instruction in allied courses, and in furnishing instructors for the Army at large. The departments or courses that will be specialized in by the various services or at the various camps or training centers can not be definitely determined until later. The cooperation of all concerned will be necessary in determining the standards that must be reached in order to meet the demands both of the Army and of civil life. Lists for general distribution are being prepared in the War Department, with the help of civilian technical experts, of the equipment necessary to carry on the instruction of a group of twenty men in each of the vocations listed in paragraph 6, also an estimate of the number of such sets of equipment that will eventually be needed at each divisional camp. So far as this equipment is available it will be shipped to such camps without requisition. Arrangements are also being made to supply the eventual needs of the territorial departments in the United States and overseas as well as training centers of the line and posts not under the control of department commanders or chiefs of services. In order to meet immediate and pressing needs of equipment for vocational training, and in order to avoid purchasing equipment or supplies that it may be possible to obtain from the supply departments, commanding officers are authorized to requisition same directly from the supply departments and services concerned. Post, camp, and zone supply officers and local Motor Transport Corps officers will fill such requisitions if the material and equipment asked for is locally on hand and can be spared, otherwise they will forward them to the proper chief of service or supply department, who will arrange to supply equipment and material if on hand and available. In order to avoid waste of equipment, care will be taken to ask only for such equipment as is urgently needed for immediate use in courses suited to the actual garrison and of a nature such as will probably cause the courses to become standard at the particular camp or post. Chiefs of services and all supply departments will cooperate in making available all such equipment and supplies as are needed and can be spared. 9. The commanding general of each territorial department in the United States and overseas, and the commanding general of the United States forces in Germany will have educational and vocational training carried on so far as practicable at all posts 11. under their respective commands (including the Coast Artillery districts in the case of all department commanders) in accordance with the general principles stated in paragraph 7. The fact is recognized that it is impracticable to establish courses in a wide range of subjects at small posts, most of which, particularly in the United States, have but a small fraction of their normal strength; but even in such cases it will be possible by utilizing existing facilities to give practical instruction in a number of useful vocations as well as, particularly in permanent prewar posts, to meet the reasonable desires of the men for educational training. The oversea departments have their special problems, as do the troops serving along the border, in Alaska and in Germany. 10. The Chief of Coast Artillery, the Chief of Field Artillery, the Chief of Engineers, and the commanding officers at Fort Riley and Camp Benning, will institute at their respective training centers, courses in those vocations which are of special value to their respective arms. Such other courses, particularly in educational training, will be given as may be practicable and desirable. Wherever the facilities and personnel are available or can be obtained, the chiefs of arms and commanding officers will cooperate with the War Department in determining the standards of proficiency to be attained and in developing courses for training instructors. 11. The Chief of Air Service, Chief of Motor Transport Corps, Chief of Ordnance, Chief Signal Officer, Quartermaster General (Director of Purchase and Storage), Chief of Transportation, Chief of Construction Division, Director of Finance, Chief of Tank Corps, and Surgeon General will continue to develop to the greatest practicable degree educational and vocational training in their respective services. In general, subjects related to their work should be given first consideration. The object of the instruction given will be not only to improve the particular service or to train the individual as a member of the service, but also to cooperate with the War Department in the determination of the necessary standards of proficiency and, so far as practicable, in the training of skilled specialists for duty as instructors in divisional camps and elsewhere. 12. The commanding officer, Fort Leavenworth, the commandants of the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth and the branches thereof at Alcatraz and Fort 12 Jay, and the commanding officer of every other post not specifically mentioned herein nor under the control of a department commander or chief of arm or service, will institute such training courses as may be practicable, following the general principles outlined in paragraph 7. 13. The commanding general of each territorial department, and all other commanding officers and chiefs of arms or services will make, as early as practicable, a careful survey of the conditions affecting the development of educational and vocational training within their respective commands with a view to obtaining the best possible results in this line. Recommendations, constructive criticism, and suggestions of value to the service will be given full consideration. Reports on training programs, courses, and methods that are found to be especially workable and practical are desired in order that the lessons gained by experience in one command or post may be published or otherwise utilized for the benefit of the entire service. [350, A. G. O.] BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: PEYTON C. MARCH, OFFICIAL: P. C. HARRIS, The Adjutant General. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICH: 1910 |