S86: Officers' Miscellaneous Study

If you are concerned with morale stop putting men on alert and keeping them waiting.

The greatest damper on army morale, in my opinion, is the labor situation. Stop the strikes and threat of strikes and the morale problem will ease considerably. The American soldier will do more than his share if he thinks the country is behind him in action as well as words. No amount of coddling will change the situation as long as the soldier thinks he got a tough break when he was put in 1 A.

1. I believe too much time is stressed on marching and physical conditioning and not enough on knowledge of all types of weapons.

2. Why does the Air Corps rate all the cream of the crop while ground troops take what is left? It ruins the efficiency of the army. 3. Married men who have to come into the army and have the qualifications, should be the ones to go to ASTP instead of the young men needed for combat.

The moral of the soldiers here and overseas would be a lot better if all these damn striks were cut out or at least shut the papers as to the situation of labor in the U.S.

I have seen combat men return with over a years of combat duty and experience. I personally dont think the world owes a man a living because he has been across, but it does owe him some consideration. (1) See that he is given proper consideration over some "feather merchant" (non combat officer) as to promotions & say in training combat crew members yet to go across. Men who were commissioned same time as combat men who have been across usually stay in the states and get more rank and get so stuck to their jobs that it is an impossibility to get them to see actual combat. This should not be. The promotions should be based on time & experience in the service and not on a T.O. The promotions in the army are especially unfair to flying return combat personel. this should be remedied

Too great stress is placed in training technicians and not in training men. The fact that a man can sight through a bombsight, navigate a plane, or act as an aerial chauffeur for a mechanical device does not make him an officer. The same holds in non commissioned ranks. There is a subtle difference between giving a man credit for a job well done and putting him in command because he is an expert mechanic. Leaders should be selected for organizing ability, capability in handling and leading men, understanding the function of command. The time now is probably too short to change policy, but over a long period of time, putting the best mechanics in command must in some ways lessen the quality of leadership.

These training camps - are a rat race. Officers do NOT have time to properly prepare themselves. Each subject should have men especially trained to conduct work. Line officer should handle men on company duty - not studies.

Men drawing up training schedules should be made to attend schedules so they would have a knowledge of what is needed on that subject. Not guess. More time should be spent on on actual war studies - needed by the men in theatres of operations - less on GI barracks and inspections and etc. Men physically disable should NOT be drafted into service with (contagious diseases-) Get rid of these paper officers who don't know - their work and depend on Lts to pull them thru. Have more - inspectors visit these camps to under cover 'rackets' amongst higher ranking officers.

When you send out someone to give a test of this nature send an officer -- there are plenty of them available and not a civilian that looks as if he should be in the army. At least he should have a haircut.

There should be plans made to allow officers and enlisted men to get out of the army as soon as the war is over. There will be plenty of officers and enlisted men that will stay if given a little propaganda to maintain a sufficiently large army of occupation.

Men should be given more free time. the morale of the outfit is not what it should. When they work week-ends or overtime they sometimes are not given credit for which they resent the fact. They don't mind working if they get a little time to make up for it.

Cut out all the ballyhoo about us fighting for the oppressed nations. We are not fighting for that reason. If we were, we would have entered with China against Japan long ago.

Stress each Branch or Arms importance in combat and stop building up only one - namely the Air Corps. Remove a lot of paper work especially carbon copies - paper is needed vitally in this war.

THE PRESSURE APPLIED TO JUNIOR OFFICERS, is such that it tends to discourage the officers in doing their best work.

The method used to MAKE promotions is so unfair it is almost silly. The best men don't always get the promotions. These older officers are too easly Fooled by officers who "Polish The APPLE".

The army has a lot of work to do these days but I believe that if they finished up one thing at a time instead of having a "lot of irons in the fire" at the same time they could accomplish more and better work. I mean the training of the men especially

Combat divisions should not be required to make overseas replacements as this practice lowers not only efficiency but also morale. This practice leads to the false idea that shipment is a punishment, and causes the men to lose any incentive to go overseas.

Mental conditioning has been sadly neglected. A soldier in order to be efficient must not only know why he is fighting by must also believe it. Soldiers must be taught to respect the four freedoms and practice them here before they can be expected to efficiently help restore them in other countrie's. We must not be guilty of violating these freedoms and then expect our soldiers to be willing to give their lives to enforce them elsewhere. We need more and more and lots more education as to why we are fighting and what we hope to accomplish besides the defeat of our enemies

I am hoping that an opportunity is given for officers and men to stay in the army when the war is over. I also hope that formal education will not count too much.

In my opinion officers should be allowed to initiate application for attendance at service schools which give training they know they need. I feel that the div comdr and staff should criticize only when they have something constructive to put out. Officers and men should know more about what is coming up in the future from the division from our own div. comdr. We find out all we know from the town papers. Over strength officers should not cut out promotions for those of us who have been on jobs for 8 mo. which call for higher grades

1. Full advantage should be made of every opportunity to grant an award or give "time off" (at least as much as the men's friends in other units or branches have)

2. Grant officers & NCO's the privilages due them or the whole thing becomes an organization of privates 3. Make the penalty less severe for a man who had a good idea that turned out not so well or even failed 4. Don't change any order on or near the deadline for completion or chang more than once a day. 5. Try to achieve victory not fill files with 7 copies of red tape or follow some obscure regulation or manual to the last paragraph just because it takes longer. 6. Get the result [undelrine]desired the easy way not the "hard" way

This test has too many leading questions - why not make up a test which asks for written opinion.

After the study on air craft & its posibilities of bombing Germany's supply sources I think it has been neglected. Nothing in this test has been mentioned of an army of occupation & reconstruction of devastated countries. And no training is being given along those lines. P. S. Pray tell me why such large quanities of mutton, goat & lamb are purchased for the army when 3/4 of the men cant stand the smell or taste of it? / An example of wastefulness.

I think that Superen officers should not drive their men as much as they do. If necessary to speed up work ok. but when we have other Divisions ready. They should give the men full time on the work. I believe today as far as our training has gone that the men do not know as much as the General Staff thinks they know. I am willing to go to battle with trained men but I cant see where we are that for now.

Jr officres should be helped and not always giving a - eating out. Some officers on General Staff do things to hurt others just to make themselves stand out. Give credit where credit is do.

More time should be given to the men From one maneuver until the next to rest and not harass them continuously. That causes men to lose interest in learning more about their jobs.

Give NCOs more responsibility and train them for that responsibility. Don't make a jr. officer do a Corporal's job. Have all Officers and men trained to step into one or more jobs and be able to do it. Live up to A.R. & FMs and the rest will take care of it's self.

I think that the army training program as a hole is alright. The one thing I do not like too well about the training is the amount of pressure put on troops at the start of training and then the training slacks off. The men soften up for a short period, then some tests are given for the durability of the men. The commanding Officers wonder why they cannot take it like they used to in basic training. If the training is brought on gradually and gradually stiffened, I think much more success in hardening men for combat would be attained. Men cannot be hardened quickly. It is too hard for them as a whole.