Brushing Up

Oh, if you want to know where the colonels were,

I'll tell you where they were...

Way behind the lines.

--Army Song.

At Camp Bullis, 20 miles from San Antonio, a couple of colonels* were busy belying this scurrilous chant. So were 152 other officers. They are students in the Third Army Junior Officers Training Center--a school set up by Lieut. General Walter Krueger to brush up his juniors (and interested seniors) on military fundamentals. This week the center's first class will receive diplomas from General Krueger, go back to their posts leaner and wiser than before.

Training Center students do the same things a doughboy does, often under tougher conditions. Under big, hardboiled, disciplinarian Lieut. Colonel Leigh Bell, onetime line coach at U.C.L.A., they are broken out at 6:15 a.m., spend the rest of the day at everything from close-order drill to digging emplacements. In wrinkled fatigue uniforms, with packs on their backs, they pile through mud and brambles, scrape out fox holes and rifle pits whenever their "noncom" gives the word. To serve as their enemy in mock warfare, the Training Center employs maneuver-wise enlisted men. Students who make mistakes hear about it on the spot, and errors have to be corrected, no matter how long it takes. They are taught how to take care of latrines and lavatories, how to inspect motors, how to care for, repair and store motorized equipment. Not even the old-fashioned foot inspection is left out of the curriculum.

In school now are officer representatives of Cavalry, Coast Artillery, Engineers, Field Artillery. Some are volunteers, others have been sent by their commanders. Many of them are expected to become instructors, help teach throughout the Army efficient military methods.

Only concession to students' rank: they don't have to do kitchen-police duty or keep their two-man tents in order. But they are drilled solidly in such elementary stuff as rolling a pack, using field glass and compass, managing fire distribution and control.

By climbing in & out of trucks, they get an idea how to load troops comfortably, estimate loading capacities. To teach them how to judge marching speed, Colonel Bell makes them hoof for miles. Functions are rotated every day, so that everybody gets a crack at every job.

* John B. Dunlap and Calvin B. Garwood (see cut) of the 56th Cavalry Brigade, a Texas National Guard outfit.

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