3 Rs for I -As

Since Selective Service first went into operation in 1940, its importunate finger has tapped many an illiterate recruit. During the first three years 240,000 such registrants were promptly waved off--more men lost to the Army than the total of battle casualties so far. Not until June 1943 did the Army take steps to teach its illiterates the three Rs. Since then approximately 90% of illiterate registrants have been salvaged for the Army, and many a reject has been reclassified. G.I. schools have become commonplace.

The greatest number of illiterate or non-English-speaking trainees come from the backwoods regions of the South, the slums and foreign sections of big cities, the country along the Mexican border. The ratio between Negro and white is about even.

Illiterates are now assigned to Special Training Units where, in addition to military training, they are given eight to 16 weeks of instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic with the aid of films, picture books, simple readers -- enough to provide them with what the Army calls "functional literacy," a standard equivalent to a 4th-Grade education. The average soldier takes eight weeks to absorb this training, and is then sent to a regular training center. Of the 10% that fail the course, a negligible few may have special capacities, such as ability to handle a bulldozer, and are allowed to remain in the Army.

These facts, says the official Selective Service Bulletin, "emphasize the importance to the nation as a whole of insuring that every American citizen has opportunity for a reasonable minimum of education." They also emphasize the fact that the Army took a long time to find an obvious solution.

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