Sacking Sad Sacks

The Army and Air Force each disclosed last week a manpower program that fits neatly into the Administration's drive to squeeze as much military strength as possible out of a tight defense budget.

> The Army ordered the discharge of 20,000 "professional privates" who 1) scored 14 or less (out of a possible 100) on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, 2) served a full three-year enlistment or more without getting to be corporals or better, 3) were never decorated or wounded in combat. Early last month, the Navy issued a ban against re-enlistment of men considered incapable of climbing to petty officer third class.

> The Air Force announced a plan to hire local civilians to replace 35,000 earthbound airmen doing pencil and monkey-wrench work at overseas bases. Operation Native Son, as the Air Force unofficially dubbed it, will free the 35,000 for military tasks, save a lot of money besides. An Air Force enlisted man, costing $14,000 to train and $4,900 a year to keep, makes an expensive grease monkey; a skilled Japanese mechanic is happy to do the work for $900 a year--handsome wages for him.

Another side of the problem is how to keep trained and able officers and NCOs from leaving the service. A committee of five generals and admirals last month submitted to Defense Secretary Wilson a thoughtful report on how to make the services more attractive to the kind of men they want to keep. One of the strongest proposals: maintain the old privileges of officer and NCO ranks. Recently, Secretary Wilson, as if he had never heard of the report, yielded to pressure--from organized liquor retailers--and banned sales of package liquor in service messes and clubs. Since package-liquor sales are a financial prop of officer and NCO clubs in the Navy and Marines, the order was one more chisel blow at badly chipped rank privileges.

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