R.O.T.C.: Brass in the Ivy

More than at any time in U.S. peacetime history, the armed forces depend for their career officers not primarily on West Point and Annapolis, but on 350 civilian colleges and universities. Big new source of supply: the Reserve Officers Training Corps, which now has some 285,000 members--about one-fifth of the nation's male college population. This June 30,700 R.O.T.C. seniors will get commissions and fulfill their service obligations by going on active duty for at least two years.

This is in striking contrast to the pre-World War II R.O.T.C., which (as of 1939-40) had only 90,000 members. Although in the '20s and '30s it was a favorite target of left-wingers and pacifists, R.O.T.C. did turn out a lot of highly useful officers (when World War II broke out, the Army was able quickly to call 58,000 R.O.T.C. graduates from civilian life). Today's peacetime R.O.T.C. is bigger and better than ever, but it also faces some serious problems.

The New Look. Since the start of the Korean war, the Pentagon has had no trouble signing up students for draft-exempt R.O.T.C. Seventy colleges have asked for and obtained units. Moreover, some 140 colleges and universities (e.g., Cornell, U.C.L.A., Louisiana State) now require two years of military training; R.O.T.C. courses neatly fill the bill. No longer permitted merely to train and then pool their R.O.T.C. graduates, the services now must assign newly commissioned officers to active duty. To attract career men and train reservists, each service has added considerable brass to the campus ivy:

THE ARMY runs a vast program (141,600 students in 250 colleges, 1,500 officer-instructors) at a cost of $22 million a year. Required for a second lieutenant's commission: the full four-year course (480 hours) plus one summer training period. The course includes close-order drill and lectures (weapons familiarization, small-unit tactics, Army logistics and administration), gives 40 hours to military history and current U.S. military problems. Hard put to assimilate this year's crop of 15,200 R.O.T.C. graduates, the Army is asking Congress to approve a 8,700-man boost in officer strength, also plans to weed out some overage officers.

THE AIR FORCE program is also big (125,000 students in 188 colleges, 1,400 officer-instructors), but operates on a relatively low budget ($13 million). It has been harassed by cutbacks and constant changes in curriculum. The Air Force gives no flight training to undergraduates, instead concentrates on classroom instruction (aerodynamics, weather, Air Force administration), devotes 99 hours to the role of air power and its history. Started in 1947 as a program for ground specialists, the A.F.R.O.T.C. was built up by 1951 to turn out 27,000 officers a year for a 143-wing Air Force. With authorized strength down to 120 wings by last summer, the Air Force had to slash its program, abruptly announced that commissions henceforth would go to 1) engineering students, 2) those cadets qualified and willing to undergo flight training and three years' active duty. (Many cadets were reluctant to fly.) Result: nearly 5,000 of this year's 13,000 graduates will get no commissions, instead have the option of enlisting in the Air Force for two years or waiting for the draft.

THE NAVY program, small (15,400 students in 52 colleges, 387 officer-instructors) but expensive ($11.4 million), is the envy of sister services. The Navy annually gives some 2,000 hand-picked high-school seniors free college tuition plus $50 a month for four years. Under the plan, students must take the four-year N.R.O.T.C. course as part of their academic work, spend three summers on training cruises, three post-college years on active duty as Navy officers. The 600-hour course is tightly organized, highly technical (navigation, gunnery, ship's machinery), and limits nonvocational training to 48 hours of naval history. By trimming other officer-training programs to fit the budget, the Navy has kept its R.O.T.C. on an even keel, gives commissions to all who qualify.

THE MARINE CORPS accepts some 300 Navy R.O.T C. graduates each June, but trains most (1,100) of its college students in draft-exempt platoon-leader classes, commissions them on graduation after two six-week summer-training sessions.

The New Features. On the whole, college administrators welcome R.O.T.C., but many college teachers look down on its service-taught courses. The standardized curriculum makes big demands on memory, but does not encourage independent thought, is often hampered by inexperienced military teachers. Giving up at least one academic course a year for R.O.T.C., the student must listen to many dust-dry lectures on minor military subjects (e.g., field sanitation, personnel accounting) better suited to in-service training. Even the broader courses (the role of air power, political geography) arouse little enthusiasm; the men teaching them are assigned service personnel, not trained historians or geographers. "Many of us," said one University of Washington student, "would be a lot more interested if they modernized R.O.T.C. and took it out of the Eagle Scout class."

With more cadets than it can commission, the Pentagon often seems to shrug off campus criticism of R.O.T C. But both the services and colleges have tried to brighten up the R.O.T.C. Items:

P:Yale University has taken over the teaching of military history and political geography from R.O.T.C., revised both courses and put its own faculty members in charge. Princeton, Ohio Wesleyan, and a handful of others have adopted similar schemes. Main stumbling blocks for most schools: lack of necessary funds and opposition from campus R.O.T C. officers to any change wrought by civilians.

P:The Army has put nearly half its R.O.T.C. units under a new curriculum to produce basically trained officers instead of specialists, giving cadets a chance to pick their specialties after graduation.

P:The Air Force is asking Congress for an appropriation to finance primary flight training for A.F.R.O.T.C. seniors. If the plan is approved, each qualified R.O.T.C. student will get 35 flying hours, enough for a private pilot's license.

At present, the Navy considers four years of R.O.T.C. enough training to fit a man for duty. But the Army trains its R.O.T.C. second lieutenants in its own schools for at least three months after graduation; the Air Force must still send its R.O.T.C. graduates through long months of flight school before it can qualify them as military pilots. So far the program has failed to persuade as many college students as the armed forces had hoped for to make the service a lifetime occupation. But as a recruiting agency, R.O.T.C. has paid off. It is filling the armed services' need for reserve second lieutenants and ensigns; thousands of undergraduates have been exposed to at least a smattering of military training.

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