The Forward Look

It is an empirical fact that each year American colleges, mainly through the various ROTC programs, produce more regular officers than the three service academies could hope to put out. Different faculties regard ROTC as a contribution to national defense, a wholesome discipline to students, or a waste of time. Despite this, military realities remain, and the country needs qualified officers.

Naturally, this need increases as the world becomes more complicated. In a recent full-scale reevaluation of ROTC, two Dartmouth professors assert that with advancing technology, the concept of the trained reserve, hastily mobilized, citizen army is outmoded; the only realistic alternative now is a professional armed force in being, obviously necessitating good officers. Coupled with Professor Samuel Huntington's idea of officership as a profession, a policy of high-calibre training for college men to make them able officers becomes a necessity.

The Dartmouth study recommends a much broader foundation for ROTC training, primarily revolving around a decrease in the technical, drill-type courses and an increase in the socio-military courses, i.e., Government 180 and the like. The study wants the "nuts and bolts" left to summer camps and cruises.

The College investigated this same problem four years ago, creating the "Harvard Plan" for Army ROTC. This program recommended a twelve rather than six-week summer camp to teach the basic Army manual courses, thus decreasing the amount of on-campus time required of the student. The latter is the University's basic complaint about ROTC. Characteristically, the Army rejected the "Harvard Plan," but did consent to modify it to the present program, which will continue.

Col. DeVere P. Armstrong, professor of Military Science and Tactics, has thoughtfully devoted a large part of his three year tour at Harvard to a re-examination of ROTC, especially as it operates in the strictly volunteer Ivy League units. He has recommended to higher authorities an experiment, designed to reduce the amount of on-campus work by eliminating the fall term of freshman ROTC. The time, he says, could be devoted fruitfully to recruiting, thus preventing the hasty and usually negative decisions of bewildered freshmen.

Though the chances for official Army approval of this new plan are almost nil, improvements are still evident. Army ROTC has two civilian courses now. The Air Force unit this year adopted a radical innovation, completely doing away with all freshman Air Science courses. Even the isolated Navy is instituting a group psychology course for next year's sophomores. With ROTC now confronted by threatened obsolescence, the beginnings of a sensible re-evaluation of its basic foundations are both welcome and necessary.