Roads To Commission Artillery Reserve Open

With the draft loss than four years off for most of the Freshman class, Military and Naval Sciences, the two It. O. T. C. courses leading to reserve commissions in the Army and Navy, are likely to be more heavily applied for this fall than ever before.

The Naval course, strictly limited from the start by appropriations in Washington, will be able to admit no more than it did last year, Freshman. These men will sign up for the full four year course and take a physical examination before they are admitted.

The Army course in Filed Artillery, which is divided late two two-year periods of basic and advanced study, will be able to accommodate more men. Around 225 men, 25 more than last year, will be admitted from the Freshman class.

Eye Exam.

As in the case of the Navy, the Mil Sci Freshman will undergo a physical examination but it will not be as stiff as that for the N. R. O. T. C. Emphasis will be chiefly on the eyes. Entrance into the course will also be judged on a basis of scholarship in prep school.

However, students admitted to the course will be admitted only for the first two years. At the end of the Sophomore year the Army selects the top men in the course and continues their training through the advanced course. The number of men taken each year varies between '50 and 70, or one fourth to one third of the total who were admitted in the beginning.

Since the first two years of the R. O. T. C. carries no weight in exempting a student from the draft, admission to Mil Sci dies not by any means ensure an excuse from selective service.

Summer Training

One common feature of each course is the training period in the summer between the Junior and Senior years. In the Navy it consists of a cruise along the Atlantic sea-coast for from three to six weeks of camp at Fort Ethan Allan near Burlington, Vt. The Navy, in addition, offers optional cruises during every summer vacation.

Graduation from the two courses means a commission in the Army or Navy Re. serves. Military graduates receive commissions as second lieutenants in the Field Artillery Reserves and N. R. C. T. C. graduate come out as ensigns in the Naval Reserve.

Practically all the reserve officers who graduated this year are already on active service.

Different From Last War

The training of Harvard students during this war differs radically from the method employed in 1916-17. The country was absolutely unprepared in 1916 and the result was a general scramble to get under arms in which Harvard took a prominent part.

A Harvard regiment, open to any student, was formed to 1916 under the direction of Captain Constant Cordier, U. S. A., who was detailed to Cambridge at the urgent request of President Abbot Lawrence Lowell. He supervised the first R. O. T. C. courses given here, but most of the actual instruction was by regular Harvard professors, such as Professor Julian Lowell Cooldige '95, who retired a year ago as Master of Lowell House. These professors had received training during the previous summer at Plattsburg, and were considered qualified to give military instruction.

French Officers Arrive

The lack of training officers was so grave that in 1917 President Lowell reququested the French government to send some of its disabled officers to this country to help with the teaching of the "latest methods of warfare."

The R. O. T. C. had meanwhile expanded from an initial 884 to 1227 men, and engaged in extensive training. The high point of the year came when the soldiers constructed a series of trenches near Fresh Pond and participated in practice warfare. After taking the course here most of the members proceeded to a regular officers' training camp.

By 1918 practically every student in Harvard who was physically able was engaged in some form of military training. Both Government and College encouraged students to enroll in the Officers' Training Camps, but the waiting lists were so long that many undergraduates joined the regular forces.

Special final examinations had been held in April and May, 1917, when most of the student body left for active service or full-time training, and by May 1, 1918 the enrollment had dropped to about one-fifth of normal..

Attempt to Avoid Repitition

It is this concentration of colleges on military training rather than college work which Harvard is attempting to avoid in this crisis. It is aided by the set-up of the army, which is far advanced over the situation which faced the country in the last war.

Since 1920 a huge number of R. O. T. C. graduates have been turned out from colleges all over the country. These men have not had any real commands and have gone on active service only for two weeks during each summer. However, they provide a skeleton of officers to which the country could turn in an emergency such as the present. Most of these reserve officers have been called up for active duty to the enlarge army which the draft has created.

These Reserves, plus a large regular Army and a larger National Guard have obviated the need for large civilian officers training camps like Plattsburg in the last war