Awaiting Orders

Despite the prevalent opinion in military and academic circles that a Long War will require an endless number of men with technical training, the preparation of the endless number continues to operate on a hand-to-mouth basis. Army and Navy courses for scientists and linguists have been filled, but usually with no qualified applicants to spare. Doubling the Army within a year will call for many repetitions of the Government courses at M. I. T. and Cruft, but only the most slip-shod arrangements have been made for supplying enough men to take them.

A few facts about the academic requisites for Army courses, the dates when they will be given, and relative needs would go a long way toward assuring a steady flow of trainees from planned college curricula. The fault is a vagueness in the plans for the future, and a failure to organize the data for college students. Some of the information has been played down for routine military reasons, although the Japs would gain little from finding out that the Army requires its meteorologists to have two years of math.

At least two Army courses and at least one Navy course which have specific academic prerequisites have been organized as single sessions, with no public intention of ever repeating them. One of these is now being given-for-the-last-time for the second time, and the armed and gowned officials connected with all of them have expressed the private view that they will be given many times more.

Most students are willing to do all the long-range planning necessary to fit themselves for the Service, but it will be very difficult without long-range planning on the part of the armed forces.