Samper Fidelis

Through a process of experimentation over the sixteen months that have gone by since the country first went on a draft basis, Washington has come closer and closer to a sensible solution to the college degree problem. For the first year, Seniors were exempted from the draft, and the colleges remained relatively untapped by the services of Uncle Sam. As Army and Navy expansion programs began to hop into the less conservative millions, the provision exempting Seniors was struck out of the Draft Bill, and the age limit was lowered to twenty. With a sizable percentage of college men now in danger of getting neither sheepskin nor commission, the Navy came through last December with a V-7 plan. This served a double purpose: it gave many students a chance to finish college, and it diverted much officer material away from the draft and into Naval officer training courses.

Now the Marines, following the example of the Navy, have formulated their own V-7 program and called it a Candidates' Class. This is a new and even wider channel than the one offered by the Navy, for it includes Sophomores as well as Juniors and Seniors. Like the V-7, it does not guarantee a safe last lap at college. It reserves the right to call students to duty before graduation if the "exigencies of the service" make this necessary, but the Marine Corps is to sign men up with the intention of making good Marine officers out of them after they have had their full college education. However, if it should be necessary to take men before graduation, the Marines promise to let Sophomores and Juniors know six months in advance. The chances are that they won't touch the Sophomores. Any Junior, under the new accelerated programs, can finish up his degree requirements on six months' notice. And, since the next Candidates' Class does not begin until this coming May, Seniors who join up can arrange to finish before that time.

Men who are not already signed up for V-7, any of the ROTC's, or have not already made satisfactory plans concerning commissions and degrees can be interviewed by an officer of the Marince Corps at University 20, during the next two days. But they will not find it any draft-dodging device or soft war berth. The Marines may want a man with a sheepskin, but they want to train him to lead platoons in combat. Their officers are now serving from Greenland to the Philippines and from Alaska to the tropics. Part of the U.S. Navy, the Marine Corps is the spearhead of our first line of defense. Each division is a self-sufficient unit, containing field artillery, infantry, and aviation. Its functions range from guarding navy yards to dispatching expeditionary forces in support of the fleet. Students who sign up with the Marines just because it is a convenient method of prolonging their existence around the vicinity of Harvard Square will get an unpleasant awakening when they find themselves having to live up to the corp's expectations of an "active leader of men . . . forceful, aggressive, determined, courageous, and endowed with tireless endurance." Washington may let students finish college, but it wants more than gratitude in return.