ARMED FORCES: Goldbrick Blues

Front-line soldiers have long argued that the Army could stop worrying about its manpower reserves if it just cashed in a few of its rear-echelon goldbricks. Last week Army Secretary Frank Pace, an ex-major in the Air Transport Command, came to the same conclusion. On his orders to squeeze every available combat soldier out of the 1,300,000 men in uniform, the Army told all units to cut their nonfighting personnel by a flat 3%.

Hardest hit by the new order will be cooks and bakers, who have grown accustomed to flocks of helpers and assistants. Many will now find themselves scouring their own pans and peeling their own spuds. Generals (some with as many as five aides and orderlies) will be cut down to a single orderly apiece. Division buglers (long outdated by the phonograph record) will be abolished as such, along with such other luxury items as hobby-shop keepers, personnel clerks, athletic directors and division historians.

In all, Pace estimated that his order would sweep some 20,000 noncombatant troops into combat “spaces.” He hoped to produce another 20,000 fighting men by hiring civilians to take over clerical and quartermaster jobs in Army camps, the equivalent of 20,000 more when Congress extends the service of draftees. Out of the total of 60,000 men released from rear-area jobs and the training pipeline, Pentagon planners hope to get two extra fighting divisions, bringing the Army’s combat strength to 20 divisions, plus 18 regimental combat teams. Counting the hundreds of separate battalions (antiaircraft, field artillery, signal, engineer), the Army expects by next fall to have 800,000 of its 1,300,000 soldiers in combat units.