ARMY: Houseclecming

Housecleaning

U.S. Army officers were sure this week that the morale of their soldiers was on the rise from its low point of last month, when the extension-of-service act was passed. They could also predict with some confidence that morale would continue to rise.

For this confidence there were several reasons. One of them was that nearly a half million of the Army’s fighting men are on field maneuvers, have plenty of interesting work to take their minds off the tedious side of military life. Another reason: the President’s “rattlesnake” speech had given many a soldier a better idea than he had had before of the vital importance of his training.

But a more immediately cogent reason than either of these was the decisive steps the Army was taking to purge itself of two kinds of bad soldiers: 1) unfit officers; 2 ) enlisted men who think they ought to go home.

Last week the Army was busy making its lists of soldiers to be discharged as soon as possible after their twelve months’ service is up. At Fort Dix, where the 44th Division celebrated its first anniversary in Federal service this week, it was announced that 1,800 one-year enlisted men would be discharged by Sept. 25. Other outfits heard similar news. Throughout the U.S., emergency soldiers suddenly lost their skepticism about the announcement that, barring a shooting war, the Army would let 200,000 one-year men go home by Christmas.

The job of purging the officers’ ranks was even more important as a morale-booster, for a bad officer does more damage than a bad private. The purge was begun on two fronts. Widest was the Army’s group of citizen-officers—the 91,150 from the National Guard and reserve.

This week the first victims in these groups packed their gear and got ready to go home. They included a brigadier general and a lieutenant colonel. How many had already got the ax, the War Department would not say. But all the Army officers in field outfits have been told that whether they stay in uniform or get out depends on the showing they make in this fall’s maneuvers.

Meanwhile, the regular Army had already begun to pare its hangnails. Last week the War Department announced that 170 regular officers had been recommended for removal by a secret board of five general officers. Sixty-six, facing a hearing, applied for retirement of their own accord.

The War Department had also done its bit to increase efficiency by setting maximum ages for combat officers up through major generals (TIME, Sept. 15). Newsmen calculated that the new retirement limit would knock out commanders of at least three, and possibly six of the 18 National Guard divisions, would touch none of the 17 Regular Army divisions. Not all these officers will be sent home. Many of them will be assigned to desk jobs, a few may even be kicked upstairs to corps commands.

Vigorously besoming away at this wholesale housecleaning, the War Department was aware that it was raising quite a dust, hoped press and politicians would not raise a howl when some local heroes got swept out. Anticipating such squawks, Secretary of War Stimson said last week to the U.S. public:

“It’s a hard step to purge officers who have been loyal and patriotic. When we get under way I expect brickbats about over-severity and injustice. We’ll require your sympathetic consideration. But the Army must go on the theory that those men [enlisted soldiers] deserve the best officers we can give them.”