Write Your Congressman

Now that the Pentagon, with customary efficiency, has decided the dispute between the Army Reserve and the National Guard by making the two programs substantially the same--under two separate and duplicating administrations--there still remain problems about the now universally required six-month-active-duty-training.

Controversy still rages in informed quarters as to whether six months training is necessary or desirable in a reserve program. As the time is too short for the enlistee to do much valuable work in the service after his basic training and far too short to embark on the technical training that an effective soldier in a modern army needs, many claim that the bulk of the six month program is "make-work." It is generally agreed that the Air National Guard has done an outstanding job by requiring requisite active-duty training which varies for the various career fields, and leaving basic military indoctrination to the home unit and weekly drills. But in any case, the cement of the military mind has hardened and the six-month requirement stands.

A practical solution to the objections set forth by most prospective enlistees would be to divide the active-duty plan into two three-month sessions. This would make the program feasible for high school and college students to complete during summer vacations, and represents about the maximum time during which an employee can be absent from his job. These dual sessions would create an increase in cost and administrative action on the part of the government, but the added expense would be more than compensated for by the assurance that better educated and perhaps more competent people would find it practical to serve in the reserve program, which is, after all, the backbone of the nation's defense in an all-out war.

And here is a question on which everyone eligible, through "enlightened self-interest," ought to bring every pressure he can to bear, especially through writing his congressman.