The boys' military manual; a book of information about our army and the first principles of military service for boys

Front matter

Class \X~ i Q£o Book._y O Co

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A BOOK OF INFORMATION ABOUT OUR ARMY AND THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF MILITARY SERVICE FOR BOYS

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

A Word About Your Boy . . . vii

I. Why You Should Have a Military

Chapter I Why You Should Have A Military

TRAINING

Haven’t you often felt sorry that the days of real adventure, when swarthy pirates sailed the seas, and gallant gentlemen fought for King and Country were over?

But so long as nations continue to settle their disputes by the barbarous custom of the handto-hand conflict, adventure will always be with us, just as much as it was in the good old days of William Kidd or Jim Bowie, and you will get your share of it.

Well, adventure is here and it is calling to you and to all red-blooded boys. Peaceful merchant¬ men have been attacked by pirates, perhaps not the kind that scoured the Spanish Main in buc-

l caneering sloops, but even more dangerous, for they strike their booty from underneath with all of the swiftness and deadliness of the hated water-moccasin. 1 These pirates are of the underseas kind and their craft is the dreaded submarine.

As for gallant gentlemen, there has never been such a gathering before, for the noblest cavaliers of France, England, Belgium, Italy, and the United States, have fought side by side for King or Country. Truly adventure is not dead and the time is now at hand when you can show the kind of good American stuff you. are made of, either by preparing now so that when your country needs you you will be able to take your place with other trained men, or by training now so that you can volunteer and fight for your flag and the country you love, when the time comes.

The Hero of Olden Days Was Always a Trained Soldier —Ever since you were old enough to read and glory in the tales of our War for Independence and of the heroes that fought then, you have felt that if the time should ever come when you could fight for or help your country you would do it as gladly as Washington or Crockett, Perry or Marion did, and you never doubted but that you could do it as well. Of course you are

1 The water-moccasin is a deadly snake found in the Southern States and much feared.

MILITARY TRAINING old enough now to see that the reason these and other famous Americans were able to do what they did was because they were either trained soldiers or trained frontiersmen, and that you could not do it because you have had no such training. So here you are living in the greatest age of ad¬ venture and chivalry, and yet if your country should call you to the colors you could not answer because you would not be ready.

Why You Should Be a Trained Soldier —It is plain, then, that the thing for you to do is to get a military training, for every true American should be ready to serve his country the best he can at all times, and without the training you simply can’t do it. In the next chapter I shall tell you how and where to get a military training, but first of all I want to give you a few good reasons why you should get it, and of what use it will be to you after you have it.

How Your Country Protects You —As you

know, it is a country's duty to its citizens or sub¬ jects to protect them from danger at all times, both in peace and in war. This it does in time of peace with its laws, backed up by the police force, which prevent theft, open murder, and other crimes, and punish the offenders. The National Guard prevents and puts down such uprisings, riots, and like disturbances to the peace and safety of citizens as the police force cannot handle. In a place where there is no fixed government, or where the government is not run right, as for instance Mexico, bloodshed is a daily occurrence and property be¬ longs to the man who is strong or cunning enough to take and hold it. A law-abiding citizen has no chance at all. So you see you are being protected every day of your life in time of peace by your country.

Why You Must Fight for Your Country —In

time of war the government still protects its citi¬ zens from invading and hostile countries by means of its army and navy. But of course it can’t do this if it has no army, and it can’t do it well if it hasn’t got a trained army, and since it protects you in time of peace you must see that it is your duty to do your bit and help provide the trained army which protects your home and your country from danger.

Now and then you will hear some fellow say that he doesn’t see why he should fight for his country since it has never helped him, but he doesn’t stop to think, and if he does then he has no right to be a citizen of any country, much less of the United States. Unless a fellow is going to be loyal to his country he belongs up near the North Pole somewhere, where he will never have to fight any¬ thing but cold, hunger, and walruses and where

MILITARY TRAINING he will have no country to protect him and to help protect. A fellow of this kind is called a slacker, but my idea of it is that he is worse than a traitor, for his statement is treason and may keep some one else from enlisting.

How a Trained Army Stopped the Germans—

But to get back to the subject, you can easily un¬ derstand that a country without a trained army cannot fight another country with a trained army and hope to win. For the past twenty years or more Germany has made it her boast that her army was the best trained army on the face of the earth, and certainly the Big War has proved that it was no idle talk. England, on the other hand, has never tried to keep a large standing army, which means a trained army, but has placed her faith rather in her splendid navy which has earned for her the title “Mistress of the Seas.” France has al¬ ways been forced to maintain a large and efficient army, for she is a coast country and, ever since the days of the Louis’s, she has had to fight to keep from being pushed off into the sea. It was the combined effort of England’s navy and France’s army that kept the Germans from winning at the beginning of the war as they had long planned and hoped to. But even this combination, with the forces of Italy, Belgium, and Russia helping, was not enough to beat the Germans, and so punish Ger¬ many as she deserved.

Our Need of Officers' —Now an army requires officers and while men can be found who can be trained in a short time to become good privates, men who are fit for officers are few and far be¬ tween, and their course of training must naturally cover a much longer time. And so our great need is always for officers and you have every chance to become one of them.

Why an Officer Must Be Educated —To become an officer in the army you must in the first place be educated as well as if not better than the average business man, for the business of war is a far more serious and skillful proposition than any mere mercantile affair, because the lives of many men are concerned. This is one of the reasons why you who are going to school now can become an officer providing, of course, that you get the proper military training. You are young now and are fast learning, but by the time you are old enough to volunteer you will have a good education, and if you follow my advice you will be all that an A number one officer of the American army should be.

How War Changes Army Needs —It is a well known fact that for every year a war lasts the re¬ quirements for a commission in the army as an officer get less and still less stiff. Thus before

MILITARY TRAINING our entry into the Big War an army officer had to be a graduate of West Point and at least twen¬ ty-one years of age. But as soon as we had de¬ clared war the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps commissioned men who were only college grad¬ uates. A few months later the age was lowered from twenty-one to nineteen years, and the last change was to enable men of high school educa¬ tion to get a commission.

So you can see that when an army needs men it can’t be too particular. If you have studied the l'.istory of our Civil War you will remember that over half of the Confederate army was made up of boys under nineteen years of age. From all these facts it is plain that when a country is at war, and men become scarce, boys are called to fill the ranks. Certainly if you are going to be called it is up to you to do your best to get a com¬ mission, for you can if you try.

Compulsory Military Training Helps You as Well as the Army—Some time ago a lazv requiring military training for schoolboys from sixteen to nineteen years of age living in the State of New York was passed. Perhaps you may wonder why it named schoolboys only, and if so I will tell you. If you are a schoolboy you will soon be a college student, and college students are the material from which good officers can be picked. These same schoolboys who are drilling now will not become ordinary privates in the army when they are needed, for the training this law will give them and the education they will have will fit them to be officers, and if you are drilling now you will be one of them. In other words the law helps the army by providing men capable of becoming officers and it helps you by giving you the training necessary for an officer. It is one of the best laws ever passed and I hope that soon every state in the Union will have a similar one.

Training Now Will Help You Later—There is still another way that getting a military training now will be of use to you. From now on compul¬ sory military training will probably be a fixed law, but you will have had yours and you will not have to take it over again when you are a busy man making so much money that you don’t know what to do with it. Furthermore, for the next ten years at least things will be done in a military way, and unless you have a military training you will be behind the times, which will keep you from making money.

How to Serve Your Country Best—And now

just a word or two more about serving your coun¬ try. If you are between the ages of twelve and eighteen you can serve your country and yourself best by taking a course in military training so

MILITARY TRAINING that you will be fit and ready for the time when you are needed. If you are eighteen or over you can serve best by taking a course in military train¬ ing and then applying for a commission in the army as will be told later. If you fail to receive the commission it will be because you are not fitted for an officer’s work, and then the only way open to you is to enlist as a private, and to fight your hardest for Old Glory until the last enemy trench is taken, should the opportunity occur.

Chapter II

As I told you before, you should, by all means, get a military training, and I am going to tell you some of the ways for getting it. Of these methods there will most likely be one that you will be able to pursue, and you can take your pick of them.

In the first place I will suppose that you are twelve or over, have had no military training, and want one very much. If this is the case you have only two courses left open to you to follow:

About Military Schools —One of these is to go to a military school. Now all military schools are private schools, and like most schools of this kind they charge for your tuition and board. Before you can go to one you must convince your parents that this is the thing for you to do, and if you let them read the preface and first chapter of this book, I believe that they will see things your way. On the other hand if they can’t, don’t be disap¬ pointed but look over the rest of this chapter and you will find that there is something else that you can do.

In the first place a military school will give you as good an education as any elementary and high school will, and it will at the same time provide you with a military training that you could not better except by joining the Regular Army and actually fighting. The heads and instructors in these schools are usually old and experienced army men from whom you will receive your instruc¬ tion first hand. The school work is not any harder than in any ordinary school, and the military train¬ ing just breaks nicely the dull monotony of school life. Further, athletics and other sports are pro¬ vided for you, and a few years at a military school will go a long way toward making a man of you. There is a good military school or academy in nearly every state in the Union, and so you need not go far from home. A few of them are as fol¬ lows: New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on- Hudson; Bordentown Military Academy, Bordentown, N. J.; St. John’s Military Academy, Wis¬ consin; Junior Plattsburg Camp, Plattsburg, N. Y.; and the Virginia Military Institute. Moreover, all of the State Colleges give government military courses. You can take your pick of these schools, which are all good, or you can look in almost any

II magazine and in the advertising section you will find a larger list to choose from.

Next, Local Organizations —A second but not so good a way of getting a military training is to join some local organization. Many towns, vil¬ lages, and clubs have cadet corps organized very often under the able supervision of some retired army officer. If there is no such corps in your town and you want a military training real bad you will get up one of your own, enlisting the aid of an army officer or some one with military experience, and enlisting the money of some of the rich men in your town. This is never very hard to do, for there will be plenty of fellows who will want to belong and men with money al¬ ways take a kindly interest in anything that will bring credit to their home town, so that they may bask in its reflected light and warmth.

Then State Organizations —The old National Guard used to be the main military organization of every state. Upon our declaration of war, how¬ ever, the National Guard was mustered into the Regular Army, and as a consequence there was left no militia to quell riots, and do the other nec¬ essary things that an organization of this kind must do. As a result Home Guards were or¬ ganized, but these have proved a failure, for they are not authorized by the state and so have no real power.

Thus if a home guardsman strikes a citizen over the head with his club, the citizen can immediately have him arrested and charged with assault and battery. If he kills a man in the carrying out of his duty he must suffer the consequences just as any other man.

To get around all these faults of the Home Guard and to give the states a means of defense a state guard similar to the old National Guard has been organized by many states, and if you are seventeen or over you can join this branch. As the new state guard is a very recent thing there has been much difficulty in securing officers for it, and if you read this book carefully you will have no trouble in becoming an officer in it.

Admission to the state guard is very easy, the physical examination being nominal.

The purpose of the state guard is to quell riots, do guard duty, etc., during such time as it be¬ comes necessary. The enlistment period is for two years. If after enlisting in the state guard you should make up your mind to enlist in the Regular Army, you will meet with no opposition and your name will immediately be dropped from the rolls. Should business interfere seriously with your attendance of drills, inspections and musters, you can arrange to be absent. If you move to another state your name is automatically dropped from the rolls and you are given an honorable discharge from the guard.

You will receive a fine training in the guard from regular army officers, and taken all in all it is a fine chance for you to do your bit in an easy way, and you ought by all means to join it. Go to the nearest armory and ask for particulars. I might add that the guard never leaves the state, that is to say it is for state duty only.

The Slater Law and Military Training—Back in the last chapter I told you about the Slater law which has been passed in New York State. By the time this book comes from press, if you have not already started drilling, it will then be time for you to do so. Drills are provided for boys falling under the Slater law at nearly all the armories in the State. You will be thoroughly drilled in the school of the soldier, squad, and company, as well as in rifle and bayonet fighting, and the man¬ ual of arms. The drills are short and interesting and you should try to attend them whether you have to or not. All of the New York high schools have their own corps and have made provision so that their students can comply with the Slater law. Of the two places to drill you will find your high school easiest but the armory best.

And Last of All, National Organizations—

There are two national organizations where you will be able to get a good military training, and these are (i) The United States Military Academy at West Point and (2) The Regular Army . 1

When you read Chapter X you will find out all about admission to West Point, for it is there that our Regular Army officers are turned out in time of peace. The Regular Army is the best place for you to get your military training, for in so doing you are serving your country in a time of need in the best way you can. Before trying to enlist in the Regular Army, however, be sure to read Chapter XI.

How to Pass the Physical Examination for the Regular Army—Now I want to give you a few tips on enlisting in our Regular Army. In the first place you must be eighteen years of age. Do not try to enlist if you are under eighteen, for you will be found out sooner or later and it will go hard with you.

The following table shows what your weight should be for your height, as well as your chest measurements both at expiration and inhalation of the breath.

1 The Regular Army is made up of volunteers, the National Army of drafted men.

Physical Proportions

Minimum or smallest

Height

Minimum or lowest weight

chest measure

in

in

At expiration of

At inhalation of

inches

pounds

breath in inches

breath in inches

30 ^

32^2

31 34

33 %

7 i

3 234

32 ^

35/4

36/4

Vision —You should be able to see clearly block letter type half an inch high at 20 feet, with both the right and left eye separately and without glasses.

Color Perception —Color blindness may disqual¬ ify you.

Hearing —You should be able to hear a whisper at 20 feet in a quiet room. Each ear should be tested separately.

Figure and General Appearance —The various parts of your body should be well developed; head symmetrical, chest developed and well formed, the abdomen lank and the limbs shapely with firm de¬ veloped muscles. The face should indicate mental health and vigor and should be free from erup¬ tions.

Weight —Marked disproportion of weight to height need not be a cause for rejection.

Height —Minimum height is 64 inches.

Respiratory System —Marked evidence of de¬ formity or disease of the lungs and of active dis¬ ease may disqualify you.

Bones and Joints —Stiffness of joints sufficient to interfere with the duties of a soldier disqualifies.

Flatfoot —Complete flatfoot will disqualify you. Test the strength of your foot by walking on the toes, hopping and similar exercises.

Skin —Eruptions of the skin of a nature to be objectionable, unhealed ulcers, or very severe acne disqualifies.

Nose —Loss of the nose, malformations and de¬ formities therefore that interfere with speech or breathing are causes for rejection.

Throat —Deformity or disease sufficient to in¬ terfere with speech disqualifies.

Teeth —You must have four serviceable double teeth, two above and two below and one over the other so as to enable you to chew your food properly.

Nervous System —Nervous diseases are disquali¬ fying.

Heart —Organic heart disease sufficient to interfere with the duties of a soldier disqualifies.

Digestive System —Chronic diseases of the stom¬ ach, such as chronic dyspepsia, gastric ulcer, and dysentery, affecting the general nutrition, are causes for rejection. Chronic appendicitis and chronic enlargement of the liver or spleen are causes for rejection.

If you do not come quite up to these specifica¬ tions do not be discouraged but try to enlist any¬ way. The chances are they will take you. Of course if you are under 21 you must have your parent's consent to enlist. The enlistment papers must also be signed by your parent or guardian.

Your Physical Examination and How to Pass It—The night before you arc ready to enlist be sure and go to bed early and get a good night's sleep. Then get down to the enlisting station sharply at 9 o’clock the next morning. There will not be many fellows there then, the enlisting offi¬ cers won’t be tired out, and altogether you will do far better than you would by strolling in late in the afternoon.

You will be asked a number of questions and you must answer them all truthfully. Be prepared to give the date of your birth, the name, address, and business of your parent or guardian as well as his birthplace.

When it comes to your chest measurement be sure that you get the last sign of air out for the first measurement, and all the air and a little more in for the second measurement, and you will have no trouble there.

If you find yourself a few pounds underweight eat a couple of salt mackerel for your breakfast, washing them down with a bucket of water and you will be surprised to find how much more you weigh.

There are two things that you ought to practice before you set out to enlist, and one of these is hopping. You will be asked to hop on the ball of each foot separately for a distance of from twenty to thirty feet, with your shoes off. Some fellows have a little difficulty in doing this, espe¬ cially if they have never tried it before, and you should practice it at home two or three times.

The other thing that you should do is to get a regular optician’s sight testing card with large let¬ ters at the top running to small letters at the bot¬ tom. You should set this card in your room at a distance of twenty feet, cover first one eye with a card and then the other, looking at the lower lines until you can read them with ease. Ten minutes’ practice this way each day for a week will strengthen your sight wonderfully, and you can then pass the eye test easily.

!9

There is one other thing that you should not do and that is to get nervous. Just remember that no one is going to ask you to do anything you can’t, and you will get along famously with the enlisting officer, whom you will find to be a nice chap for all his businesslike manner.

Chapter III

From now on through the book I shall try to tell you some of the most important things that you should know, if you are going to try to get a commission in the army as an officer.

Of course you cannot expect to learn from any book everything that a young officer should know, for as I have already told you a continued course of military training, and a little real fighting, is the only way of becoming a good officer that I know of. On the other hand you will be able to get much out of this book that will serve you well when you start training, will help you get a com¬ mission, and will make you feel quite at home in a uniform.

A Mistaken Idea of Our Army—One of the first things that you should know about is our army, and how it is run. Most boys have a badly mistaken idea of war, the army, and of an officer’s duties, for they think that all an officer has to do is to lead a company of valiant soldiers on to victory, shouting orders and words of encouragement, and waving his sword the while, with an occasional shot at the enemy with his revolver. This is the popular idea and it is quite natural, for it is all we ever read about in our school histories and bloodand-thunder war stories. But to get down to cases, an officer has but little chance nowadays to do these heroic things, for there are other duties that are far more important.

The Army as It Really Is—As you know, an army is made up of a large body of picked and trained men, called privates, and about whom you will learn more later, who are commanded by men who know more about war than they do and who are called officers. Now, privates are human be¬ ings just like any of the rest of us and must be clothed, fed, taken care of when sick or wounded, and kept in the very pink of condition by every known medical, sanitary, and commissary means, for a sick soldier is a useless burden and expense to an army. In time of peace, when our stand¬ ing army is small, and the men are quartered in comfortable barracks near railroads, it is easy to feed and clothe them, and there is not much sick¬ ness. But in time of war the army swells to thirty or forty times its peace size, it is almost con¬ stantly on the move, the enemy may shut it off from outside help, the men must be out-of-doors in all weathers, and men are wounded every day. As a result of all these hardships it is a big man’s job to keep the army clothed right, fed right, and in good health, and it is up to the officers to see that these things are done.

The General Staff—Now an army is like a large family, for it must have a head to scheme and provide for it. But an army is so much larger than even the largest family that Brigham Young or even Solomon ever dreamed of that one head cannot possibly manage it all, and so the duties of looking after it is split up among several heads, each of which has a department under him to carry out his orders. This body of officers is known as the General Staff. It is made up of men who are the best experts in their respective lines that can be found in the country, for it is the brains of the Army 1 , and upon it depends chiefly whether or not the army will be a successful one. The officers of the General Staff study the plans of campaigns and decide other things of a like nature. The strategic moves fall to the general in command of the army and not to the Staff officers. The final re-

1 The President is Commander-in-Chief of our Army by the Constitution of the United States. He is at the head of the War Department, which is organized to take care of and control the army under his supervision.

Fig. i.

THE GENERAL STAFF t

THE FIELD ARMY LIEUTENANT fa GENERAL

THE DIVISION

MAJOR faGENERRL r

THE BRIGADE BRIGADIER fa GENERAL

I

THE REGIMENT t

THE mCOLONE/]

I

THE BATTALION

I

THEto MAJOR

THECOMPANY

f \

CAPTAIN

Our Army ; Its Divisions and Their Commanding Officers in Order of Rank sponsibility for the safety and welfare of the army rests upon the commanding officers in the field.