More than at any time in U.S. peacetime history, the armed forces depend for their career officers not primarily on West Point and Annapolis, but on 350 civilian colleges and universities. Big new source of supply: the Reserve Officers Training Corps, which now has some 285,000 members—about one-fifth of the nation's male college population. This June 30,700 R.O.T.C. seniors will get commissions and fulfill their service obligations by going on active duty for at least two years.
This is in striking contrast to the pre-World War II R.O.T.C., which (as of 1939-40) had only 90,000 members. Although in the '20s and '30s it was a favorite target of left-wingers and pacifists, R.O.T.C. did turn out a lot of highly useful officers (when World War II broke out, the Army was able quickly to call 58,000 R.O.T.C. graduates from civilian life). Today's peacetime R.O.T.C. is bigger and better than ever, but it also faces some serious problems.
The New Look. Since the start of the Korean war, the Pentagon has had no trouble signing up students for draft-exempt R.O.T.C. Seventy colleges have asked for and obtained units. Moreover, some 140 colleges and universities (e.g., Cornell, U.C.L.A., Louisiana State) now require two years of military training; R.O.T.C. courses neatly fill the bill. No longer permitted merely to train and then pool their R.O.T.C. graduates, the services now must assign newly commissioned officers to active duty. To attract career men and train reservists, each service has added considerable brass to the campus ivy:
THE ARMY runs a vast program (141,600 students in 250 colleges, 1,500 officer-instructors) at a cost of $22 million a year. Required for a second lieutenant's commission: the full four-year course (480 hours) plus one summer training period. The course includes close-order drill and lectures (weapons familiarization, small-unit tactics, Army logistics and administration), gives 40 hours to military history and current U.S. military problems. Hard put to assimilate this year's crop of 15,200 R.O.T.C. graduates, the Army is asking Congress to approve a 8,700-man boost in officer strength, also plans to weed out some overage officers.
THE AIR FORCE program is also big (125,000 students in 188 colleges, 1,400 officer-instructors), but operates on a relatively low budget ($13 million). It has been harassed by cutbacks and constant changes in curriculum. The Air Force gives no flight training to undergraduates, instead concentrates on classroom instruction (aerodynamics, weather, Air Force administration), devotes 99 hours to the role of air power and its history. Started in 1947 as a program for ground specialists, the A.F.R.O.T.C. was built up by 1951 to turn out 27,000 officers a year for a 143-wing Air Force. With authorized strength down to 120 wings by last summer, the Air Force had to slash its program, abruptly announced that commissions henceforth would go to 1) engineering students, 2) those cadets qualified and willing to undergo flight training and three years' active duty. (Many cadets were reluctant to fly.) Result: nearly 5,000 of this year's 13,000 graduates will get no commissions, instead have the option of enlisting in the Air Force for two years or waiting for the draft.