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Army training methods are excellent. At Fort Jackson, S.C., last week, Company B, 2nd Battalion, ist Training Regiment fidgeted in new, stiff fatigues and listened to Sergeant Delma Stanfill bark out the basic facts about a gas mask. At the end of the drill, after they had practiced donning the mask, another sergeant tested them by dropping smoke and tear gas grenades near by. About 20 of the basic trainees bolted in terror for the woods. In the past, trainees have cried for their mothers. But, after this first day of panic, most of the trainees complete the tough, eight-week course with flying colors, move on for further instruction to the three training divisions of the Strategic Army Force: the ist and 2nd Infantry and the 2nd Armored divisions.
The elite of the Stateside divisions are the 4th Infantry and the all-volunteer 82nd and 101st Airborne, which make up the Strategic Army Corps, the combat-ready reserve that would be thrown into battle wherever it might break out around the world.
"Jump Again." At the 82nd Airborne's jump school at Fort Bragg, N.C., last week, a trainee leaped from a 35-ft. tower and was jerked up like a marionette by the wire attached to his shoulder harness. When he reached the ground, the trainee's lips were flecked with blood. The instructor ignored it. "Your exit was too quick and you didn't keep your elbows in," he snapped. "Jump again." Near by a captain walking behind a row of trainees suddenly barked: "Hit it!" The men bowed seemingly in unison and shouted: "Airborne!" But four who had been slow to react by a flicker were set to doing pushups. Explained the captain: "We teach them to respond instantly to stimuli, such as a command." Under pressure of this sort, morale is sky-high in the 82nd. Enlisted men call out "All the way, sir!" when they salute an officer, get the reply: "Airborne!" One 82nd sergeant trained men while encased in a crotch-to-neck cast that protected three broken vertebrae. After a recent training jump, the 82nd marched 85 miles back to Fort Bragg. Major General Theodore J. Conway, division commander, jumped with his men and hiked all the way.
At Fort Campbell, Ky., the 101st Airborne is as ready to go as a sprinter braced on the starting blocks. Everything the division owns can be carried by air except the barracks: 25-ton M41 tanks, antitank guns, Jeeps, the "mechanical mule" (a kind of motorized flatbed wagon), field kitchens, ground radar, and the 15-mile Honest John rocket, which can be fitted with a nuclear warhead. One company (300 men) is always ready to move out within an hour; an entire battle group (1,800 men) can be on its way in four. Every morning, every man on alert assumes he will be headed for combat before nightfall. He gets his bedding ready to be turned in. Private cars are parked in a special lot. A folder containing each man's personal papers—including his will—is kept up to date.