YOUTHFUL ARMY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 16 October 1942, Page 5

YOUTHFUL ARMY

AMERICAN OBJECTIVE CALL-UP AT 18 URGED “ONLY ROAD TO FOLLOW” (1.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 14. Stressing the importance of lowering the draft age for service in the U.S. Army to 18 years, the Secretary of War, Mr. H. L. Stimson, told the House of Representatives’ Military Affairs Committee that the United States wants in 1943 the largest air force, with sustaining units, which production and transportation will permit. • > He said that ‘2,200,000 were wanted for the air forces on a conservative estimate. Changes will be upward. He explained that the plans for the induction of younger men were based upon history and experience. “All major wars in which the United States have been engaged in the past were carried through by men under 20,” he said. “The single fact is that they are better soldiers, and never in history have we so’ much needed exceptional soldiers. Youth constitutes the indispensable kind of men necessary to win* this war.” Too Many Men Over 40 Mr. Stimson warned the committee that statistics show the army is getting too old, with too large a percentage, of men over 40 who ought not to do the kind of fighting that American armies were doing now. He said that men at present were allowed a iriinimum of I‘2 months’ training compared with two years in Germany “because we think that Americans train more quickly than Germans.” “It is not pleasant for me to consign the sons and grandsons of my friends to the hideous character of modern war,” he said, “but if we want to save civilisation that is the only road to follow.”

The Chief of the United States Army, General G. Marshall, said the average age of the combat army had risen to a point unacceptable to the War Department. He added that he was investigating the possibility of releasing older draftees from the army after the drafting of younger men. General Marshall opposed a provision in the bill that men under 20 must be given a year’s training before they be sent into combat. He explained that unexpected emergencies might require the shortening of the period.