Small Minds, Big Job

Standing toe to toe against the looming Soviet-satellite army of 175 divisions keeps the five-division U.S. Seventh Army in Germany on constant alert against the day the "balloon goes up" in Western Europe. Merely staying combat-ready in peacetime is tough enough, but the hard-training Seventh is plagued by an even tougher problem: one in three of its 165,000 tankers, atomic cannoneers and plain gravel crunchers should never have been sent overseas in the first place. Reason: they are "eight balls," mentally equivalent to sixth-grade schoolboys, a disciplinary headache to their commanders and a serious drag on their fellow G.I.s.

So grave is the eight-ball problem that tough, alert Lieut. General Bruce Cooper Clarke, Seventh Army commander and veteran combat soldier (World War II and Korea), has sent down the word to his subordinate officers: "These individuals require special motivation and instruction. This group contains many of the misfits who, if they cannot be assimilated, must be eliminated." Last week West Pointer Clarke reported that more than 4,200 misfits had been sent home for discharge, another 3,000 put through special remedial courses. But some 41,000 low-grades still burden Clarke's round-the-clock training program in an age when atomic war requires bright, trained specialists and combat troops able to think and operate in small, independent units.

Most of the blame lies with the U.S. draft, which furnishes about 30% of Army manpower.* Selective Service law requires that all men scoring ten points (approximately equal to fourth grade) or higher on mental tests must be accepted for induction. During the first five months of 1957, some 38% of the Army's inductees were in the lower intelligence brackets (85-95 IQ), partly because students usually get automatic deferments through college and professional school, often miss the draft altogether. To upgrade its manpower, the Army has drastically tightened re-enlistment standards, tried hard to retrain its misfits the world over. Moreover, the Pentagon is readying legislation for Congress ensuring that only those men "who have an effective job performance potential" will enter Army ranks through the draft. In the nuclear age, the Army has discovered, even the truck drivers and the supply clerks must be ready to fight effectively.

-* he Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are currently all-volunteer outfits.

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