T.I.S.

No breeze stirred. The hot Georgia air in Fort Benning's Theater No. 4, Harmony Church area, was heavy, and faintly scented with sweat. At the rear of the long, wooden building a dozen nervous girls fidgeted in their best cotton dresses, a wilted handful of tired parents watched with quiet pride. Slowly and earnestly the 159 men repeated the oath of office, then marched forward one by one to receive commissions in the Army of the U.S.

Thus last week was graduated the newest class from one of the world's toughest, biggest educational mills--The Infantry School, U.S. Army. Since the summer of 1941, T.I.S. has been churning out trained company officers (lieutenants and captains), sometimes hitting 1,000 a week. The majority are from Officer Candidate School; the remainder held commissions already but knew little of the practical arts of war. Last week's graduates brought the total well over 40,000.

Only battle will prove how good are these 40,000, and only battle will give them the combat polish that marks the full-fledged fighting man. But T.I.S., vastly expanded, vastly speeded up, has worked its pupils into a soldier's mold with an efficiency that has made pedagogues gape. Yale's Dr. James G. Rogers calls it "magnificent." A Harvard Law School professor, after a lifetime studying teaching methods, was unable to suggest an improvement, said it was "perhaps the most important place in America." A graduate, who had degrees from Harvard and Oxford, said: "My education did not begin until I came to Benning."

How They Do It. The formula is crack teachers and psychologists, using hundreds of visual aids. Each lesson is approached the same way: explanation, demonstration, application, examination, discussion. T.I.S. students add three more: perspiration, exasperation, exhaustion.

In classes of 200 (25% is average mortality among O.C.s), students start off with six weeks' intensive study of the infantryman's 13 weapons, from Garand to bazooka. They learn what each can and cannot do; sometimes they aim a weapon two hours before firing. They also learn to live harder and in more orderly fashion than they knew even in the Army's tough school of the enlisted soldier.

Weapons mastered, the final seven weeks drives home how to use them. By doing and redoing under battle conditions, they learn how to attack armored cars and low-flying planes, dig foxholes that will not cave in when tanks grind over them, fight in gas attacks, neutralize mine fields. Three times each class attacks enemy villages with live ammunition.

"Hellzapoppin exercise" is the toughest. Under live machine-gun fire, with tanks charging and land mines exploding, two platoons of students advance through open terrain, firing mortars, rifles, machine guns. In these and other battle exercises, students alternate as commanders. At course's end each student grades his platoonmates on the priceless quality: military leadership. Averaged with instructors' grades, these ratings make up T.I.S.'s estimate of how well its alumni will do in battle.

So far they have proved accurate bases for selecting the kind of soldiers in which the U.S. was most deficient when war came, men who can lead the small units (platoons and companies) of the Army.

Why They Did It. T.I.S. was founded on a lesson from World War I: infantry tactics and training must be kept rigorously up to date. Prewar alumni and one time instructors include George Marshall, Omar Bradley, "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, many another silver-starred Army name. Commandant for the last 16 months has been Major General Leven C. Allen, a non-West Pointer who led a machine-gun company in the A.E.F., has a thumping reputation as a teaching soldier. Head of the academic department is Brigadier General George H. Weems, a hard-bitten Tennesseean, who got his nickname of "Daddy" as oldest man in West Point's 1917 class. Both know T.I.S. from early days when they lived in tents, handled 750 students a year.

The team of Lev Allen and Daddy Weems was beaming last week. T.I.S.'s program was well over the hump. Starting next month, they can expand the course to 17 weeks as the need for new officers slackens (TIME, April 26). This week T.I.S. will have its first formal inspection by Lieut. General Lesley McNair, head of the Army Ground Forces. Among the sights: 239 first classmen from West Point, 90 officers of the newly activated 42nd ("Rainbow") Division taking refresher courses.

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