New Philosophy

ARMY & NAVY

After two months of closed-door hearings, Lieut. General Jimmy Doolittle's six-man investigating board delivered its report to the War Department on the cause & cure of the Army's "caste system." Its 53 pages and 10,000 words boiled down to a diagnosis which surprised no one: the roots of the disease were 1) poor leadership; 2) an excessive official and social gap between officers and men.

Most of the witnesses' fire had been concentrated on the small body of officers "inherently unqualified or inadequately trained," who popped up inevitably in an Army swollen fortyfold in wartime. As a remedy, the board recommended a major overhaul of the officer corps. Most significant repairs: promotion by merit instead of seniority; prompt dismissal or demotion of incompetents.

As a further precaution, the board outlined a series of reforms to assure enlisted men "more definite protection from the arbitrary acts of superiors." The Army's rickety military-justice machinery would be modified to include enlisted men as members of courts-martial; sentences would be progressively stiffened for higher ranks. To check up on abuses, the inspector general's office would be beefed up with additional investigators.

Several new bridges were thrown across the officer-enlisted-man gap. Some of them were primarily economic: quarters and travel allowances for all ranks, cumulative furlough time and terminal-leave pay for enlisted men as well as officers. Others were designed to wipe out needless social discriminations, off-duty saluting, the use of such archaic phrases as "officer's ladies and enlisted men's wives."

Unanimously, the board agreed: "There is a need for a new philosophy in the military order: a full recognition of the dignity of man."

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