Assignment: Oxford

With military precision and the help of expanded studies in the humanities, U.S. service academies this year plucked a prize bag of Rhodes scholarships. The impetus: a sharp new drive at West Point and the Air Academy* to plunge bright graduates into the heady whirl of Britain's ancient Oxford University. The Air Academy won its first scholarship, and there were a record five for West Pointt (matched only by Harvard). Recalls one awed civilian competitor, who stepped into the exam ring with them: "They looked like tall glasses of cold milk."

Last week the six winners looked more like close-cropped Spartans cut loose in Athens. Donning black robes and boarding bicycles, they found Oxford a startling experience. They met their tutors, pondered invitations to join the Zen Buddhist club, learned where to sneak in after college gates close at midnight. The headiest shock was Oxford's enfolding leisure. Suddenly there was time to talk all night, to sleep until noon. "Back there," mused the go-go Air Academy's Brad Hosmer, 21, "I barely had time to read a book a week." Muttered another unbound lieutenant: "I keep thinking I ought to be doing something every second."

Scope & Depth. Everywhere lay temptations to loaf for the next two years, forget that the Oxford tour ends with a do-or-die final examination. Officially on active duty, military Rhodesmen draw full lieutenant's pay as well as the $2,100 annual Rhodes stipend. Attached to the U.S. embassy in London, they get cut-rate PX privileges. They can dress in well-groomed contrast to their colleagues; they can buy cars and hi-fi sets, live in tonier style than all but the richest bloods of wealthy Christ Church College. "You chaps," said an envious Briton, "are the heirs to Edwardian Oxford."

The military students seem less Edwardian than determined. Air Academy-man Hosmer (No. 1 in his class) is backed by West Pointers Jim Ray (No. 2 in his class), Stan Karanowski (No. 3), Powell Hutton (No. 4), Mike Gillette (No. 23) and Pete Dawkins (No. 10), West Point's celebrated Ail-American halfback and first captain of cadets. Dawkins will play Rugby only for his intramural Brasenose College team ("not with a splash, but gradually"). Hosmer will do some wistful spare-time flying ("All my classmates are in pilot training"). The real job is Oxford's challenging labor: the independent pursuit of "fineness of mind." All are reading "P.P.E." (philosophy-politics-economics), a stiff course enthusiastically approved by the U.S. military. "This is an ideal opportunity," says Pete Dawkins. "At West Point, we achieved a certain scope in our education. What we need now is depth."

Curiosity & Cynic'sm. When they roll into Oxford, military Rhodesmen face two hard new lessons: self-discipline ("thinking on your own, not external discipline"), and the humbling fact that their intellectual backgrounds, while deeper in math and science, are not as broad as those of civilian Rhodesmen. The usual reaction is to work extra hard, read more books than ever before, hustle off to concerts, even to plunge into such unmilitary pursuits as literary magazines and theater groups. Result: somewhat less relish for barracks life. "The services take a gamble letting us come here," says an Army Rhodesman after two years at Oxford. "But I think it pays off for them in the long run. I know it does for us."

Socially, military Rhodesmen are among the university's most popular students. Academically, they have hung up distinguished records. In "schools" (final exams), West Pointers won one first in 1957, three in 1958--a phenomenal showing. Oxford's habits of curiosity and quiet cynicism rub off on them; they may end up seeming a strange breed to the brass who sent them. But U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Thomas D. White is all for it. Said he firmly last year: "I know of no greater background than a Rhodes scholarship to equip an outstanding officer to deal with his future."

*But not at Annapolis, whose young seagoing graduates are always promoted faster than landbound Rhodesmen. t Since the first contingent in 1925, West Pointers have won 40 scholarships.

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