september - october - Fort Sill

THE FIELD ARTILLERY JOURNAL
"jitney" problems of mid-fall, are getting harder, and they count more. It is
becoming more difficult, also, to make any estimate as to what the problem
will be about (with exceptions in certain subjects). This calls for a good
deal of reviewing, in order that all the various principles imbibed may be
fresh in mind before putting to the test one's knowledge of any particular
group of them. Two problems have called for "estimates of the situation."
These involve a four-hour struggle to cover reams of paper with a
discussion, and are popular neither with the students nor (I should guess)
with the instructors who have to read them, but are held by the School to be
valuable in teaching such logical approach to a decision as will
thoughtfully weigh all factors before reaching a conclusion.
PRINCIPLES, NOT RULES, GIVEN
One problem, especially, has caused no end of discussion. A Blue
division advancing to cover the frontier from invasion encounters, on its
own soil, a Red reinforced brigade. Another hostile brigade is advancing
some fifteen or twenty miles distant. Each Red force is about two-thirds the
strength of the Blue division. The great majority of the class, some 75 per
cent. in their solution, attacked the leading Red brigade vigorously, in order
to defeat it before it could be reinforced by the other brigade. The School's
solution, on the other hand, surprised many of us by taking up a defensive
position to meet a probable attack from the combined Red forces, while
awaiting Blue reinforcements, due the next day. The critical factor was, of
course, the question of how soon the other brigade could come into
effective supporting action, but it seemed rather a close decision, and the
School happily did not consider that those who attacked had merited a
mark of "U" (unsatisfactory) thereby, if their solutions were otherwise
acceptable. It becomes increasingly clear that no instructor, no school, can
give us rules that will always, or even generally, work—only principles
that must be applied as a matter of individual judgment. Usually, the
School solutions carry conviction, and seem so surprisingly simple and
obvious that one wonders afterwards why it was not all as clear as that
while being worked in the problem room!
You recall that I spoke of the official "committees" that meet weekly,
each with its own two instructors. These meetings afford opportunity for a
discussion of some of the principal errors noted in correcting our papers. In
particular, they are the medium for preparing for the formal "discussions"
held in respect to certain selected problems. Each group, meeting a day or
two after the problem in question, and before the "School solution" has
been published, instructs a spokesman to present its own composite
judgment on some particular phase of the problem. These spokesmen
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