 all three times according to your own statement. Why? Three familiar words. Bought to the United States Army, they represent very special challenges. What the Army is doing to meet them is the subject of this film report. We're about to see a unique Army communication facility located in the Pentagon. So unique and vital to our national defense that an extensive security control system is perpetually operational. On the other side of this electronically operated door is the Department of the Army Telecommunication Center. Hello, I'm Colonel William Taylor and for the next 10 minutes I'll be escorting you through one of the most sophisticated and automated communication centers anywhere in the world. Here in what we call Army Switch is part of a 560-line Department of Army telephone system with a directory listing that is worldwide. From these four console positions continuously attended only unclassified communication passes through the system. The Army Switch console, however, is only part of the system. The partner in this 560-line system is located in the Army Operations Center below ground level of the Pentagon. This is the Emergency Action Console through which high-president manual switching and conferencing services are continuously provided. The sophistication of this system links our military services and government agencies with speed and predetermined accuracy unknown to communicators during World War II and Korea. Let's assume that an incoming call received at the Emergency Action Console is a high priority intended for the Chief of Staff, Army, who is en route to a destination somewhere within the military district of Washington. Since the Chief of Staff is en route to a destination in Washington, D.C., this call is switched from the Emergency Action Console to... See, I thought that this is the AALC. I have a call for the Chief of Staff. On the operator, sir. Army switch on the fifth floor of the Pentagon where the call will be processed by the co-located net control station of the Department of the Army FM Radio Command Network. From this console, the call will be relayed to the sedan carrying the Army Chief of Staff. From Saigon to the Pentagon, from the White House to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from military commands around the world, this Army system ensures that voice communication is only a telephone call away. What you're about to see next are the electronic communication systems which link this telecommunication center to every level of our government, military and civilian. This facility operates under the direction of the United States Army Strategic Communications Command. It is operationally self-sustaining, providing its own air-conditioning and power supplying independent to that furnished Pentagon. As conventional methods of communication could no longer meet demand, the distillation of modern communication was incorporated into the computer. Actually, the computer is much less dramatic in appearance than most of the hardware which comprises an information system. What is dramatic is the unseen speed and range of information available in what communicators call real-time service. Completely automated, incredibly fast, extremely accurate and reliable, and with a volume capacity which is almost limitless. A message for transmission arrives here via a pneumatic tube. The message originator prepares the heading. Text and ending. Security classification and transmission priority will also be shown. Hour and date received are stamped on every message. Now automatic high-speed electronic equipment assumes control. These optical character readers receive a message and automatically read it for format accuracy at a rate of 10,000 characters per minute. The optical reader, to your right, produces a paper tape of the message, which will be used in transmission. This reader does not produce a paper tape. It is electrically compatible with the Army's automatic electronic switching system located here in the telecommunication center. Should either optical reader detect a format error, incorrect address heading, garbled words or transposed letters in prepared heading or ending, this video display tube gives an operator a system check to correct the error or errors so that the system will accept the message. When the system has accepted the message format, transmission is automatic through this intricate electronic message switching system. Every message is generalized onto tape and logged out on another tape for actual transmission. As many as 20,000 messages a day pass through this system on their way to destinations throughout the United States and overseas. Two identical systems provide 123 lines, two of which are automatic digital network circuits. While automated systems have dramatically reduced manpower and space requirements, their complex and intricate design require human operators with superior skills and technical expertise. Automatic message switching to single or multiple addresses anywhere within the system is only one of the data communications services provided. Every message is automatically controlled, routed, held while higher priority traffic is sent, protected from becoming lost, and terminated at designated points as directed by information contained in each message heading. Every 15 minutes, the system makes an automatic circuit control check to ensure that no station in the system may have lost operational contact to transmit or receive. The performance, speed, accuracy, and reliability of this automatic switching system means that every level of our government can be instantly alerted to any incident wherever it may occur, which portends emergency, disaster, or international crisis. And it means swift response to civil emergencies and coordinated assistance to public sectors. All this plus day-to-day command and control and management functions. Despite the sophistication of electronic communication, the most important resource is still people. System specialists, equipment operators, maintenance technicians, and technical control experts whose professionalism and experienced skills enable these complex systems to perform and deliver as demanded. There are various data communications services provided by these systems. By use of punched cards or magnetic tape. An average of 30 separate customers involving several million records a month are processed by this particular real-time system, which automatically compiles and prints a daily summary of volume and service. This system, a recent addition, is among the most advanced in computer technology. Its information storage and volume capacity will deliver an even greater and more flexible range of communication services. This offline telecommunications center system provides a data and statistical record processing to its users, which includes automatic recall of any message transmitted through a system in this facility. To keep ahead of the information and communication demands which engulf us and which will continue to expand in the years ahead, a still more advanced system is being installed here. Communication by definition is simple. The challenge is in supplying demand with modern, automatic, high-speed, reliable, and accurate systems. Here at the Army's telecommunications center, that challenge has been successfully met. Nowhere else does there exist a communication facility like this one, which the Army has been proud to have shown you during this visit. How often have you been told that to get a promotion or a pay raise, it's who you know, not what you know? Well, for the career soldier in today's United States Army, that advice just isn't true. It's what you know and how well you know it that counts. Promotion, pay increase, proficiency pay, career advancement. They're all up to the individual. In July 1970, a new Army-wide enlisted efficiency reporting system went into effect. It's part of a centralized evaluation system, comparing each enlisted soldier to all others in his or her military occupation specialty, skill level, and pay grade throughout the Army. If it sounds too good or too easy. Well then, here's someone you ought to meet. Sergeant First Class Robert Wilson, Light Weapons Infantryman, assigned to the 8th Infantry Division in West Germany. His success story is typical of many career soldiers in today's Army. His began with a posted announcement of the Military Occupational Specialty, or MOS evaluations, scheduled for the next predetermined testing period. His MOS code, 11 Bravo 40, was included. That meant he would be competing against every other man in the Army, with his MOS code and pay grade. How well he would do would greatly determine his career advancement and chances for promotion. Robert Wilson began preparing himself. A test aid developed by the Army's Enlisted Evaluation Center offered more than 20 test references, along with administrative instructions concerning the actual test. The free hours he spent studying available references in his company, and in Army technical libraries, could only improve his chances for success. The questions testing his skills, knowledge and proficiency were approved, prepared and distributed by the Enlisted Evaluation Center, located at Fort Benjamin Harris in Indiana. This center operates under the direction of the Army's Office of Personnel Operations. Not only was Sergeant Wilson's test prepared here, so too was his test result. This, combined with his most recent efficiency report, would result in his receiving a comprehensive individual evaluation. Long before testing or evaluation, the questions on Robert Wilson's test were first proposed by subject matter specialists at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, one of the 32 service schools which formulate test questions. These item writing field agencies forward proposed questions through the Enlisted Evaluation Center for Analysis, Modification and Selection by Test Measurement Specialists. Throughout the Army, local authority for the Enlisted Evaluation System is vested in several hundred test control officers, civilian and military, who are responsible for test control procedures within their area. Safeguarding testing materials, ensuring their integrity and preventing their compromise are also their responsibilities. The test Robert Wilson took was only one of 900 prepared to evaluate more than a half million career soldiers. The tests are usually multiple choice and must be completed within a time span of three hours. However, there is no bonus for finishing early. Your knowledge and accuracy are what count. All test answer sheets accompanied by test rosters are returned to the Enlisted Evaluation Center, where electronic data processing transfers test information to magnetic tape. Each test result is then fed into a computer, which compares individual results with all others of the same Army-wide test. An evaluation test profile is then produced, which will show how well Sergeant Wilson did, compared to all others tested in his 1-1 Bravo 40 MOS and skill level. His final evaluation score will be a combination of his test score and the numerical score from his Enlisted Efficiency Reports. These are the expressed written opinions made at least twice a year by his supervisor. High-speed data processing will then compare this combined score with those of all others tested in the same MOS skill level and pay grade. For every soldier tested, an evaluation data report will be produced, which is a weighted combination of test and efficiency scores. Sergeant Wilson's evaluation data report said it all, and clearly. He knew he ranked above all others with his MOS skill level and pay grade. Centralized personal management, comprehensive evaluation, and review. These are the keys to career advancement in this new Army Enlisted Evaluation System. It gives every one of these soldiers an equal opportunity for job and pay promotion, just as it did newly promoted Sergeant E-8, Robert Wilson, who also received a new MOS and pay increase. Here's one system that works for the individual, not against him. And it lets you be the key to your own future. The Enlisted Evaluation System doesn't care who you know. Only what you know. Just ask Robert Wilson. He knows. Troubles something this young soldier's familiar with. Voluntarily joining the Army didn't change that. It only altered the kind of trouble he had to face. The part of this young soldier is being acted by a chaplain's aide who is stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. The other persons seen in this segment of our report play themselves. The same is true for his buddies, who despite their individuality have much in common. Their average age is 21. Most of them are single. Education, terminated before or during high school. Army enlistment voluntary, but service record marred by at least one AWOL, probably precipitated by an inability to accept authority. Color, nationality and religion. As meaningless as the days and years it took them to arrive here. Diagnosis, lack of sufficient attitude and motivation to perform as an individual in society and as a soldier in the United States Army. Prognosis, foremost, favorable. Beyond the gate these trainees are passing through is a bold concept in intensive training, leadership, close custodial supervision and specialized correctional treatment. You're about to visit the reality of that concept, which since 1968 has been in operation at Fort Riley, Kansas. The Correctional Training Facility, CTF is its common reference, is equipped to receive up to 150 trainees each week from stockades throughout the United States. To be sent to CTF the trainee must be physically fit. Reflect no severe character disorders. Have sufficient time remaining on his present court martial sentence to complete correctional training. Be convicted of an offense for which he received a sentence that does not include a punitive discharge and not be under consideration for an administrative discharge. The Keystone to the CTF program is the leadership team commanded by a military police or infantry officer. The team leader is assisted by non-commissioned officers and a combination of drill instructors and correctional training specialists. Also we realize that some of you will never go back to duty. One of our processes here is a process of elimination. Some of you people would like to have a good attitude and practice military courtesy. From the moment a trainee arrives at CTF, close direct contact is established and maintained from the leadership team to the unit commander to personal interviews with a chaplain, a lawyer, finance and personnel specialists and a social worker during his first week. It's been a lot of fun so far. I didn't really know what I was going to be like. It turned out to be pretty cool. Why didn't you bring this up in the process? I didn't really think you guys could help me, did I? Well, what type of checks did you write your... What is the problem? Problem solving begins here, by isolating and identifying very real or imagined difficulties. I didn't complete AIT or anything. Start up pretty slow here but it's improved considerably. As a matter of fact he's doing a real fine job. A professional treatment plan is developed by the team leader, unit commander and professional services division specialists at the end of the first week for each trainee. One major thing was when he was on guard duty in Korea at a missile site he walked off his post. So these are definitely some things that we're going to have to look into. Sergeant Warren, you spoke initially with this man, I believe. What impressions did he give you at that time? Sir, he's going to return to duty and at this present stage we had no reason to disbelieve him. We're giving on his weekly evaluation of 36, which is above average for this particular term. Hang in there for the inspection. I've got to get my boots shined up, I've got a muddy and rainy day. I've got pretty sloppy up there for a while. By now the trainee has begun to emerge from his own anonymity, even though he might not agree or even know it. No. Is there water in there? It's really as bad as that over there. Everybody smoking all the time? No, not all of them. Now, wouldn't you be worried if you had to go on appeal to somebody who's on that stuff and that stuff? No, nothing. Five types of discharge certificates. The CTF training cycle is nine weeks. During the first four, motivation training is stressed. To place our blame. This correctional approach is aimed at reaching the trainee by assisting him in personal affairs, legal and financial problems. He's called a trainee even though he's still a prisoner. Cadry and correctional specialists are not armed. Custodial supervision through intensive leadership is substituted for incarceration or punitive control. Important to instilling motivation within each trainee is giving him a chance to communicate with his team leader, Cadry, correctional specialists, and with his own contemporaries. To inform you of some of the pitfalls that young troopers get involved into. Right face. Right face is used to face the individual soldier 90 degrees to the right. The command for this movement is right face. Right face. Trainees are encouraged to find outlets which are constructive and in which they begin to participate individually and collectively. Among the most popular are church, sports, and music programs, visits to museums, field trips, and the CTF drill team. Near the close of the fourth week, military training is greatly accelerated. When a trainee has completed this nine week course, he will be credited with completion of basic training and will be qualified for advanced individual training or assignment to a unit if he already possesses a military specialty. The motto of CTF is duty bound. Behind that motto and every trainee success story are CTF's people, the team leader, leadership team, chaplains, lawyers, social workers, cooks, supply and personnel specialists, finance counselors, program researchers, and evaluators. They all support and assist him. Their one objective is to motivate and train him to adjust to successfully face his society and the duty station to which he will be sent after he leaves CTF. From out of the chain of military command, this man too is an important part of the CTF program. He's a counselor from the Seventh Step Foundation, a national organization of self-help for convicts and ex-convicts. He is an ex-convict. Perhaps because of his background, the rapport he can establish and maintain with trainees has proved extremely helpful to CTF cadre and correctional program specialists. We owe these things to ourselves. This trainee is one of the eight out of every 10 who completed their training successfully and have been given a new duty assignment. With the help of CTF, his remaining confinement for military offense conviction has been remitted. Is it time for your family? Yes, sir. Getting brothers and sisters? Yeah. On the other side of this gate, there may be a 10-day leave and then a brand new beginning. Trouble is no longer a major factor in his way of life. All he needed was a chance to find himself and decide whether he really liked what he found. The correctional training facility gives every trainee that chance. The part of Private Crotty has been played by a chaplain's aide.