 In the fall of 1964, legislation affecting the substance and scope of the Army Reserve Officers Training Program was passed for the Congress of the United States. Central to its theme is the affirmation that excellence is now essential to survival, then its quest must be intensified. It is in the light of this development that the Army of the United States presents this profile. The time was December of 1944, the place near Bastogne. Two men wearing American uniforms told this lieutenant to move his troops a mile to the east. The lieutenant thought for a moment and then had his men move them both to the rear as prisoners of war. Had the choice been his, what would he have done? Korea, 1952. Seven men, 6,000 miles from home, fought the thrust of a four-day storm and then, uncertain of their positions, frozen their tracks. Rejecting further contact with the unknown, they waited and were put out of action. What would they have done under similar conditions? On a recent convoy abroad, 13 men faced an order-bound showdown. One man took charge. Hilled his ground and, after 18 hours, broke the deadlock in his favor. Would he have done the same? This is Indian Town Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania. These are college students and this is their prologue to leadership. Trump had given uncertain sound. Who shall prepare himself to do battle? The line is from the Bible. What is the sound of a certain trumpet? What is the nature of command? Is it loud or hard-headed? Is it decisiveness? But what is a decision made of? Is it a hopeful stab or is it more than that? Is leadership the same as maturity? But what does maturity mean? Is it flexibility or endurance? These men are ROTC cadets. The Indian Town Gap one of six ROTC summer training camps has opened its gates to 3,500. It does so each summer. To make men like these stretch for the reins of command. The stretch starts on the day of arrival and unwinds from the ground up. Moral support is extended by men who perform a traditional conviction. Gentlemen, you're hopeless, they say. You're shameful. You're disgraced, they say. You've got no point. Not only that, you're all out of step. And you can almost hear the reply, almost. But we'll skip it for their traditional tune. It's the legendary introduction to summer training at the gap for 3,500 cadets representing 80 colleges and universities throughout the 50 states. Each man here has already taken at least 330 hours of military training in on-campus ROTC programs. Along with his normal schedule of academic studies. Many of the cadets will go into the more advanced phases of scientific and technical subjects such as rocketry, electronics, data processing and research and development. Subjects that will help them fulfill the increasing need for officers capable of working with a highly sophisticated weapons and equipment of the modern army. All of this in preparation for the demands that await this generation. Much of the man in which those requirements will be met can be seen right here at this summer camp. Or is at this reservation that attitudes toward the physical realities of training for leadership emerge. There are two noticeable kinds. The first appears devoted to the idea that effort is fine, provided it doesn't take too much work. Perhaps it's rare, but it's there. The second, more prevalent, is being aware that assigned tasks are for purposes other than personal annoyance. Frequently then, it's on this first day that men will publicly cast their dyes. A few will not go the distance. It can be read in the relaxed stride or on a man's face. Summer may be for lounging, but not here. The gap serenity can never be read that way. It's a competitive place. It must be so. For those who wins, there's far more at stake. The tenants' bars are not one of man's natural rights. Men have lost them at this war because of a point of view. And here, under mock combat conditions, they've been lost on this ground. When a lead pipe cinch became something else at a distance, they've slipped by in an attack on this hill. When the approach to the whole notion became foggy, what is leadership? Foremost, it's a point of view wide enough to allow a man to do his best. The afternoon of the first day is marked by the work of settling in. The snap of commands, new voices, and the casual pace that always surrounds. It is always deceiving. Before sundown, cadets will assign the units and they're welcomed by their company commanders. Companies go to full strength with 200 cadets, 49 to a platoon, 12 to a squad. It's with the squad that a man must measure up and will see himself as he is seen. Prologue to leadership requires such a setting. To allow men to sound their brass, hear it reverberate and then watch its effect. They will soon compete with each other. The command will alternate among them. To succeed in that command, the man will have to keep the long view in mind. Or if he falls prey to dishing out personal lumps or uses temporary dominance to extend favoritism, he will threaten his own standing. ROTC instruction insists that the cadet learn the command without arrogance and obey without resentment. Intelligence, tact, integrity, logic, decisiveness, judgment. All will be urged to the surface. At one point in this six-week cycle, each man will be asked to rate his buddies. It was all classroom theory a day ago. Actuality has now taken hold and it has a different look. The friar will be hard. Every man knows it. The first day ends that way. The remaining 40 begin on this note. It's five o'clock a.m. The hour is not conducive to conversation, but there's private speculation. What precisely is expected? The schedule will answer some of this, but beyond that. The second day at Indian Town Gap provides a number of fast clues. The atmosphere is different. Strict discipline is imposed. The making of a bed becomes exacting. Square corners become an issue. And again, the man's viewpoint is put on trial. Is there a sign of resentment here or there? Is there a man around who feels he's too far on in years to do it this way? Or will it be done as it should? What is leadership? Perhaps it's a sense of proportion. The agenda is a restless one. It's meant to be. The problems of combat are never charitable. Commanders seldom enjoy margins for meditation. The candidate therefore must begin to tread the thin line in his leadership's tightrope. He must resist being goaded into making snap judgments. He must also reject the urge to turn his back to the clamor that's bound to surround him. Now, let's see. Don't fire until you have the target lined up in your sights. Your weapon has an effective range of 500 yards and a maximum reach of 10,560 feet. That's 20 yards shy of two full miles. It has a muzzle velocity of 2,800 feet per second and can fire better than once every two seconds. Don't get distracted and don't jerk the trigger. Squeeze it. Concentrate. Leadership must include the ability to reason when a man can't hear himself think. And then doing well, those things you must one day ask others to do. The men on this range represent no less than 90 years of college training. The prognosis for their future indicates that many will move to the front ranks of whatever careers they choose. And the ROTC program will be due some of the credit. The facts are that more than 100 general officers on active duty today have taken the ROTC college curriculum and summer field program. 10% of the members of the 88th Congress have faced these targets. 24% of our state governors and 28% of the selected group of business executives earning between $100,000 and $330,000 a year have also been a part of this scene. Perhaps more happens here. More than is obvious. Men who've dealt with theories must see them work. That's what happens here. Leadership is an awareness of the actual touch and sound of things. It's a thing called persistence when a goal becomes soft and lucid. It's stability when an objective won't be pinned down. It's a memory for facts. Gentlemen, this item weighs 2 pounds 5 ounces. You'll overcompensate without knowing it. It has a muzzle velocity of 830 feet per second. The weapon will buck. But don't anticipate it. The cartridge weighs 234 grains and is heavy enough to stop a target. Ideally, a quest for excellence must include time away. Ideally, a quest for excellence must include time away. Ideally, a quest for excellence must include time away. Dedication in the pursuit of an ideal is one thing. Obsession another. Obsession another. Or it has a way of fencing in a man's view of the world. Or it has a way of fencing in a man's view of the world. There must be room for this kind of reflection. The principles of land-mine warfare provide this clear-cut lesson. The crucial distinction between impulsiveness and reason is leadership. Impulsiveness can be no part of leadership. It can have no place on these grounds. Cicero once said of Pompey, an officer is able to control others only to the extent that he's first learned to control himself. Here, ROTC cadets are exposed to the actualities of chemical warfare inside the shelter. They're not required to control their tears. They're not required to control their tears. That would be unrealistic. But it is required that they learn to control their fears. This hasn't changed since the days when Cicero made his pronouncements. The uses of the bayonet must still be taught. Men who would use them against us are still in business. A six-day week can close on that thought. The uses are not part of the training schedule. But they are integral to the quality of ROTC. And men attend them at Indian Town Gap. Involvement here, though always personal, may take on an added awareness of the cause which these men are now bound to protect. If the Trump had given uncertain sound, who should prepare himself to do battle? Certainty comes not only through the use of facts, but through an understanding of people. This is Bivouac at the Gap. A short period in the field in which each man will go through the paces of things learned before. He'll also face men of a crack regular army unit who deploy as aggressors. This man's certainty will depend upon his awareness of those in his immediate command. Who is dependable? What man here will drag his feet? Are there any clutch hitters on board? Is there someone here who look great in practice but will fan the air when the chips are down? If he is given command, he must know what others think of him and still be able to use that knowledge. He must distinguish lip service from sincerity. He must be sensitive to the prevailing mood and then make it work to his advantage. Certainty is a prime sinew of leadership. It goes to those who can read between the lines on other men's faces. At a glance, map reading is deceivingly simple. Relating locations for compass headings. Likewise, obvious and simple. What is leadership? Perhaps it's the acquired knack of rejecting confusion as well as a sudden hunch and relying on logic instead. Perhaps it's made up of composure in the wake of uncertainty of an ability to articulate when no one else will and of a willingness to take the rap for a judgment when someone must. Daylight navigation and night patrolling both hold the value of projecting a man to the high ground of command. And the man will find himself alone there, making private judgments while others wait for the answers. ROTC Combat Leadership gets its first real test in this setting. During this exercise in which a rifle squad goes into an attack, not only are awareness, judgment, logic, and endurance brought into play, but also a capacity for organization and for the systematic control of that organization. It might best be called leadership in motion. The introduction of heavier weapons normally occurs during the fifth week of the cycle. The 81 millimeter mortar is presented. Gentlemen, the mortar you see here is a smooth ball, muzzle loading, high angle of fire weapon. Its maximum range is nearly two and a half miles. It speaks with authority and is deadly accurate. The sight mechanism features a collimator, elevation, and lateral deflection mechanism To succeed in the realm of anything strange, a man should first have a quiet understanding with himself. He must know that the exercise of his own willpower can make him equal to any task and he must be convinced that that's him. ROTC has in its ranks and in its history people who have fashioned that conviction into historic deeds. In the realm of combat, DC graduates received medals of honor during the Korean action. Ames, James L. Stone from the University of Arkansas, Edward R. Showalter, BMI, John U.D. Page from Princeton, and Lloyd Scooter Burke from Henderson State College. Scooter Burke's citation perhaps typifies the kind of quiet agreement that these men had. On the 28th of October of 1951, Lloyd Burke, a first lieutenant with Company C of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment found his men pinned down by intense enemy fire zeroed in from the high ground above them. On top of that hill, three enemy bunkers untouchable from below. Lieutenant Burke left the CP and made a lone assault on the nearest one and took it to the unbelieving eyes below the lieutenant overpowered the second in place. The third proved more stubborn. Grenades appeared and sailed down toward the Scooter but Burke fielded them and tossed them back. Then at the rate of enemy fire increased he juggled three boxes of 30 caliber ammunition with one light machine gun and overpowered more than a hundred defending troops. Gentlemen, the 106-millimeter recoilless rifle fires a 37-pound round consisting of a primer, a propelling charge located in a perforated case in a fused projector. The incident defies leadership is that quiet understanding of the relationship between willpower and achievement. This type of training usually comes during the sixth and final week of the cycle. The chips are now very much down. The officially designated FTX or the concluding field training exercise provides each man with a chance to take full command. This is the ballgame. The coaches have left the playing field. The clock is running down and the referees are keeping score. These tactics are now pitted against individual judgment and reason. Against a man's memory and logic. Against his persistence and stability. They'll try his fears in sense of proportion. Press his awareness of others and of situations around him. They'll rattle his willpower and if those qualities hold then the forecast for a future of responsible leadership will be good. The next summer, and there'll be others in the summers that follow. And though the needs of the times will change, they should also do well. For the Congress aware of the quickening educational pace and of the amazing proliferation of brand new material as provided for the revitalization of the ROTCE program in addition to the well-known four-year on-campus program a new two-year program with summer training scheduled between the sophomore and junior years will permit junior college transferees to step into the advanced ROTC program and to make this kind of critical higher education more readily available to more young people. The Army now has a program whereby a student enrolling in the four-year ROTC program may be able to qualify for an ROTC scholarship. What would these men have done in Bastogne and Korea and Berlin? We can perhaps only feel that they would have done well. A better answer will have to wait for a future date for this is not the end of their story. It's just the last day of summer training and only the end of a prologue.