The Plattsburg Manual Part 24

To become eligible for appointment as an officer of the Officers'

Reserve Corps a man must be not less than twenty-one years of age and must be a citizen of the United States.

THE OFFICERS' RESERVE CORPS IN WAR

In time of actual or threatened hostilities the President can order officers of the Reserve Corps to temporary duty with the Regular Army, or as officers at recruiting rendezvous and depots, or on such duty as he may prescribe. An officer thus called into service receives the same pay and allowances as an officer of the same rank in the Regular Army.

When thus called out Reserve Officers may be promoted in rank to vacancies in volunteer organizations. Retired officers of the Officers'

Reserve Corps are not ent.i.tled to retired pay but are ent.i.tled to pensions for disability incurred in line of duty and while in active service. When called out for active service an officer in the Reserve Corps will be required to obey the laws and regulations for the government of the Army of the United States in so far as they are applicable to officers whose permanent retention in the military service is not contemplated.

THE OFFICERS' RESERVE CORPS IN PEACE

During peace the Secretary of War can order any Reserve Officer to duty for instruction for a period not to exceed fifteen days in any one calendar year. While so serving, an officer will receive the pay and allowance of his grade in the Regular Army. This period of service may be extended with the consent of the Reserve Officer. By thus extending such periods of instruction a Reserve Officer may, at the conclusion thereof, be examined for promotion to the next higher grade.

EXAMINATIONS

Each applicant for a commission in the Reserve Corps will be given a rigid physical examination. Make certain that you can pa.s.s such an examination. Go to your family physician and get him to examine you.

The examinations for Reserve Corps commissions are for the purpose of ascertaining the practical ability of the applicant. The record of all the service and training the applicant has had at training camps is considered as part of the examination.

Those desiring to enter the Officers' Reserve Corps may elect any of the following sections:

1. Infantry Officers' Reserve Corps.

2. Cavalry Officers' Reserve Corps.

3. Field Artillery Officers' Reserve Corps.

4. Coast Artillery Officers' Reserve Corps.

5. Medical (to include the reserve officers of the Medical Corps, Dental Corps, and Veterinary Corps) Officers' Reserve Corps.

6. Adjutant General's Officers' Reserve Corps.

7. Judge Advocate General's Officers' Reserve Corps.

8. Inspector General's Officers' Reserve Corps.

9. Quartermaster Officers' Reserve Corps.

10. Engineer Officers' Reserve Corps.

11. Ordnance Officers' Reserve Corps.

12. Signal Officers' Reserve Corps.

REPORTS TO BE MADE

Officers in the Officers' Reserve Corps are required to report at once to the Adjutant General of the Department in which they live or to the heads of the Staff Corps or Departments to which they may belong of any permanent change of address. If a change of address to any other department is involved the adjutant of each department should be notified.

THE RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS

The President is authorized to establish and maintain in civil educational inst.i.tutions a Reserve Officers' Training Corps which shall consist of senior and junior divisions.

SENIOR DIVISION

A senior division of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps may be established at any university and college requiring of its students four years of collegiate study for a degree, and at essentially military schools which, as a result of annual inspection of such inst.i.tutions by the War Department, are especially designated as qualified to establish a unit of the senior division. Authorities of the former (universities and colleges not essentially military) must establish and maintain a two years' elective or compulsory course of military training, as a minimum, for its physically fit male students. This course, when entered upon, must in the case of such students be a prerequisite for graduation.

When any member of this senior division has completed two academic years of service in that division; has been selected by the president of the inst.i.tution and by its professor of military science and tactics (who must be an army officer); has made a written agreement to continue in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps for the remainder of his course in the inst.i.tution, devoting five hours per week to the military training prescribed by the Secretary of War; has also made a written agreement to pursue the courses in training camps (one camp of not more than six weeks' duration each year) prescribed by the Secretary of War)--when he has fulfilled all these conditions, he may be given, at the expense of the United States, a money commutation of subsistence at a rate not exceeding the cost of the garrison (army) ration during the remainder of his service in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. This will amount to about thirty cents a day. This provision applies only to the senior division.

JUNIOR DIVISION

A junior division of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps may be established at any inst.i.tution to which an army officer has been detailed as the professor of military science and tactics, and which cannot meet the necessary requirements for the senior division. In this case the Government does not give a commutation of subsistence and the students are not asked to obligate themselves as in the senior division.

TO ENTER THE RESERVE OFFICERS' CORPS

The President is authorized, under such regulations as he may prescribe, to appoint in the Officers' Reserve Corps any graduate of the senior division of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, who shall have satisfactorily completed the two-year course of training (five hours a week), incident to receiving a commutation of rations; also any graduate of the junior division who shall have satisfactorily completed the courses of military training prescribed for students of the senior divisions, referred to in the first part of this paragraph, and shall have partic.i.p.ated in such practical instruction, subsequent to graduation, as the Secretary of War shall have prescribed. They must be twenty-one years of age and must make written agreement under oath to serve the United States for ten years.

Any physically fit male citizen of the United States, between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-seven years, who graduated prior to June 22, 1916, from any educational inst.i.tution at which an officer of the Army was detailed as professor of military science and tactics, and who, while a student at such inst.i.tution, completed courses of military training substantially equivalent to those prescribed for the senior division of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, may, after satisfactorily completing such additional practical military training as the Secretary of War shall prescribe, be eligible for appointment to the Officers' Reserve Corps.

The President can appoint and commission, as a temporary second lieutenant of the Regular Army in time of peace, for the purpose of instruction and for a period not to exceed six months, any Reserve Officer who was appointed in the manner described in the two preceding paragraphs. A temporary second lieutenant will receive the allowance authorized by law for that grade and pay at the rate of $100 a month. He will be attached to a unit of the Regular Army for duty and training. At the end of the six months he will revert to the status of a Reserve Officer.

DEPARTMENT COMMANDER'S REPORT

At the end of each calendar year department commanders and chiefs of staff corps and departments compile lists of members of the Officers'

Reserve Corps under their command, showing:

(a) Name, rank, age, and address.

(b) Amount of instruction received.

(c) Progress made.

(d) Efficiency of officer.

(e) Recommendation.

A copy of these lists will be forwarded to the Adjutant General of the Army.