Manual of Military Training Part 60

Although these signals can be used with a dot and dash code, they should be so used in connection with a preconcerted or conventional code.

_Morse Code. (American Morse Code)_[7]

=866.= Used only by the army on telegraph lines, on short cables, and on field lines, and on all commercial lines in the United States.

A - B - C D - E F - G - - H I J - - K - - L -- M - - N - O P Q - R S T - U - V - W - - X - Y Z &

NUMERALS

1 - - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - - - 6 7 - - 8 - 9 - - 0 ---

PUNCTUATION

Period - - Comma - - Interrogation - -

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Extracts from Signal Book, United States Army.

[7] Extracts from Signal Book, United States Army.

PART II

COMPANY COMMAND

CHAPTER I

THE GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF A COMPANY

=867. The proper performance of the duty of COMPANY COMMANDER, like the proper performance of any other duty, requires work and attention to business.=

The command of a company divides itself into two kinds of duty: government and administration.

The government includes the instruction, discipline, contentment, and harmony of the organization, involving, as it does, esprit de corps, rewards, privileges, and punishments.

The administration includes the providing of clothing, arms, ammunition, equipage, and subsistence; the keeping of records, including the rendition of reports and returns; and the care and accountability of Government and company property, and the disburs.e.m.e.nt of the company fund.

System and care are prerequisites of good administration.

The efficient administration of a company greatly facilitates its government.

THE CAPTAIN

=868.= With regard to his company the captain stands in the same light as a father to a large family of children. It is his duty to provide for their comfort, sustenance, and pleasure; enforce strict rules of obedience, punish the refractory and reward the deserving.

He should be considerate and just to his officers and men and should know every soldier personally and make him feel that he so knows him.

He should by word and act make every man in the company feel that the captain is his protector.

The captain should not be indifferent to the personal welfare of his men, and when solicited, being a man of greater experience, education, and information, he should aid and counsel them in such a way as to show he takes an interest in their joys and sorrows.

When any men are sick he should do everything possible for them until they can be taken care of by the surgeon. He can add much to the comfort and pleasure of men in the hospital by visiting them from time to time and otherwise showing an interest in their condition.

In fact, one of the officer's most important duties is to look after the welfare of his men--to see that they are well fed, well clothed and properly cared for in every other way--to see that they are happy and contented. The officer who does not look after the welfare of his men to the best of his ability, giving the matter his earnest personal attention, neglects one of the princ.i.p.al things that the Government pays him to do.

The soldier usually has a decided feeling for his captain, even though it be one of hatred. With regard to the higher grade of officers, he has respect for them according to regulations; otherwise, for the most part, he is indifferent. At the very most, he knows whether his post or regimental commander keeps him long at drill, and particularly whether he has any peculiar habits. The average soldier looks upon his captain as by far the most important personage in the command.

There is no other position in the Army that will give as much satisfaction in return for an honest, capable and conscientious discharge of duty, as that of captain. There is a reward in having done his full duty to his company that no disappointment of distinction, no failure, can deprive him of; his seniors may overlook him in giving credits, unfortunate circ.u.mstances may defeat his fondest hopes, and the crown of laurel may never rest upon his brow, but the reward that follows upon the faithful discharge of his duty to his company he can not be deprived of by any disaster, neglect or injustice.

He is a small sovereign, powerful and great, within his little domain.

=869. Devolution of Work and Responsibility.= The company commander should not attempt to do all the work--to look after all the details in person--he should not try to command directly every squad and every platoon. The successful company commander is the one who distributes work among his subordinates and organizes the help they are supposed to give him. By War Department orders, Army Regulations and customs of the service, the lieutenants and noncommissioned officers are charged with certain duties and responsibilities. Let every one of them carry the full load of their responsibility. The company commander should not usurp the functions of his subordinates--he should not relieve them of any of their prescribed or logical work and responsibility. On the contrary, he should give them more, and he should see that they "deliver the goods." Skill in distributing work among subordinates is one of the first essentials of leaders.h.i.+p, as is the ability to get work out of them so that they will fill their functions to the full within the limits of their responsibility. Not only does devolution of work and responsibility cause subordinates to take more interest in their work (it makes them feel less like mere figure-heads), but it also teaches them initiative and gives them valuable experience in the art of training and handling men. Furthermore, it enables the company commander to devote more time to the larger and more important matters connected with the discipline, welfare, training, instruction and administration of the company.

The captain who allows his lieutenants to do practically nothing makes a mistake--he is doing something that will rob his lieutenants of all initiative, cause them to lose interest in the company, and make them feel like nonent.i.ties--like a kind of "fifth wheel"--it will make them feel they are not, in reality, a part of the company--it will prevent them from getting a practical, working knowledge of the government and administration of a company.

By allowing his lieutenants to partic.i.p.ate to the greatest extent possible in the government and administration of the company, and by not hampering and pestering them with unnecessary instructions about details, the captain will get out of his lieutenants the very best that there is in them.

The captain should require RESULTS from his lieutenants, and the mere fact that a lieutenant is considered inefficient and unable to do things properly, is no reason why he should not be required to do them. The captain is by Army Regulations responsible for the efficiency and instruction of his lieutenants regarding all matters pertaining to the company, and he should require them to perform all their duties properly, resorting to such disciplinary measures as may be considered necessary. The lieutenant who can not, or who will not, perform his duties properly is a drag on the company, and such a man has no business in the Army, or in the Organized Militia.

THE LIEUTENANT

=870.= To be able to perform well the duties of captain when the responsibility falls upon him, should be the constant study and ambition of the lieutenant.

He is the a.s.sistant of the captain and should be required by the captain to a.s.sist in the performance of all company duties, including the keeping of records and the preparation of the necessary reports, returns, estimates and requisitions. The captain should give him lots to do, and should throw him on his own responsibility just as much as possible. He should be required to drill the company, attend the daily inspection of the company quarters, instruct the noncommissioned officers, brief communications, enter letters in the Correspondence Book, make out ration returns, reports, muster and pay rolls, etc., until he shows perfect familiarity therewith.

Whenever told to do a thing by your captain, do it yourself or see personally that it is done. Do not turn it over to some noncommissioned officer and let it go at that. If your captain wants some noncommissioned officer to do the thing, he himself will tell him to do it--he will not ask you to do it.

It is customary in the Army to regard the company as the property of the captain. Should the lieutenant, therefore, be in temporary command of the company he should not make any changes, especially in the reduction or promotion of noncommissioned officers without first having consulted the captain's wishes in the matter.

It is somewhat difficult to explain definitely the authority a lieutenant exercises over the men in the company when the captain is present. In general terms, however, it may be stated the lieutenant can not make any changes around the barracks, inflict any punishment or put men on, or relieve them from, any duty without the consent of the captain. It is always better if there be a definite understanding between the captain and his lieutenants as to what he expects of them, how he wishes to have certain things done and to what extent he will sustain them.

If the lieutenant wants anything from the company in the way of working parties, the services of the company artificer or company clerk, the use of ordnance stores or quartermaster articles, he should always speak to the captain about the matter.

THE CAPTAIN AND THE LIEUTENANTS

=871.= The company officers should set an example to their men in dress, military bearing, system, punctuality and other soldierly qualities. It should be remembered that the negligence of superiors is the cue for juniors to be negligent.

If the men of a company are careless and indifferent about saluting and if they are shabby and lax in their dress, the company commander is to blame for it--company officers can always correct defects of this kind, if they will only try.