It has been said that "artists and poets are born"--and "_soldiers are
made_". True it is, however, that Soldiers are not born. There is not,
and there never will be such a thing as a born soldier, not even in a
hereditary sense. They must be trained. But--to educate and train a man
to be a soldier certain basic elements are absolutely necessary. Ever
since the world began, and hero worship and the cheers, applause and
adulations were first bestowed on such warriors as Caesar, Hannibal,
Alexander and Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and on numerous other
returning conquerors, it has become well known that certain elements or
basic principles have been necessary upon which to build in order to
develop and produce the really great soldier.
Taking the raw material to educate and train, it has been found
essential that a man should possess one or more of the following
requisites. Military bent, instinct or intuition-- Military aptitude and
spirit--and any one or all of these must necessarily be combined with
good, sound, common sense. All, or any one of these elements must either
be inherent or latent and ready for development--for it is--and has been
found--absolutely impossible to develop these essentials in any one man
by a mere process of military education or intensive training-- Unless a
man possesses one or more of these necessary requisites or material to
work on, such education or training is so much wasted effort or labor
lost.
It has frequently happened that men, without possessing any of these
basic elements, not even military sense--or instinct, or the military
spirit--have undergone a military education and severe intensive
training to fit them for what they have been led to believe through
their theoretical instruction are the problems of battle which they
have got to face up to and overcome. Sometimes it has been found
necessary that this initiatory effort shall be made on a real (not a
sham) battle-field. The shock--the rude awakening, the stress, strain
and disillusionment of real battle has then come with such a startling
surprise to some men not physically up to a soldier's standard as to
throw them off their feet--break them down before it is discovered that
lack of physical strength alone debars them from the military
profession, and so destroys their morale and esprit de corps as to
render them unfit for further field service. The ever changing and rapid
developments of battle are so great and constantly pressing that they
call for all there is in any man--and in the twinkling of an eye; his
cool courage--his level-headed judgment--his every ounce of
resourcefulness--and instant decision is called into such rapid action
and it is so quickly drawn upon as to afford no opportunity for much
study, long deliberation, or the privilege of consulting with others.
During this sudden trying out process--the most strenuous that can be
applied to any human being as a complete test of the would be and so
called professional soldier--he may develop just this lack of stamina
and courage-- Of what possible use then is the swivel chair soldier who,
without military bent, instinct or spirit--the military coup d'oeuil
or sense--rushes into battle only to find that it is not what has been
described to him--that the spectacular and moving picture feature of it
is all lacking--and that he is, in every sense out of place in command
of battle service soldiers and an entire "misfit." Could anything be
more pitiful or pathetic than to see an over educated, over trained
soldier of twenty or thirty years' service who has never been "tried
out" when he first makes this discovery? The writer has seen it! These
men when faced up with responsibility, and an emergency, exigency or
crisis arises--always "fall down". They are soon led to recognize their
absolute unfitness for the military profession, for a military command
or to handle any problem growing out of a military position requiring
ripe experience along the lines of ready judgment, rapid action and
quick decision. It is generally too late then, however, few having the
good sense to recognize their failure and leave the service in time to
avoid the disaster that is sure to overtake either themselves or the
unfortunate men under their command and subject to their blunders and
almost criminal short comings. This disposes of an officer's going into
battle before he is ripe--or has been given the battle instinct and
battle sense to try out his theoretical battle knowledge in the presence
of any enemy on the assumption that the book knowledge he has gained has
fitted him for such a test out.
Sometimes--all this effort to make a man a soldier who does not possess
the necessary elements, is attempted through the "Plattsburg system" of
intensive training with the same result-- Again it may be tried through
numerous service schools--the General Staff--the War College course,
etc. But--eventually and inevitably without some one or all of these
basic elements to build on--to unfold, develop and train whatever of the
military spirit that there is in him, it will become necessary, sooner
or later to eliminate him from the game--i. e., to "Can" him. The writer
has scarcely ever seen it fail-- And when there has been any exception
to the rule through political pull or favoritism--and this incompetent,
would-be professional soldier is retained, disaster has been written all
over the pages of his unfortunate military career. All of our wars--the
Civil War--Spanish-American--and now our great World War have clearly
demonstrated this. It is pitiful therefore to see men struggling along
in uniform--absolutely incapable of acquiring battle instinct or battle
sense (simply because they cannot be taught) and the requisites for a
rough and tumble soldier in the field, capable of commanding men under
all circumstances of the emergencies and crises continually arising to
test out a man's military resources--and his ready adaptation to the
problems before him, etc.--because of the lack of just those elements
that go to make up the ever ready soldier. The education of such men
along military--but, more especially along the line of battle problems
is an offense to the nostrils and a clear violation of common sense,
besides giving most battle-service soldiers an indescribable weariness.