European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1967, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday september 24, 1967 the stars and stripes fog. 7 and which Way is Utt the air Force thunderbird demonstration team s fidos can t see in to decide which Way is up during an air How in new Mexico at port of the Celebration of the air Force s birthday. Associated press photo schools help in careers Washington special special career programs for . Army officers Are becoming increasingly popular according to figures just released by the department of the army. Since december 1966 the enrolment has risen from 2,841 to 3,578. The reason for this sudden growth has been an awareness on the part of prospective Mem Bers of How the program enhances promotion chances. The percentage of promotions among the members of specialist pro Grams has been consistently higher than the . Army aver Are however Many openings still left for qualified officers in any of the 11 special career programs. Officers May either apply or be nominated for membership in the areas of atomic Energy automatic Dat processing civil affairs comp troller foreign area studies in formation intelligence logistics operations research procure ment and research and develop Are made on the basis of the candidate s Over Al performance of duty and his qualifications in a 75 per cent of the officer applicants and 89 per cent of the nominees Are accepted. Saigon qui Nhon Plesku in Texas just come to it. Walters and see by Preston Mcgraw it. Wolters Tex. Up morning afternoon and night hundreds of helicopters their Rotor Blades slapping the hot air Stream out of it. Wolters to Ward Bien Hoa Plesku qui Nhon an Khe and Tuy Hoa. Bien Hoa Plesku qui Nhon an Khe and Tuy Hoa in Viet Nam no in Texas. Fledgling helicopter pilots at it. Wolters from their first Day of flight training learn to think of their base As Saigon. The Points in Vietnam to which in less than a year they will be flying Are marked exactly As to distance and direction from it. Wolters. Flying to them becomes second nature in training. They get used to pronouncing the names. When they get to Vietnam and col. Robert 0. Lambert the primary helicopter Center Dep Uty commander estimates that 99.44 per cent do they do no need a lot of maps to get around. The 8,000-acre . Army Pri Mary helicopter Center and school now turns out More than40ft graduates every four weeks. Honorary Recruiter Debra Dene Barnes miss Ameri Ca 1968, accepts a plaque from army capt. Anthony b. Sabino of Long Island City n.y., proclaiming her a member of the .army recruiting service. Ceremonies were held in new York City. Army photo it has More than 1,000 helicopters the Bubble types that Fly two or three persons. Because of increased demand for helicopter pilots the number of training helicopters Here willbe increased to 1,205 in january and about 600 students will Grad uate every four weeks. After 16 weeks student pilots go to it. Rucker ala., for an additional 16 weeks instrument training and in flying the big uh1 Huey helicopters the army uses in Vietnam. After about 90 Days in Viet Nam As co pilots they move Over to the right seat of the helicopters As pilots says col. William t. Schmidt assistant commandant of the school. It. Wolters gets student three ways from army officers volunteering for helicopter duty from army enlisted men volunteering and from civilians who enlist and specify helicopter army sets up All sorts of restrictions on potential helicopter pilots including one that re quires the i equivalent of a intelligence quotient of 115. The average at it. Wolters now runs around 124.6. Raw civilians take Basic training at it. Polk la. After completing Basic they join former army enlisted men at it. Wolters for what amounts to four weeks of officer Candi Date school. I volunteers who already Are officers skip that part of the training but everybody Start learning to Fly on the same graduates who started As officers remain officers. The others Are appointed warrant officers. The course is Tough. Half Ofa flying class has academic classes in the morning and Fly ing instruction in the after noon. The other half flies inthe morning and a s academic classes which makes uses of 1 television teaching and com i up tors in the afternoon. The next week the halves of the classes switch about on Fly ing and classroom also has to learn night flying and it is frequently1 . Before the it. Wolters Tower shuts Down for the , it takes about 600,000 acres for flying lessons at because the students have to learn to Fly distances an to set their choppers Down in forests and on is in charge of getting the permission of ranchers to us their land. It. Wolters has two big Heli ports and is building a third. The main heliport a mile and a half Long is the biggest in the world. Helicopters Are not fixed win aircraft of course but even so the activity at it. Wolters make big civilian airports look like leisurely . Wolters averages 36,000 landings and takeoffs a , it puts 1,000 aircraft in the air in 20 so the fatality rate is Low. Since 1956, Wolters has had13 flying fatalities. Accidents average out to about nine month but rarely is a student seriously Hurt. Most accidents involve teaching a student How to Auto Gyro that is Cut off his engine in the air and let the Rotor Blade revolving automatically As the helicopter comes Down break his fall. There Are 2,900 students a Wolters now. One big difference that officers note Between them and world War ii men is that there Are almost no disciplinary problems. Half of the base pro Vost Marshall s office is used Asa briefing room. Joseph ii. Shields director of training for Southern airways says the students have an Atti tude of Well Here i am. Come each Shields is a world War ii flier. A High percentage of the pilots at it. Wolters who have fought in Vietnam and Are nonteaching students to by plan to make the army a career. Research helps gis in Battle Washington is Al though the . Has made a lot of Progress in bringing science and technology to the Battlefield the most effective weapons sys tem is still the individual infantryman according to or. Finn. Larsen the defense depart ment s Deputy director for re search and engineering. For this reason much of this fiscal year s planned $1.3 billion defense Effort in research an development is aimed at improving the Rifleman s firepower an mobility and Means of spotting the enemy night or Day. Vietnam goals the defense official listed 19immediate goals in addition to help for the Rifleman that cover the whole Field of ground sea and air warfare in Vietnam. Some of the items being devel oped to help the Soldier include advanced Aerial fire sup port system which will see the first experimental flight tests of new Type helicopters in the near new Light weight rapid fire 105mm howitzer in the reaction time reliability and delivery accuracy of the 400-mile Range Pershing nuclear missile system used in Europe. Developments in the Lance to replace the honest John and Little John As the division sup port missile. Deployment will Start for Lance in fiscal 1969. More support for the marines the defens department Hopes to be Able to Speed up development of a personnel Carrier version of the marines Landing Force assault amphibian vehicle and a Landing Force support weapon system that employs the Lance missile on a shipboard launch to provide More fire support. In the Field of communications emphasis is on the design of better lighter equipment informs that Are suitable for air transport single truck mount orman carried he said. Man pack communications set that weigh less than 25 pounds with a lower Power Drain Are be ing designed and the Security of All tactical communications Cir Cuits is being improved. The defense research official also said the . Has had great Success with comparatively re cent combat innovations. These include the whole air Mobile concept the first generation of night vision devices now Navy attack and Early warning aircraft new bomb let munitions a new generation of combat radios and Many other services can now for example produce a new Type of map substitute on a Rush basis. These Are called pict maps he said and result from Aerial photography of areas where Ade quate maps Are not available. I stateside "3 i
