Retirement Pay, Training Opportunities Attract
Men to Reserve Program; Navy Units Active Here
1
- WmH
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Civilians Keep Skills
Learned in Wartime
By Bill Fore
Mail Tribune Staff Writer
There is in Medford a tightly-knit group of several hundred
former servicemen who have responded to government induce
ments to maintain and improve their war-developed skills and ex
perience for the benefit of their own careers and for the defense
of their nation.
All are members of the eight separate reserve units activated
here bv the army, navy and air force. They are civilians, free of
military habits of thought, but rich in the skills or potential skills
military commanders may eventually need.
Men with famines ana iuii-
time jobs, they would be the last
to pretend they have signed up
with the reserves out of pure
altruistic instincts. The fact that
they can earn points for retire
ment, improve their ratings in
the event they are recalled to
active duty, and develop skills
that can be utilized in civil life,
while at the same time serving
the interests of national defense,
they regard as a happy circum
stance. Few would deny they are
4 principally concerned with the
personal benefits offered by the
program, and service recruiting
propagandists for the reserves
apparently take this attitude for
granted.
Two Plans
There are two types of reserve
plans offered by each arm of the
service organized reserve and
volunteer reserve. By far the
most satisfactory, in the way of
service rendered to its members,
is the organized reserve plan.
However, it represents a consid
rable expense to the government
and repeated cuts in Secretary
Louis Johnson's defense depart
ment budget have hit the pro
gram hard. There are only three
organized reserve units in Med
ford at the present time.
The members of these three
groups draw pay, based on their
ratings, for each of the weekly
training sessions and also enjoy
period of active duty each year
for which, of course, they draw
regular base pay. Though this
type of program makes greater
demands on the reservists' time
than the volunteer program, it
is more attractive financially and
the training offered is more con
crete. Members of volunteer units
draw no pay for training ses
sions they attend and they are
accepted for active duty only
when available billets are not
filled by organized reservists.
But they do accumulate points
toward retirement and many of
them, particularly the Seabees,
get valuable training with dis
tinct carry-over benefits in civ
ilian trades. Their program is
pretty much restricted to train
ing films and the lecture periods.
Navy Units Active
As it is throughout the nation,
the navy reserve is the most act
ive of the three branches of the
service in Medford.
Now in process of activation
here is the first navy electronics
warfare organized reserve unit
in the Pacific northwest. In hon
or of the achievement, the 13th
naval district headquarters in
Seattle last Monday sent Lt. T. P.
Pierce to Medford to present the
new unit with the. battle colors
flown during the war on the car
rier USS Kearsarge.
The electronics company is
now ready to undertake a com
prehensive training program in
which a reservist could start as
a recruit and advance through
the ranks to chief petty officer.
Advancement is by examination,
and the training now available
through the Medford unit is suf
ficient to enable the serious re
servist to pass all the promotion
tests, provided he spends the
minimum amount of time in each
rating and takes the required
number of training cruises. There
are also a certain number of An
napolis appointments made from
the ranks of the organized re
serves. Well Equipped
In quarters at the federal of
fice building here, the electron
ics company has two rooms cram
med with elaborate electronic
equipment that is at the disposal
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Funeral Directors
of the members during their
weekly training periods. The unit
can train radio men, sonar men,
radar men and electronic tech
nicians. It owns radio testing
equipment, oscilloscopes, audio
oscillators, impedence bridges,
electronic volt meters, as well
as numerous portable radios and
two destroyer-type transmitters
that are used for actual trans
mission to receivers in Eugene
and Seattle.
In addition to serving a train
ing function, the navy's stock of
equipment here could play a vi
tal role in local disaster work or
for civil defense, and there would
be a nucleus of trained operators
readily available.
The electronics unit has been
in operation here since 1947,
but on a volunteer basis. Its
members now will be paid for
the time they spend in training
periods and for the time they
spend on week-end cruises out
of Crescent City.
The cruises, a new plan an
nounced only this month, are ex
pected to play an important part
in the navy reserve program in
this area and they, unlike the
summer cruises, will be available
to organized and volunteer re
serves alike.
Four Navy Units
There are four navy reserve
units in Medford electronic
warfare, commanded by Lt. Ed
ward O. Leonard; the volunteer
Seabee unit, commanded by Lt.
(jg) John Jones; the volunteer
composite unit, commanded by
Lt. Cmdr. Rodney Keating, and
navy air reserves now being or
ganized under Lt. Cmdr. Lane
Bardeen. Bardeen's group is ex
pecting activation orders next
month. They will get lecture in
struction in the history of naval
aviation, the latest in naval air
craft, and aircraft armament.
The 13th district has also prom
ised to furnish the group with
a Link trainer, an elaborate
mechanism used in instrument
flying.
The volunteer composite unit
is now, and has been for several
weeks, undergoing an intensive
course of study of the problems
involved in taking the fleet out
of "mothballs." Since the war, a
goodly portion of the navy's float
ing stock has been smeared with
protective grease and encased in
shields of specially coated fab
ric. Reactivation of the ships
will present a highly specialized
problem that will call for prompt
action if the call to arms is
sounded. Reservists will at least
have the book-learning required
to accomplish the job.
Seabee Unit
The fourth group in the navy's
expanding program for southern
Oregon is the Seabee volunteer
unit. Seabee, of course, derives
from the initials. CB, which stand
for "construction battalions."
They consist of men already pro
ficient in a wide range of crafts
and skills, but the reserve plan
gives them lecture, training film,
and correspondence course train
ing, leading to advancement ii
rating and wider acquaintance
with the specialized fields.
Seabees hold job specialties a
drivers, surveyors, electrician'
mechanics, builders, steel work
ers and utilities men. The cur
rent training course for southern
Oregon reservists deals with cold
weather engineering. Members
are afforded an opportunity to !
participate in summer active j
duty periods at either Port Hue-
neme, Cal., San Diego, or Seattle '
provided the budget can stand
the strain.
Med
Medford
Second Section
it Si
.7 W
V
t
BATTLE COLORS PRESENTED Lt. Ted Pierce, left, and Lt.
above with the battle colors formerly flown from the aircraft
was brought to Medford by Lieutenant Pierce, naval reserve procurement officer of 13th naval dis
trict headquarters in Seattle, for presentation to the new organized electronic warfare company
now being activated here. The company is the first organized electronic warfare unit to be formed
in the northwest. Lieutenant Leonard is commanding officer.
Air Program Cut
The air force reserve here
used to be one of the most act
ive in the northwest. It boasted
a small air fleet all its own. and
the caliber of the first-hand
training it offered its 140 flying
members was second to none
anywhere. It was a budget cur
tailment that literally clipped the
wings from the splendid unit and
left it with a room at the air
port to give lectures and show
training films.
Though impressively organ
ized under the title of 9091st vol
unteer air reserve training
group, with headquarters in Med
ford supervising a vast lower
hierarchy covering western Ore
gon and northern California, air
force reservists outside of the
Portland area arc denied the
kind of a program that would
make the unit widely popular. It
offers the same kind of retire
ment benefits as the other volun
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teer units of other reserve pro
grams and if active duty billets
are not filled by organized re
servists, the VAR members can
get in a few hours of actual fly
ing time during the summer.
Many Subjects
Though it is a far cry from
their past program, air force re
servists do get courses in a va
riety of subjects that some day
may come in very handy fighter-bomber
tactics, Soviet air
power, military intelligence,
ground warfare, arctic naviga
tion, air defense, aircraft mainte
nance, statistical control, air in
stallations, and a long list of al
lied subjects. Col. Elmer H.
Stambaugh commands the group
and Lt. Col. James C. Langdon
is the commanding officer of the
Medford flights.
The army ground forces have
three reserve outfits here
6310th logistical training divis
ion, the' 382nd quartermaster
f: l ma
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Fresh air ducts, turn indicator lights,
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SUNDAY, JUNE 25, 1950
Y
Edward O. Leonard are shown
carrier USS Kearsarge. The flag
battalion, and 476th quartermas
ter service company.
Draw Pay
Though they do not go by that
name, the two quartermaster
units are on a par with organ
ized reserves in other branches
in that they draw pay for meet
ings attended and have prefer
ence for billets in summer train
ing camps. Lt. Col. William H.
Prentice and First Lt. Arthur
Cook command the two units.
The 6310th is still a volunteer-
type outfit, but is about to be
reorganized on the same basis
as the other two. Col Thomas F
G-unn commands.
Concerned mainly with sup
ply and transportation problems,
the units are supplied with elab
orate visual aids that make their
lectures and training sessions
somewhat above averaga in in
terest, and there are certain pe
riods each month set aside for
actual paper work, called on-the-
Tribune
Pages 1-8
job training. It approximates the
kind of procedures the reservists
would encounter in base section
operations.
Point System
Points toward retirement are
accumulated in the same man
ner by all reserve components
15 points per year simply for
being a member, one point per
meeting attended, one point per
day for active duty periods, and
added points for special duties
performed during the year. A
minimum of SO points is required
for a year of satisfactory service
and 20 years of such service
makes the reservists eligible for
retirement at age 60. Retirement
pay is based on the rate held at
retirement and on the total num
ber of points accumulated.
Though that may seem like a
hard grind to keep up for 20
years, it is obviously attractive
enough to give the nation's de
fense machinery the core of
trained specialists it would need
in time of mobilization, without
resorting to large military forces
in peacetime. And all eight Med
ford units can boast of the high
level of enthusiasm and interest
they have aroused in their ranks.
There is a measure of the old
wartime esprit evident at reserve
meetings and new recruits are
swelling the ranks every day.
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at Southern
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Last week we described the de
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Diamond Lake
Crater Lake's neighbor 13 miles to the
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EQUIPMENT PROVIDED Naval reservists in the electronic
warfare company in Medford have at their disposal thousands of
dollars worth of modern, up-to-date electronic equipment pro
vided by the 13th naval district for training purposes. The re
servist shown here is receiving messages from one of a battery of
radio receivers in the radio room at the reserve headquarters.
Also available but not shown in this picture are two destroyer
type transmitters for sending messages t o Seattle and Eugene and
radar equipment.
utings
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rips To
-and Fish Lake
(Driving time 2 hours). Lovely
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your earnest attention. And look
the management says no rat
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To KNOW Your Own
Oregon Vacation Land!
j r i
Snider's