When You Fall . . .

Men of the 506th Parachute Battalion marched 115 miles through Georgia last week in three days. The battalion slogged through fog, rain, sleet and hail, over soggy fields and concrete highways. They carried full equipment, including machine guns. Some fell out with sore feet. Even they got congratulations from their commander, Colonel Robert Sink. Said he: "When you fell, you fell face forward."

Perhaps the toughest trainer in the U.S. Army is a wiry little man who carries a full pack and a rifle while marching his troops across stony Oregon desert and who expects his middle-aged staff officers to be as taut-bellied as the hardiest young private. Major General Charles Hunter Gerhardt breaks in new men "gently" by sleeping them in pup tents in the rain, making them swim icy Oregon rivers.

Since General Gerhardt formally activated the gist ("Wild West") Division at Camp White last August, some of his junior officers have developed convenient hernias or obtained transfers to softer outfits; but he himself takes raw men under pack five miles through the rain in one hour, nine miles in two, finishes at the double, insists that every officer under him be able to do the same. Even Gerhardt's chaplains practice marksmanship, swim icy rivers, make themselves physical as well as moral exemplars.

For critics who call Camp White the Alcatraz of training camps, Charlie Gerhardt has an answer: "We are trying to guarantee every man that, by God, when his platoon leader takes him into action, he'll have a chance of getting back alive."

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