The Genius & the Army

In pre-Sputnik days, the case of Private Ernest Shult, 24, would probably have been laughed off as a bit of routine Army bungling. Gangling, brown-haired Shult, assistant to a professor at Southern Illinois University, seemed to be just one more recruit when he reported to Fort

Lee, Va. last April. Since he did not have his degree (he was one credit short in physical education), the camp tagged him "clerk-typist" and thought no more about him. Then last fortnight Shult's old professor, Geneticist Carl C. Lindegren, let out a blast. The private, said the professor, "is the outstanding mathematical genius I have encountered in 30 years," and the Army was "letting him wither on the vine."

The press made the most of the story, revealed that Shult had already published highly technical papers now being used at Oak Ridge. Speedily the red-faced Army announced that it would reassign Smut to the Weapons Research Branch of the Chemical Warfare Laboratories at the Army Chemical Center, Maryland. Instead of 711 Clerk-Typist, Shult will now be tagged as 013 Mathematician.

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