MORE ABOUT LIFE AT SAMPSON

Classification Lecture Important Feature in Recruit Training -

Men Selected for Service Schools - Qualifying for Ratings

By Frederick W. Box - Co. 115

Article No. 5

The general classification lecture given our company this week probably will rank as one of the important events of our recruit training.

At that lecture we learned our grades from the tests given during the previous week. Almost every member of our company received a passing grade of 70 in the important general classification test and fared well in the others. Half a dozen managed to attain 90 plus averages.

A classification officer explained that the tests were the key for appointments to Navy trade and specialist schools. "The Navy needs specialists and must train them speedily," the lecturing officer declared.

"Advantages of service school training," he continued, "are that the top 25 percent of the men earn ratings of petty officers, third class, at the completion of the course and the others 'strike' for ratings in actual service."

"Every effort is made to put the men to work at a job for which they have studied," the lecturer told us.

Men are selected for service schools on the basis of five factors, we were told. The test scores are most important. The second factor considered by the selection officers is the choice of schools made by the recruit. Others are experience or trade training, quotas issued by the Bureau of Naval Personnel for trade schools, and the company marks given the man at the conclusion of training.

Men with extensive experience useful to the Navy are permitted to seek advancement in rating at the end of the first three weeks. Those in doubt of how to fill out the questionnaire on service schools were given interviews by personnel officers.

Men with two or more years of college education are eligible to apply for commissions, if under 28 years old, and after six months continuous service. Others may bid for aviation cadet and aviation pilot training appointments under certain rules.

From what we have learned to date, it appears that every recruit will be given an opportunity to fill the particular niche for which he is best suited.

Our company was asked for the names of the men who believed they could qualify for ratings. The lone requirement was that the applicant have three years experience in his chosen field. The result of these applications will be known later, probably after interviews by selection officers.