Thursday, December 5, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
15
Pershing Rifles 'die' in local battle
The reconnaissance patrol sloshed through a marshy field with their rifles ready. Suddenly, snipers sprang from the underbrush and opened fire, wiping out the entire patrol.
A scene from the jungles of a war-torn banana republic? No, this was the U.S. Army Reserve Training Area on the grounds of the Sunflower Ordnance Plant last month, and the combatants were KU Pershing Riflemen on a pledge-training field problem.
The Pershing Rifles, a triservice military fraternity, annually initiates pledges by this "experience-is-the-best-teacher" guerrilla warfare course.
Officially, the idea of the field problem is to allow the PR's to practice the techniques of maneuvering in rough terrain, but the real purpose is to give the actives a chance to slither about the countryside shooting at the pledges with M-1 rifles.
As in all such training missions, blank ammunition is used. But blank ammo can be dangerous at close range because the paper wadding in the blanks is as lethal as a bullet. Even though some PR's were hit by the waddings, more were injured
by low hanging branches than flying paper.
The field problem lasted from 3 a.m., to 10 p.m., and afterwards the PR's returned to the Military Science Building for a rifle cleaning party after 19 hours of guerrilla warfare.
About 30 active PR's were pitted against about a dozen pledges, but the ratio made little difference. A guerrilla war is conducted on a hit-and-run basis and superior numbers can be foiled by camouflage or brilliant tactics.
The actives and the pledges took turns defending and attacking positions throughout the day. Various strategic positions had to be captured or held and weapon sites had to be defended or destroyed, depending on who were the "good guys" of the moment.
At the end of the day, it was unclear who had won the most engagements because the "corpses" kept getting up to fight again. For that reason many of the actives mumbled about using live ammo next year.
During the daylight hours, the fighting followed conventional lines, more or less as seen on
television's Combat. The enemy could be seen advancing and elusion was difficult, so both sides tried to keep low and out of sight. In the darkness, though, only a crash in the underbrush or fire belching from a rifle muzzle belied another's presence, and then one never knew whether a friend or enemy was near. Often whole patrols lie for an hour or more to ambush each other only to find they were on the same side.
When the actives did find the pledges, they fired deafening volleys into the blackness. The pledges seldom returned the fire—theirs was a war of escape and silence in the weeds. The pledges were limited to fewer than 20 rounds for most of the individual missions.
Although the weather was pleasant, the PR's were wet, cold and tired by the end of the day. As the temperature began to drop in the evening, they showed more reluctance to ford streams if another route were open.
Also, the grass was tall and dry
so when the PR's tried to slip silently through one another's lines, they were immediately plunged into a fire fight.
Each man was issued C-rations but at about 2 p.m. the Pershing Riffes' Coed Affiliate served hot coffee and doughnuts to the
field-weary warriors. During the break pledges and actives argued about who really won this or that engagement, tried to impress the coeds with their tales of "war injuries" and screamed happily when a transistor radio announced that KU led MU.
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Outgoing federal employes won't get severance pay
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The balm of a fat severance pay check isn't in store for politically-appointed federal employees who will be fired by the incoming Nixon administration.
The U.S. Civil Service Commission said Sunday it had advised all federal agencies that they cannot provide severance pay to any political appointees not protected by Civil Service laws.
The commission said it changed its regulations to prevent a "windfall" of severance payments to such nontenure employees.
Saturday, it was disclosed that President-elect Richard M. Nixon has sent down orders that he wants all major policy positions in his administration filled by the time he takes office Jan. 20.
More than 2,300 policy positions in the government are expected to be filled.
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