ARMED FORCES: Gone with the Eightballs

Back to the Army, again. Out o' the cold an' the rain . . .

—Rudyard Kipling

Out in the cold and the rain once more are From Here to Eternity civilian misfits who used to gravitate to the U.S. Army. Moving into an era of sophisticated weapons and scissored-down manpower allowances, the 900,000-man Army last summer decided to tighten requirements and improve the G.I.s. Enlistment and draft laws were toughened; minimum requirement in the Army General Qualification Test was boosted from a ten-point score out of 100 to 31. The tightening-up process extended to troops in service; e.g., 71,000 "eightballs" fingered by their C.O.s were honorably discharged last year, and technicians were ordered to take periodic tests to win promotion or prove competency.

Last week the Army proudly announced one extra dividend of such upgrading: effective March 2, it will close down its disciplinary barracks for military prisoners at New Cumberland, Pa. After that, owing to a sharp decline in courts-martial (to a monthly rate of 18.2 per 100,000 soldiers from 54.1 in 1956), only two prisons (Fort Leavenworth, Kans. and Lompoc, Calif.) will operate, where two years ago five were needed.