Education: Command Decision

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In preparing for the arrival of their first cadets in July, officials of the new Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs were up to their necks in problems of supply. Should the boys wear boxer or jockey-type shorts? Should they have foam rubber or innerspring mattresses, button or clamp suspenders, optional or compulsory washcloths? But of all the problems, none was causing more fuss last week than the design for the new cadet uniform. It all began when Secretary Harold Talbott flew into Denver six weeks ago. found himself in a huddle with Academy Superintendent Lieut. General Hubert Harmon and Commandant of Cadets Colonel R. W. Stillman.

"You two don't know a damn thing about uniforms," sputtered the Secretary after looking over nine new models. "I know even less than both of you. What we need is some real imagination. Some of those men in Hollywood should be able to give it to us—men like Cecil DeMille and Walt Disney and Louis Mayer. I'm going to get some outside help. You wait to hear from me."

A few days later, the Secretary phoned the academy to say that no less a person than Cecil B. DeMille was going to do the job, and a few days after that, the great man himself called. "I have the two best designers of military uniforms in the world," said DeMille. "I have taken them off The Ten Commandments and put them on the Air Force Academy uniform." Then, just for inspiration, he asked for photographs of uniforms from all over the world—Japan, China, Belgium, Norway, Turkey.

Last week, while awaiting the DeMille design, Secretary Talbott sent out a memo suggesting that all hands play down the Hollywood angle. "It's getting out of hand; people better understand that we're still making the final decision, not Hollywood." Cracked an academy officer: "We've been afraid people would think our cadets were going to carry spears."