A ‘go’ at this station

Even the brass gets it right sometimes

IF THE SOLDIER dons his gas mask correctly, and in the required amount of time, the sergeant tells him to go to the next test. You’re a “go” at this station. If the soldier throws the hand grenade correctly and puts it close enough to the target, the sergeant tells him good job, private. You’re a “go” at this station. If the soldier crawls under the obstacle on his back and doesn’t touch the barbed wire, the sergeant tells him to get lost. You’re a “go” at this station.

In training, the grunts always want to hear that they’re a go at this station. It’s as close to a compliment as the sergeants are probably going to hand out.

The U.S. Army passed a test this week. A test of common sense and fairness. It decided (so it’s said) to keep the ROTC department open at Arkansas State University. For a year longer, at least.

If you’ll remember, early last month the Army told ASU that it was shutting down the military science department there. Why? Shut up, the Army explained.

That is, when contacted, so-called “spokesmen” for the Army said next to nothing except that they couldn’t say anything. Being told that a program with almost eight decades of experience turning out military officers would soon be shuttered is bad enough. But asking why, and getting no answers, made matters worse.

Nope, the brass had decided to shut down the unit by 2015, and that was that. Or so the brass thought.

This state’s U.S. senators, Mark Pryor and John Boozman, and the U.S. representative for northeastern Arkansas, Rick Crawford, got involved. They wanted answers as much as the folks at ASU did. The senators even threatened to hold up Defense Department appointments until the Army answered some questions.

Ta-da. On Wednesday, ASU’s own brass held a news conference. They said the Army told them the ROTC department would be put on probation. Which is better than cancellation. (It’s amazing how public-relations minded the Army can become when it’s told that folks in Congress are looking over its shoulder.)

Word is that the probation is either one or two years. What exactly probation means is unclear, too.

WILL THE MILITARY department at ASU be required to meet recruiting goals? And how much harder will that be now, when the Army has already tried to shut down the department once? Is this the Army’s way of allowing students who’ve already signed contracts with ROTC to cycle out? Will the outfit be allowed to sign freshmen next year?

There are still a lot of questions. The campus got the news in a phone call from “Army officials,” according to ASU’s president, Chuck Welch. This newspaper confirmed the news with the Army via email, but the official paperwork is in the mail. A lot of folks at ASU will be looking forward to the official memo from back East.

Here’s hoping when the official notice comes it is detailed and provides a way that ASU could keep its military department. Today, the brass is a go at this station. Now, let’s see what next week brings.