Twelve O'clock High!

[Carl Schwamberger]

For several decades this movie was used as a training film for officers by the USMC. After OCS the newly commissioned 2d Lts go through a 5-6 month Basic School before they go on to their specialty training as pilots, infantry leaders, tanks or whatever. As part of the leadership training we watched the movie, then had to analyze it for the roles the key officers in the film played and their mistakes. I still recall clearly some of the lessons in that instruction segment. There was a suprising ammount of good instructional material drawn out of the story about leadership techniques.

I found years later that after I'd read a lot about the US regular army officers in the 1920s & 1930s I understood the unwritten backstory behind the senior officers, the generals, colonels, & Lt colonels in the story. When you understand their background you grasp better the difficult task they had in turning a vast pool of reservists, volunteers, and draftees into a real combat force in barely four years.