1st. Staff-Officers proper, who are the direct assistants of the Chief;
2d. Office Staff, entrusted with all the clerical work, except that concerning the preparation and conduct of the operations, and the report thereon.
The latter need not possess military science. They can efficiently fulfil their duties if, as civilians, they have been trained to prepare written reports, and they need not possess the physical endurance necessary to the staff-officers proper.
To be efficient, a staff-officer needs to possess military science, judgment, tact, physical strength, great activity, bravery, and self-abnegation.
By adhering to the above classification, the American Army will have no trouble in forming excellent staffs. In fact, it will not have to triumph over a routine that three years of war has not entirely eliminated from our old European armies. Too often we injudiciously employ for tasks unfamiliar or unsuited to them officers capable of rendering much greater services elsewhere.
The staff-officer will be efficient if he performs the following briefly stated duties:
The staff-officer must complete by a minute reconnoitring the inspections previously made by the General himself. He should never hesitate to go to the very first lines, and it will be often necessary for him to go under the protection of patrols of infantry, and ascertain in person to what extent the first lines of the enemy have been destroyed, how much damage has been done to the wire entanglements and defences, etc.
The staff-officer must be a perfectly trained aërial observer. He should also be competent to detect on the different photographs furnished by the aviators the least damage done to the enemy’s works by the successive projectiles. This task, which must be accomplished most conscientiously, requires excellent eyesight.
We do not hesitate to say that, in the present war, it would be criminal insanity to deliver an attack without being sure that the enemy’s wire defences have been sufficiently damaged; at least to such an extent as will allow the infantry to pass through them. A staff-officer should not at this most important juncture trust implicitly to the information furnished him in reports from the first lines or found in the photographs taken by the aviation, but he ought to go and see for himself and report minutely to his Chief.
These are dangerous missions: hence the need of having staff-officers in reserve. It has been repeatedly proved that officers who have not been trained at the Ecole d’Etat Major (staff school), but are experienced and efficient men, quickly become excellent substitute staff-officers.