The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, January 16, 1955 BUSINESS PORTRAIT Gen. Maxwell E. Rich...Has a Plan The biggest business in the United States of America is not private enterprise but the federal government. And most of the business of the government is concerned these days with a maximum defense at minimum cost. Not many Utahns know it, but the commander of their National Guard is proposing a businesslike solution to the onerous problem of training the million youths of the country reaching 18 each year. He may not be as outspoken on the matter as his boss, Gov. J. Bracken Lee, who bluntly says hes getting more miles and equal ability per dollar out of the 4,000 members of the Utah Guard than the U.S. Army is getting out of its hundreds of thousands of trainees. But the general has Utahs two senators, Arthur V. Watkins and Wallace F. Bennett, circulating his proposals among members of Congress. The military man was born in Centerville, Davis County, Aug. 13, 1913, son of an officer of the First National Bank of Salt Lake City. In a nutshell, this is his plan 1. Instead of the varied universal military service plans or peacetime draft as now proposed, train the youths turning 18 through the state National Guards. 2. Under the Rich Plan, each youth graduating from high school or attaining 18 would spend four months at a camp such as Camp Williams and would receive basic or specialty training in this period. 3. Camp training graduates would go into active Guard or reserve unit for three or four years. The general says this would eliminate a lot of basic training now given by Guard units and would insure that youths trained in the military would stay trained after release from active duty. Under the present system of two year training, dischargees are technically supposed to be reserve members in civilian life. The general realizes that selling the plan is going to be a battle. But hes been a salesman before. In fact, this descendant of pioneers who settled in Utah with Brigham Youngs first party, worked summers while a student at Davis High School for Rocky Mountain Bank Note Co. While at University of Utah studying business, he was persuaded to become a salesman for the Salt Lake manufacturer of bank supplies. He joined the 145th Field Artillery Battery of the Utah National Guard as a private in 1932 while a student at the U as much to be with friends and earn extra money as anything else, he recalls. When the Guard was called to federal service in 1941, Max Rich was a first lieutenant. At Ft. Sill, Okla., he and others formed the cadre which later became the 75th Field Artillery Battalion. He was a lieutenant colonel and battalion commander following service in the European theater. Battles included the Colmar Pocket, Battle of the Bulge and the Ruhr Pocket. He married Miss Billie Seamount at Salt Lake City Aug. 30, 1940. They have two children, Susan, 12, and Julie, 7. After his discharge in March, 1946, he resumed his work in the Guard and was named commander when Brig Gen. J. Wallace West moved to state selective service. During the last two years, Gen. Rich has outlined an extensive program of development for the Guard, including increase of membership to 5,000 by camp time next summer. Expenditures of state and federal funds are running at six million dollars annually with the additional membership. Five new armories at Provo, Murray, Vernal, Springville and American Fork have been built or placed under contract since he became commanding general on Aug. 1, 1953. They cost 650,000. Projected is an 800,000 armory construction program, including a five unit affair on Ft. Douglas ground in Salt Lake City; buildings at Price, Layton, Tooele, St. George, Beaver and Smithfield and replacement at Bountiful. Ever mindful of economics, the National Guard recently was put to work building six miles of military grade road near Henefer, Summit County, and contemplates construction of a similar road connecting Alta and Brighton recreational areas with Heber, Wasatch County. The work is to be finished eventually by private contractors. Instead of two weekend drills, we get 48 hours of combat training for the 1,000 men in the Guard assigned to engineering, says Gen. Rich.