
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 31, 1994                   TAG: 9403310113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

WILDER LAUDS OFFICER TRAINING PROGRAMS

Former Gov. Douglas Wilder paid tribute Wednesday to military officer training programs at mostly black colleges and universities, saying they provide the education and discipline needed for leadership.

"Today's challenges are such that there are no simple answers, no simple solutions," Wilder told about 100 people at an Army ROTC conference at Norfolk State University.

Wilder said the principles and values taught in ROTC will help answer the rest of the world's demand that the United States provide leaders willing to tackle the complex issues of the day.

Wilder, a decorated Korean War veteran, said he recalled a magazine's declaring on Independence Day 1954 that America had reached a peak of "domestic tranquility."

But two months earlier, he said, the Supreme Court had struck down "separate but equal" school systems as unlawful, and it would take years of struggle and turmoil in the then-starting civil rights movement before school integration became widespread.

The only constant in life is change, Wilder said, and nothing is lasting but time. He said ROTC leaders have a responsibility to give students the skills to handle the pressures of change and time.

- Associated Press

by CNB