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About Regimental mirror. (Fort Benning, Ga.) 1943-194? | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1944)
PAGE FOUR a / REGIMENTAL^^^ MfM IRRORJ if eVTUe^cw^tic Office. Building 73 Published Every Thursday by and for the Enlisted Men of the Academic Regiment. The Infantry School. Fort Benning. Ga THURSDAY. APRIL 13, 1944 The REGIMENTAL MIRROR receives Camp Newspaper Service material Republication of credited matter prohibited without permission of CNS, 205 E 42 St., N Y. C., 17 COL E P. PASSAILAIGUE LT VERNON C HOYT Commanding Advisor SGT. WALTER MILLER Editor Cpl. Johnston C. Woodall Assistant Editor Pvt. June Freed Secretary War Aims As Practical As Ten Commandments By Chaplain Samson Shain Perhaps you have read the fol lowing translation of a Russian song declaring what we are fighting for A girl kissed a soldier good bye On the porch one lovely night And as he shipped into the fog Her window blinked a light The maiden wrote the soldier That what they hoped for would transpire, That her love would never die And the light would not ex pire . Now the soldier fights much harder For his country—and the light. Perhaps, too, you have seen the following statement by an American of what we are fight ing for: For the right to stand up in the world with my bride by my side, and her hand on my arm For the right to speak up in my town and have my say and then sit down For the right every night to run up the steps of my home and pick up and hold a son of my own. For his right and her right and mine to grow up; to work in the same America I left behind where there's freedom to breathe freedom to move up to new and better things to look up to the skies and recog nize that in America there will be always a limitless opportu nity to rise as high, to go as far as courage and strength and ability can take one Both statements are clean and elevating, giving us heart and courage and strength to endure .he rigors of military training, face mortal danger, and fight till victory is ours. NOT FAR ENOUGH However inspiring though these two vivid pictures of what we fight for may be, they do not give the whole goal, the end for which we really dream, the description of our deepest amd most permanent stake in the present war. The second state ment, to be sure, goes further tham the first, and movingly so, but It does not go far enough! With Europe only a day away from us by plane, and only a few minutes away from us by tel ephone; with an invasion of Manchukio setting off a fuse causing bombs to burst in an endless chain from China to E thiopia to Central Europe, Ha waii and America—should not our statement of what we are fighting for embrace not only the immediate goal of our own hap- Phone 3846 piness, but the -further goal of our distant neighbors’ peace and security? Let our soldier have no light blinking im his sweet heart's window; let him not be able to have his bride on his arm, speak out his heart to his coun trymen, or go as far as his abil ity and strength and courage can carry him, and we lose the same; there will rise a wind to blow out our light, and snuff out our freedom too America could not be half slave and half free. Likewise, the world, smaller now with the development of rapid communi cations, cannot be half slave and half free. The alternative is per petual strife, perpetual rebellion, perpetual war NO PARTIAL VICTORY! Let us, therefore, adopt for ourselves vivid pictures of what we are fighting for; yes, but pic tures that tell the whole story, pictures that do not lead into blind isolation or cowardly ap peasement, pictures that will not keep us satisfied with a partial victory—a victory in which we win the war and not the peace— a victory in which we get only what we want, and let the rest of the world go hang Let us adopt pictures that call for the liberation of the whole human family, for the kindling of the light of freedom in every man’s home, for the right of eVery man, every child of God to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap piness And let there rise a poet to set it down for us in enduring words for all of us to learn and live by Neither America nor Russia can be made better to live in unless the whole world too is made safer and more se cure. All will say they agree with these goals, but many will add: “Ah, but the task is too great; and life is too short; the vision is impractical; we can never re alize it." True, but the Ten Comman dants, when proclaimed, were declared impractical; the Magna Carta, when issued, said to be only a piece of paper; the Dec laration of Independence a phan tasy! And now the Bible shines The accompanying article was written for the MIRROR by Capt. Samson A Shain, Jewish chaplain of Fort Ben ning, just before he left for a new and important assignment elsewhere One of the most popular chaplains at Benning, Capt Shain left his congrega tion in Sunnyside, Long Island, to come here as a first lieu tenant in July 1942. REGIMENTAL MIRROR Ao/ THROUGH CHANNELS This morning we arrived at the office carrying our basic wea pon (typewriter, portable, Ml), whistling merrily at the thought of another day’s work in the swindle chair. First we re moved our sign (“Regimental Smearer, Sgt Filler, editor”) from the first floor latrine, where Cpl. Hank Miller's boys so thoughtfully place it each night, and gleefully hung it back on its rightful hook. We swung the door open at precisely 0815 (ser geant-major please note) and slid into the inner sanctum on a pile of mail lying inside the door. The busy sounds of the Battle of Benning were already coming from the office next door. Cpl Sq wurtz, orientation clerk, was spreading himself out over the map of Europe to make his battle flags catch up to the day’s news. After starting the morn ing off right by promoting Freed to T-7 we happily opened the mail and read our GI GALLEY, little paper for Army editors which contained this sad item from China: CHUNGKING— “Something should be done about the health of journalists,” remark ed Gen. Chiang-Kai-Shek at a press conference today. “They seem always to be in such poor health " Suddenly deflated we stagger ed to our desk and slumped into the swindle chair, suffering in quiet. Desperately we tried to think of the last time we were on sick call. Back back, yes, over a year ago we limped to the dispensary to try to get out of a twenty-mile hike. We wrote an editorial while sweating out the line that always seemed longest on the day there was a twenty mile hike. Guess we just had- LIFE SAVERS ■ rRPREwt2 WHEN you reach a new position, dig in first and gab afterwards. The idea of waiting until the shooting starts" may catch you out in the open and un protected ' through the darkness of oppres sion to give light and hope to all mankind today; and the Magna Carta and Declaration of Inde pendence are models for all peo ples that would be free SEE GOAL CLEARLY Religious sincerity, political honesty, and sound common sense, demand thoroughgoing devotion to such a new and embracing vision And though the task be great, the time be short, and the Lord on high de manding, we understand it is not for us to finish the job, but to do our honest bit and those who come after us, who also do their honest bit, will, in God’s own day, complete the task But let us see clearly our Goal, keep it ever in mind, and contribute our .full share to its achievement By SGT WALTER MILLER n’t noticed our ills since then Time, that’s it! Sadly we thought of the civil ian days, when a journalist was on 24-hour call seven days a week, because news didn't slow down oin Sundays or during sleeping hours. We realized that soldiers too are on 24-hour call seven days a week because a war doesn’t slow down on Sun days or during sleeping hours. We realized, getting sicker each minute, that by pure arithmetic, now that we were soldier-re porters, we must be working 48 hours a day 14 days a week! It was too, too ghastly to contem plate. But far, far off in wise and ancient China there was somebody who knew and under stood . Perhaps we could get a message to him (through chan nels!) which would help him help us help ourselves. Dear General, it would run We just realized with a shock that we’ve never seen any jour nalist die of old age. We al ways thought, in that smug way reporters have, that journalists just stayed young. But we see now that it’s probably because they die off early and disappear . how would anybody know; a reporter is never news! Anyhow, general, as we see it you can cure our illness only by wiping out, man by man, the human race, and if we can pre vent that, we're willing to hold out till the next deadline! You’d have to start off by eli minating the photographer—he who crouches with us at third base when Zenny Bentearer comes around the sack, he who explodes a flash bulb in Zenny’s face and then grins at us in triumph and says “Wotta shot!” and then looks at his camera and sees that he didn’t expose the plate! Next we'd have to remove the printer who rewrites your best headlines, such as RUSSO STACKS UP WITH TOPNOT CHERS to (1 can’t look!) RUSSO SHACKS UP WITH And the typesetter who indul- TURN IN PULLMAN TOWELS TO HELP TROOPS IN TRANSIT If you get your laundry back this week with one less towel than you sent off, think twice before going down to the supply sarge with a beef. Because if it was a towel with the word PULLMAN woven into the fabric, you won’t get it back “Your” towel has been retained by the post laundry officer and will be turned over to the Pull man Company by the post transportation officer. Your beef will simmer down to even less than a grum ble when you realize that “your” towel is going back into service on troop trains to help make up for a tremendous shortage of linen which is hampering the Pullman Com pany’s service to troops in transit. Just as you wouldn’t do anything to hurt an American buddy in combat, so you will have no objection to helping him enjoy the few com forts of train travel that you had when you were in transit. Not only will your laundry be carefully scrutinized during the next few weeks to remove all PULLMAN prop erty, but it is likely that future inspections might include a “careful check to determine whether any property of the Pullman Company is present” (memorandum, 6 April 1944, Headquarters The Infantry School). Everybody knows that a GI just can’t ever get enough towels to keep up with himself in the cleanest army in the world, and every extra towel he can obtain is one less he has to wash while the laundry has half of his stuff each week—and likewise everybody knows that the removal of each towel was in itself only a thoughtless act, but when multiplied by all such thoughtless acts by men on the same train, it became a blow to the war effort. While it’s still fresh on your mind, let’s get out that Pullman towel now and TURN IT IN TO THE SUPPLY SERGEANT or to the ORDERLY ROOM. Thursday, April 13, 1944 PROMOTIONS COMPANY A Tee 5 William A. Dockendorf to Tec 4 Tee 5 Joseph H Hudson to Tee 4 Tec 5 Carl J. Verde to Tee 4 Tec 5 Joseph E Waggoner to Tec 4 Cpl. William S. Carson, Jr Tec 4 WAC DETACHMENT NO 1 Pfc. Mildred H. Laakso to Tec 5 Pfc. Helen P Smith to Tec 5 gently corrects our “mistakes" for us so that '‘rotation of droops" becomes rotation of troops! Next would be our neighbor paper that we always entrust our scoops to "FOR PUBLICATION TUESDAY.” Bringing our own Monday edition home with us with our “exclusive scoop” prin ted on page one we discover that the neighbor paper has already carried our story and (here’s where the aspirin comes in) WE SCOOPED OURSELVES IN SOMEBODY ELSE’S PAPER! Then you'd have to remove all those modest Army men who elude you for days with the gag “I don't want publicity, there ain’t no story about me.” Just an hour before deadline they corner you and say LISTEN BUD, I AIN'T THE TALKIE TYPE, BUT I WAS BORN IN 1899 AND IN 1902 I FOOLED THE RECRUITING SERGEANT AND IN 1940 I MADE PFC and. Last but not least you'd have to remove the kink from an edi tor’s mind which makes him tell his secretary “This issue we’ll take it easy—small, quiet issue." He starts writing cool, aloof, gentle stories. Then he hits an idea and writes a hot, passionate, disturbing paragraph Then he calls up the finance department and begs for an extra two pages —just this one last final time! Oh the general is absolutely right! But he must feel sorriest for us when he realizes that, as somebody once said about some body else and this hurts in the confessing we like our illness!
