Arizona republican., 1919-03-03
THE PORT OF MISSING MEN

1t possibly can with a difficult prob- lem.
 Consider some of it's difficulties: In the first place, it has millions of men to keep track of. Millions of men with plenty of opportunity for getting lost, In trench warfare, a mans head is the most imperiled portion of his ana tony, and it is not unusual for a mans head to be blown completely off. With it disappears that identification disc which every American soldier is sup posed to wear around his neck-When he does not misplace it or forget to wear it. When the relief corps comes across a casualty of this sort, it is often unable to identify it. Back at headquarters, they know that certain men have not returned, but they can- not be positive as to what has hap pened to them.
 Usually, it is assumed that they have been killed, but this is by no means certain For men often get mixed up in the confusion at the front; are sep arated from their companies and car ried to remote hospitals, or are ab- sorbed into other companies There have been several instances where wounded men have managed to drag | the way to a deserted village. When the enemy was pushed forward, the people would return to the village, and the wounded men you'd be cared for by individuals. Then there are the numerous cases of shell shock, where men lose all memory of their identity and baffle all efforts of the military authorities to trace their histories It must be remembered, also, that the rate of assertion is fairly high in the | army. While, according to army re- 1 ports, it has been kept a a minimum | during this war, due to obvious diff i cuhies in deserting a trench, a goodly 1 percentage of men are known to have l deliberately left their ranks. Some l times, when a man dislikes his su- perior officer, it is merely a case of l desertion from one company 10 an ! other in the general confusion of con-
 bat.
 All these things serve to prevent the adjutant generals office from securing
 correct information in regard to a l mans whereabouts. In the long run,
 their representatives may run down
 the facts concerning a mans disap- pearance, but in many cases no clue is available There is one other source of information however, which here
 tofore no government has ever taken
 advantage of. That is the returning
 soldier. It was member of the staff l of the hospital paper, The Right About who conceived the idea of
 utilizing this source through a column
 in his paper, which he called the Port
 of Missing Men The surgeon generals
 office at once recognized the value ot
 such d column of inquiry. and ar
 ranged to have it printed in all the
 hospital papers. Lieutenant Cruding- ton is in charge of the work. He is q
 young ex-newspaper man of broad
 sympathies and great ability, who VI
 organizing the Port of Missing Mer
 on the largest possible basis, inspired
 by the fact that it has already helped
 many people to locate their missing
 men. "Of course what We do is sim
 ply supplemental to what has alread,
 been done by the adjutant general.
 office. and our scope is limited, too.
 said the lieutenant in discussing tho column. We cannot. for example
 print photographs or find men wh, have enlisted in other armies, or trac, husbands who have used the army al an excuse for deserting their wives" Such requests are, however, not in
 frequent in the letters that reach tn, , office. T am writing to ask yol } about my husband" one woman writes , T haven't heard from him for thre, ' years. 1 am his wife, and have thre, children for him. Would like you t help me find him, as 1 want to writ to him With the exception of he husbands name. no other information