Evening star., 1941-06-16

diers more caution while engaged In
peacetime maneuvers.
I don't want to join Holmes and
Brandeis as chronic dissenter, but
the adoption of such cerebral
cyclone would likely prove fatal, not
only to the unlucky soldiers who got
plugged with the for keeps" ammu-
milton, but to the country as well.
1t might conceivably start war
between the States all over again.
1t isn't hard to imagine what
would happen in Alabama, say, If
one of its enlisted sons limped home
to Tuscaloosa and reported to his
kin and neighbors that he was shot
while defending a Goldfish cannery
In Massachusetts.
"Drat them pesky Yankees" the
oldtimers would declare.
And before you could say Jefferson
Davis, they'd be beating their trac-
tors into tanks and their mules into
chargers, and heading North.
**
Likewise, you can picture the re-
action If an Illinois boy staggered
in with his arm in sling and told
the homefolks he had been drilled
between the shoulder blades In a
sharp skirmish in potato patch
down in Tennessee.
"Consarn them rebels" some hot
head would say. Wont they ever
learn the Civil War is over? Call
the A. A. A. and find out what's the
quickest way TO get South"
Hollywood would quit showing
Gone With the Wind" and come on
East for the original thing. Clark
Gable would slip on his old Rhett
Butler makeup and clean up for
tune, and Vivien Leigh would melt
down her Scarlet OHara oscar" to
be made into grapeshot.
Another fault I have to find with
the introduction Of real bullets into
sham battles is that once 1t was
started there is no telling how far
the idea might spread. Some brass
hat might decide that We civilians
weren't exercising sufficient caution
during trial blackouts and deem it
wise to have our own bombers drop
honest-to-goodness bombs.
It would give the dictator nations
great cheer to pick up the Gott I'm
Himmel Gazette or the Donner und
Bitten Blade and read such head
lines as these:
United States Bombers Rock EN-
pire State Building in Surprise At
tack"
"Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle Un-
dergoes Third Raid"
United States Air Corps Claims
Direct Hit on Bethlehem Steel
Plant"
rSeattle Buys Anti-aircraft Bat
terry AS Defense Against March
Field Raiders"
No one wants this country's air
force to be the best in the world
any more than I do, but taxpayers
make awfully expensive targets.
The satisfaction that citizen might
gain from knowing his own Nation q
aviators could knock off a fellows
hat with bomb from $4,000 feet
would be completely lost if that hat
happened to be his own.
One thing is certain: The live
bullet theory will never be popular
with our soldiers. We're asking
enough of them already without ask
ing them to run the risk of being
wounded while official representa-
tives of the nations they are pre-
pairing to withstand are still slipping
tea and cocktails in embassies and
consulates throughout the country.
Besides, what soldier would like
to explain a wound stripe by saying
that he got it charging a garbage
truck marked tank" while armed
only with a make-believe wooden
rifle?
No, a thousand times no, to the
real-bullets proposition.
1t isn't fair to have a draftees
number come up twice.
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