The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-11-09

bitter mail from mothers of teen- age sons protesting against sending their babies to the war. Pappy O'Daniel, who has never been averse to perking tear or pulling gag for an emotional buildup, will un- doubtedly get lots of support for his amendment from this element.
 Sure. There is an argument to be made in favor of drafting the old cootS first . sending off to war the old men of 35 to 45 who have already lived half their lives and haven't made much of them. Why shouldn't these men go first and give the boys half their age chance to stay at home a little longer and make up for the mis- takes of their seniors?
 It is right at this point that the argument against drafting the young men of IS and 19 falls down. For the experience of the Army thus far is too many of these old men of 40 and more simply can't take the gaff.
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 This Army Of today is so infinitely better than the U. s. Army of the last war that there isn't any com parison. The new Army is better ofticered, better equipped better trained. In the A. E. F. of the last war were thousands of soldiers sent overseas with practically no train- ing at all. They distinguished them selves, which is all the more to their credit, but there is little of that in this new Army, in which no one is sent any place unless and until he is trained for his job It is the Army's responsibility to see that every unit is trained before it goes overseas, whether the time required for the training is year, six months, two years.
 Not all service overseas is nec- essarily combat service, and right there is one of the peculiar incon- sistencies of the ODaniel amend ment. It would permit the Army to send soldiers to Alaska. which is not considered overseas, almost as soon as drafted. But it would not permit men to be sent to places like Puerto Rico or Bermuda or London or Hawaii or Ireland The hazards of Alaska, not only from cold but from the threat of possible Japanese invasion, are ob- viously greater than the hazards of Puerto Rico, where the most serious cause of injury thus far has been sunburn.
 Take the air force. Seventy five per cent of its personnel is the ground crew. Should a young ham radio operator or grease monkey be kept from going overseas with their team" just because they may not have a full years training at home? IMPOSSIBLE TASK
 Administratiyely, the problem of separating the younger men from the older men and keeping track of service records to make sure that no soldier was sent overseas before he had gone through his year of training, would be almost impossible. And so far, no one has proposed that there be entire divisions Of IS and i9-year old boys trained to- getler for a year before being sent abroad
 There is certain leayening in- fluence Of older men on younger men when they are thrown to- gether. and the young men mature faster when mixed in this way.
 If the young men under 20 can't be retained for active service by next summer or autumn, 1t means that half a million more older men must be taken from trades or yar- ious skills, thus further draining the manpoWer reserve,
 For the mothers Of the IS and l9-year -o,d boys there is the final safeguard that Army physical and psyehiatrle examinations will see 10 t that none physically and mentally below standard will be called upon t0 serve, It has taken all these cen- turles for the generals to learn that dead soldier or a sick soldier or an nnirained soldier is TO good. Bul the idea has apparently caught on now, and there should be no Teslric. ton on the employment Of trained men when they are fit