Evening star., 1943-04-14
Attack ck-ond Vengeance! The Story of Torpedo 8
BY IRA WOLFERT.
Suv1D~eSc


Detail OF NaUy Torpedo Squad
ron 8 mans relOs fighting planes
at Norfolk, crosses country and
Pacific to Honolulu, only to be
held there to 1lUait action. NerU-
ously men sit around wondering
iUho s1ill be cooked nert. 1t.
Larsen refused plea to be one
OF sir men ordered to re-entorce
Mtdsray Island.
CHAPTER 3.
The older people of the United
States can be content with the
young men they have produced and
who are now away from home fight
ing the war. Most of these young
men are astonishinglv practical,
very realistic and hard-headed in
the midst OF all the deSperations OF
battle, and when they are asked
to volunteer for particularly dan
gerously mission they do not become
romantics, rushing heedlessly to die
for a dear old Rutgers They ex-
anime the situation coldly, all the.
ins and outs OF it. Independently
of their officers they arrive at de-
cisions which are eminently salts
factory to those concerned both
with the prosecution of the war and
the nature of the Americans fight
ing it. They do not let the war
down. nor do they let themselves
down. They are altogether very
sound, good people.
On several occasions was pres
ent on backgrounds in the Pacific
when requests for volunteers were
made. There was always pause
for thought, and nobody looked at
anybody else, but looked only inside
himself. You could see on the
Elections of debate going on in
side their minds-a griSly kind of
arithmetic that has never been
taught in our schools, but which
our men seem to know well, a pri-
vate adding up of profit and loss,
of profit to the war and their par
ticular role in it and Of loss to the
war and their particular role in it.
Reporter Volunteers for Mission.
saw young combat reporter
volunteer to climb naked ridge in
the face of Jap sniper fire and kill
the sniper there when it was not
his Job to do so. The rest of the
men were slow in making up their
minds that the job was worth doing.
They had been in action, as the
combat reporter had been, a long,
long time and were tired and were
safe where they were. They did
not see any reason for any rush
about the SniperS. They were
willing to wait to let the snipers
expose themselves and pot them
from safe distance.
The combat reporter did not see
any military reason for rush either,
but he volunteered for the job
anyway on the very practical
grounds that I was there as cor
respondent for many newspapers,
that I might not understand why
volunteers were slow in forthcoming.
that his job as historian of the unit
TO which he was attached involved
putting the reputation of the unit
in its proper light. So off he went,
ducking away very swiftly, hoping
I would believe that a regular had
volunteered and not he and, when
I caught up with him, he was diff
fldent about what he had done and
said calloWly. Il broke the rule of
good conduct. which is never VOL
unteer for nothing"
in,L LoI
missions not to seem brave not to
win medals or promotion but only
when, independently of their Off
GERS. they decide the possible gain
is worth the probable loss and de-
cline to volunteer only when their
private arithmetic does not add up
that way. They do things that seem
crazy, but never for crazy reasons.
almost always for reasons that stand
the test of adult thought.
Saw One Group Refuse.
once saw several hundred young
men, none of them yet 80 years old.
all veterans of hard fighting, nearly
so of them winners of medals for
heroism beyond the call of duty,
fail to produce a single volunteer
because each, consulting himself
privately. had arrived at the same
result: The possible gain was not
worth the probable loss.
A desk officer, unfamiliar with
a certain type weapon under actual
combat conditions, had thought up
a use for that weapon which looked
good on paper and wanted it tested
in a real fight. The commanding
officer of the unit fighting with that
particular weapon believed the new
idea impractical, but the desk off,
Ger outranked him substantially and
he said he'd put 1t up to his men.
Volunteers were to write their names
on bulletin board at the command
post. No names were written the
first day and none the second. The
commanding officer took down the
bulletin and said to his men:
Il guess you guys are all going
chicken on me. That's what I'll
have to report back"
I remember more than dozen
young fellows spoke up with. No,
sir and That's not so. sir" at
the same time. Then they eX-
planned. Its just that we're doing
all right doing the way we're doing
and this new stunt is just crazy.
Not only would nobody live through
1t, but you just wouldn't do any good
with 1t. You'd be killed before you
could do any good
That's what I think, too" replied
the commanding officer, but 1 just