Bradley beam., 1943-10-16
For the Iooeys, boys just from school or job, who live and fight and die with the troops in the field. They are the 'junior of ficers' who win the hard battles.
(Reprinted by special permission of the N. Y. Tmes) Copyrighted by the N. Y Times Co.

The Oft1cer Will take the letterS and thank the soldier silently with his eyes. He will read the letters and pass. them on to the rest of the men. : E A good junior officer knows his men we'll. He not only knows how well they can fight but knows everything they think about and dream about and worry about. He knows that because he has cen soIed their mail, because he plays poker with them, because he stretches out in the dark of night and talks his heart out with them and he always listens hard when they do the talking. They talk about everything that bunch of men talk about when they are to- gether. And at night the men can't see the gold bar on the lieutenant's shoulder, and he doesn't want them to.
 To his men, the looey is lot of things. He's a young punk who looks as soft as a woman but who tightens up hard when the chips are down; he is the guy the men turn to when they have got a pack of personal troubles and want some body to talk to who will open his heart and understand such things; he's the one they go to when they need money in a hurry for a brand new baby back home Ga private's base pay is $50, a second looey has $150 and a first looey $166).
 1 He is junior officer to "the old man," who may be anything from captain to a colonel. But in the field he is just the guy who faces the same bullets his men do,' who. fops in the same mud, eats the same cold c rations, wears the same fatigues. He is always "lieu- tenant" when somebody else is around, but he may be Harry when two of them are alone. To his men, the looey is one of them.
 Most of these junior officers un- derstand their men so we'll because not so long ago they wore stripes themselves. The majority of the looeys now out in the field are "ninety-day wonders" enlisted men who went through a short, tough series of courses at Officer Candi- date Schools before they came overseas. These courses consist of intensive training in all weapons, map reading, scouting and, above all, training in leadership and ex- ercise of judgment.
 Take two lieutenants in a tank destroyer outfit holding the line in front of the infantry with two companies of 75's mounted on half tracks. The half-tracks were care fully concealed in the curves of the foothills in front of a long flat plain. On the other side of the plain were more than hun dred tanks of the German Tenth Panzer Division being regrouped for charge.
 The two officers-Lieut. John Yowell of Houston, Tex, and Lieut.. Charles Mum of Jackson, Mich.- knew what was coming. Nobody would have blamed them if they had pulled back to a stronger de- fensive line-especially since we'll entrenched 81-mm. mortars were beginning to lister their po- sitions. But the lieutenant knew that if they retreated, the whole line might be punctured. So they decided to stick. They told their men what the score was, and the men picked targets and waited.
 They held their fire until the onrushing tanks came within range. Then they let loose with everything they had. When the smoke cleared away there were several burning tanks, several that were just stopped cold, and the rest had turned back. It wasn't all one-sided. The tanks were fir ing too, and some of our half tracks weren't working any more