The Ely miner., 1943-09-09

ing tnere 1or a while, listening TO
the newspapers crackle exactly like
burnt flesh every time you twist in
agony, you feel the urge to sit up
and look at some real stars.
They're drafting honest, respecta-
BILE, hard-working soldiers back into
civilian life now, as you probably
read in the papers. Has-beens at
twenty-eight, these good boys are
turned into the pasture under a Sc
lective retirement system. It's in
teresting to watch the way they
take it.
Our big loss in Battery A came
Tuesday when Joe Can't went back
to Liberty, South Carolina, after five
months in the citizen army. Joe is
the nice corporal who looked like the
soldier pictures in the magazines,
used an instructive psychology in
handling his men, and knew every
man in the battery as a friend.
He was on furlough last week
when he was ordered to return at
once to the battery. He came back,
started through the discharge rou-
tine and went about hugging every
body with what looked like unbound
ed Joy.
Then he started getting quieter
and less demonstrative. He had
been relieved from active duty for
the remainder of his stay here-a
matter of four or five days-and
when the men fell out for calisthen-
les or drill, Corporal Can't didn't
have to go out with them. Every
time the whistle blew, you could see
a lonesome look creeping into his
eyes.
The last time I saw him was Mon
day at noon, when we fell out for
chow. Military procedure was over
thrown in a spontaneous revolu-
ton and Joe was drafted to march
us to the mess hall. It was his last
detail. Halfway to the mess hall,
he gave us 'To the rear-march!
To the right f1ank-march! To the
right fank-march!" and all of the
marching commands he had taught
us.
He's returning to Liberty now,
where he'll fall back easily into the
life he left five months ago. But you
could have seen from a casual
glance that he was going to miss
the Army.
Another of the men to be dis
charged here was Little David"
Rosenthal. Little David, a week be-
fore he got his papers, had talked
to me in a very respondent man.
ner. He outlined his definite opin-
ion that the men who are now
thirty or thirty-odd years old have
been Systematically given the run
around by Fate. They grew up in
the confusion which followed the
last war and marched out of high
school or the first years of college
straight into the teeth of the de-
preston. Then when better times
came and they began to find them
selves, along came the new war.
The next time I saw him, he had
been given his notice. He danced
about like a child on Christmas
morning, roared gleefully, and went
into eloquent Jewish rhetoric to de-
scribe his feelings.
ST told them," he shouted, cover
ing his face with an expression of
mock grief, 81 said to them, Please
just let me stay until Christmas so
I can dig into that turkey. Just
until Christmas!' His voice sank
into pathos. "But they wouldn't let
mel"
Little David discolored $50 broad
backs belonging to the men he
pounded to show his joy at return
ing home He sat on the barracks
steps for hours at a time, beaming
blissfully. He was, as our Ussery
would say, as happy as a pig in the
sunshine.
I'm a student cook in the Army.
Cooks are supposed to have the cas-
lest work and the most comfortable
positions the Army affords. Com
pared to the boys in the gun bat
terieS. the signal corps. the anti