Evening star., 1944-03-26
BY Robert J. Lewis.

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boys face heightened gravely.
''You remember Joe CLARKE" he asked.
Sure" said the other.
well, Joe got it in the Pacific. A
buddy of his, who was right next to him
out there, told me Jap sniper got him
on the beach"
Saddened, the second lad wrote a
letter of coincidence that night. He
wanted Mrs. Clark to know he was sorry.
A week later, Joess mother was pros
trated by the letter 1t was the first
news she had that Joe was dead. Fran
tically she called the War Department
at Washington for details. They could
furnish her none, did their best to
soothe her and promised to find out
what had happened.
Swiftly they reached across half the
world by radio. Then, armed with the
facts, they called her back.
Joe's buddy had been mistaken. Joe
is with his outfit-alive and WE'LL" the
officer reported.
Mrs. Clark was prostrated all over
again-this time with tears of happiness
and relief. The boy, who had seen Joe
stunned by a sniper's bullet, believed
Joe had been killed He had leaped
to a conclusion and had told it as a
fact. 1t was this false report that had
been repeated in the Army canteen in
Italy.
Thousands of Inquiries
The call from Joe Clark's anguished
mother was only one Of thousands of
inquiries handled that week by the
little-known but enormously important
Casualty Branch of the Adjutant Gen.
erals Office. It's complex organization
covers two vast floors of the Munitions
Building in Washington. In its files
are record of the millions of officers.
men, WACS. nurses, war correspondents,
photographers, Red Cross workers and
Army civilian employees, who have gone
overseas.
1t is the single, central link between
those millions and their families at
home when casualties happen. Through
it, casualty information is forwarded
with unprecedented speed, accuracy and
consideration
Right now 900 civilian employees and
45 officers are working two shifts total
ing 16 hours a day to keep messages
flowing to next of kin. Frequently hun
dreds OF employees work long hours
overtime as casualty reports pile up
from farf1ung theaters of war.
Work of Vital Importance
torrent of 5000 letters and 5000
kilograms streams from the Casualty
Branch every week. Thousands of tele-
phone inquiries keep 10 operators busy.
Calls from anxious fathers and
mothers-and sisters and brothers and
sweethearts- received every day
from as far as the West Coast. FIRE.
quently on the other end of the wire.
seeking casualty news, are Senators,
Governors, Representatives, the White
House.
AS the tempo of war quickens on both
sides OF the world the Nation has the
word OF high-placed leaders that casu-
atty lists will soar-that war will wreak
mounting toll of killed, wounded, miss
ing, prisoners of war.
AS the Allies shatter the walls of For
tress Europe, the people at home can
count on the Casualty Branch to do its
job without heart-rending delays When
man was wounded in the American
Revolution, his family frequently knew
nothing of it until he came back. In
the Civil War, mans next of kin had
to depend on the commanding officer
for this information. Even in the World
War casualty messages were form-Ietter
affairs, filled in on a mimeographed
sheet.
Letters to Next of Kin
Today our fighting men know that if
they become casualties they are not for
gotten. Tens of thousands of letters and
kilograms are prepared at the Casualty
Branch and sent to next of kin.
handspring moving all this work for
ward is ruddy, gray-haired Col. George
F. Herbert, chief of the branch. Talk
to him and you know at once this is
no routine job with him In his words,
the task is "the saddest in the Army"
practically every piece of paper we
handle carries a heartache for some
one" he said
Fifty-year-old Col Herbert is a vet
eran of q years in the Army A gradu-
ate Of the Command and General Staff
School, he served three years in Tien-
tsin, China, when Gen. George c. Mar
shal-now Army Chief OF Staff, was in
command of the 18th Infantry Regi-
ment there.
You hear this patient, brown-eyed
native of Baker, Greg, talk on the tele-
phone to the overwrought mother of a
missing flyer. His voice, his attitude,
the painstaking effort he makes to give
her all the information available-au
make clear he knows what goes on in
the hearts of those whose loved ones
face wars perils
Almost all the officers and civilian
employees of the branch have son, hus-
band, brother or other relative in the
armed forces. One employe is the wife
OF a general now on duty abroad. Not
long ago a. telephonist's son was killed
overseas. In single day, recently. a
girl employe learned while at work that
her cousin had been killed and her
brother seriously wounded A short
time later a message revealed her
brother was dead.
Problems of Life and Death
Posted in corridor of the Munitions
n1fi11 s- g