Evening star., 1945-06-07
Pacific Morale Seen
Hurt by We Porodes
Boys Wonder If They Are Being
Let Down, Says Observer
By David Laurence

BY David Laurence
Celebrations and parades in the
United States rejoicing over the VIC
tories IN Europe are well-intentioned,
but they are having rather negative
effect on the Pacific war situation.
When the boys in the Army, Navy
and Marine Corps who cannot get home
from the war hear about the celebra-
tions at home, they wonder Il the
American people think the war is over
and whether the public is beginning to
let them down.
One of the problems most worrisome
to officials here is the fact that, while
the point system used by the Army is
admittedly fair, 1t doesn't affect millions
of the boys who have been in the
Pacific for long time and who would
be entitled to discharges too because
they have children or have been in
combat or won decorations as the case
may be.
Up to now there has been quite lot
of fuss made about how there is no
longer rivalry between the armed serv-
ices and how they all wear the same
uniform and how there should be no
distinctions between them. But the
boys in the Pacific realize this is lust
"baloney." For the fact is, their own
Government says that the Army is to
be favored
What Might Be Done.
One can imagine the feelinps of q
boy in the Army who may have the
points but who cannot be spared from
land operation in the Pacific or BOYS
in the Navy or Marine Corps who have
been away from home for three years,
when they read in the newspapers that
hundreds Of thousands who fought in
Europe are to be discharged and that
the war Is officially over for them,
The answer to this is not to be found
in arguing that the Navy and Marine
Corps should have the same point sys-
tenn as the Army All the armed serv-
ices in the Pacific are up to their necks
in the most critical kind of military
and naval operations and anything like
point system is wholly impractical
now for the Navy and Marine Corps.
What might be done is to institute a
plan whereby boys drafted at the 18-
year-old level and above are indicted
into the Navy and Marine Corps in
larger and larger numbers proportion
ately than into the Army so as to build
up big enough reserve of manpower
for those two services. The Army will
have plenty of requirements for the
Pacific available from the European
forces
1t will take at least six months or
more of training for the Navy and
probably IL months for the Marine
Corps for these new inductees, but any
scheme which ignores the work done
by these two services and lets those two
groups hold the bag, so to speak, while
other young men in the same areas
are discharged doesn't seem quite fair.
Fatigue Added Danger.
There is the added danger that un-
less some rotating system or replace
ment scheme is adopted. the boys on
| the ships will become fatigued below
the point of efficiency. There has been
much commentator of the new fleet
train" idea whereby our task forces
stay at sea for long periods of time
without going to port. Officers and men
do without sleep night after night as
they stay on the alert to fight off sui
eide planes or to convoy men and sup
plies back and forth from military
operations. This is the kind of gruelling
experience that cannot be maintained
indefinitely without relief. Despite the
best intentions, also. many boys in the
Navy have not had furloughs, but have
been at sea or away from home more
| than two years
| The morale of our Pacific war forces
! is bound to become of acute impor-
/ tance if the scene back home takes on
/ the nature of demobilization of the
| Army plus the homecoming celebrations
that seem to overlook the fact that
there is war on in the Pacific Most
of the high officers who have come
back from Europe have taken pains to
allow themselves to be quoted as saying
something about the need for finishing
the job in the Pacific, but there will
have to be more than this to bolster
the morale of the millions Of American
boys fighting a desperately difficult war
against the japanese.
To celebrate European victory now
is like attending a wedding and a fu-
neral on the same day-and there are
plenty of funerals going on every day
in the far-off islands of the Pacific
where the number of white crosses Is
rapidly increasing.