The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-12-05

Army Asked to
Allow Families
to Join Troops
BY HELEN ESSARY

please do a very good deed
writes MRS. who would speak
out IN her own name II required.
please do a very good deed. Print
the letter enclosed. I'd send 1: d.
rect n / thought II would ever be
read by that route. Friends have
advised me that the best way 70
get a public officials attention ID
10 get a columnist to broadcast
your troubles. Here / go:
General Joseph T. McNarney,
Dear General:
you have just been appointed
BY President Truman 70 several big
Jobs. You succeed Gen. Dwight d.
Eisenhower as commander OF the
United States forces in the Euro
pean theater, commander.inchiet
OF the United States Occupation
Forces in Germany and United
States representative OF the Allied
Control Council for Germany. You
must be well backgrounded or you
wouldn't be given so much power.
Therefore, am going to ask you
10 use your best thinking on a mat
ter that concerns not only the sue
cess OF the American occupation
but the success OF thousands OF
American marriages.
You've simply got TO let :he
American troops have their fam
lilies with them in Europe. Here you
are, seven months after the war,
still saying there is no place abroad
Cor wives OF fighting men.
Yet a major general, who should
know what he is talking about, says
che only thing wrong with the Unit
ed States soldier in Europe is that
his morale is low. Everybody, espe-
cially the man himself. knows that
a mans morale Is better. that he Is
more efficient II he has his family
with him than II he is sloshing
around alone. Restless. Generally
fed up.
you notice, general said NOR
ale I'm no. going to talk morals
No one seems to any more. It's
morale I'm talking about. And It
seems to me, with the criticisms
coming out OF Europe about the
behavior OF the CTS, you need to
work a little on your troops NOR
ale"
I'm appealing 70 you because
you are new at your Job. Nobody
could sell General Eisenhower the
idea OF letting the wives go over.
This seemed odd but II was true.
Maybe you will now give out
the old excuse about no available
housing for the wives and no food
20 feed them. Hundreds OF women
are going to Europe daily. l saw
my husband of on a plane for Ger
many yesterday-this 10 why ! am
IN such a state. Four women got on
the plane. Two mink-coated fe-
males. l was told they were wives
OF UNRRA officials.
why shouldn't l have had the
same chance for plane space as one
OF those women? While the war was
on It was all right TO have WACs
abroad. Surely there Is no need for
keeping 1000 of them IN Europe
now. II is the turn OF the wives,
many OF whom can do office work,
too.
Here's an idea, general. II you
say, but the WACs are in the Army
i say, put the wives in the Army.
II It's a technically that's keeping
ms home. You surely heard about
those generals in the Pacific thea
ter who got commissions for Aus
tralian WACs in the United States
Army because they thought :here
were no American girls who would 7
be so helpful or so pretty. That
was a neat scandal in Brisbane. Re- |
member?
And what about the Red Cross
workers who are StNll going over?
Five thousand OF them there now.
Don't you think some wife could
hand out hot coffee or jitterbug
with a lonely CT? Wives OF State
Department officials go with their
husbands. And wives OF business
men. Women workers with USO
and UNO flock over.
But what's the ban on Army
and Navy wives? II couldn't be that
some OF you top heroes are just Big
Butter and Egg Men. Venting a
fling and still have the wife to
come home to. Maybe :he wives
won't be waiting.
We'll. General, this can't be the
first time you've heard this story.
Members OF Congress get thousands
Of such letters a day. Not only from
wives, but from the men them
selves, the younger men( in che |
service.
Better arrange to send the fam
flies along to Europe"