Evening star., 1947-11-24

tlon Tor which had written.
think it only fair to the public to inform it
of this ruling of the medical society or board,
so there will be no misunderstanding as to who
can, or who cannot avail themselves Of the
services OF the visiting nurses, particularly
when the appeal to the general public is made
to contribute to this nursing society.
CORA B. MORAN.
Editors Note: The 1VNs long has had the
policy of rendering service only to patients Of
physicians with an M. D. degree.
Plight of Army Reserves
To the Editor of The Star:
Your paper renders worthy public service
in focusing attention upon an issue with which
you dealt in your editorial of Sunday, Novem-
ber 16, under the heading "Co-ordination of
Reserves
There is real and vital need for public dis
cussions of the various issues relating to the
civilian components of our armed forces. Ira
ditionally and historically, these components
represent the backbone of our Nation from the
standpoint of national security; sometimes
even> this fact is overlooked because of the
fact of the continual spotlighting of the pro-
fessional components, which exercise leader
ship in the current duties and responsibilities
of our arms. To say that the time has come
to consider the state of preparedness of our
Reserves is an understatement, for that time
has always been with U.s. from the time our
Minute Men sprang to arms to wrest this Ma
tons independence and being from those ele-
ments of the Mother Country which opposed
independence.
Upon reflection most of our citizens will
realize that it was a civilian armed force with
which we won World War H. Even in leader
-;
walk of civilian life who led our forces into
successful combat and who incidentally alb
sorbed approximately 95 per cent Of our COM
bat losses.
At the close of the war, the United States
had the greatest civilian Army and Navy the
world had ever seen It was the most effective
force, as events and performances demonstrate
ed proving the superiority of the civilian force
over the professional force
AS in past wars however the end of World
War II saw the dsintegration Of our Army
particularly; whose members were mustered out
into the military anonymity of vague and
shadowy state referred to generously and gen.
orally as our Reserves.
In the Army alone, however, something like
100000 officers and 900 enlisted men, moved
by the puYest patriotism enrolled in the perm
anent Reserve. Theirs was the expectation of
a training program which would keep them fit
and trained, ready for any future emergency
requiring their talents and abilities upon
moments notice.
1t is now more than two years since vi day,
however, and there still has not been evolved
an adequate training program for these indi-
viduals Day after day, and month after month,
rolls by and dearly bought skills are being
neglected and valuable experience is being
wasted
The rolls of the Army Reserve are daily be-
coming more and more meaningless paper lists
and particularly as regards the enlisted Re-
serves no claim can be made even that ad-
dresses are up to date.
This state of unpreparedness which is in
mcal to our national security, should be con-
tinually brought to the public attention until it
is corrected. Congress shares this responsible
ty with the professional leadership of our de-
fense forces; and there is general expectation
that both the Congress and our new Depart
ment of National Defense will take an early
lead in bringing our forces back to taw.
But there is a greater, fundamental RESPONSE
bility and that rests with Mr.. and Mrs. John @.
Citizen. The Star, and the other newspapers OF
the country we believe, can be relied upon to
keep alive public consciousness of the needs for
strength in our Nation-and in our armed
forces this means strong, and ready, civilian
components.
COL. C. M. BOYER, GAG Reserves.
Assistant to the Executive Director, Reserve
Offlcers' Association of the United States