Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1952-10-14
BY HAL BOYLE

by HAL bO fLC
NEW YORK LP,-The war in
Korea has become a political issue
here at home.
But it is still a life-and-death
matter to the American soldiers
over there fighting in what some
feel is a forgotten laboratory of
battle. The politics of it all inter-
ests them less than the grim statiS-
tics of survival.
What is it like-their day-to-
day existence on a so-called stat
ic front" in the bare-boned terrible
hills?
Bill Mauldin gives one of the
clearest pictures yet in Bill
Mauldin in Korea" a series of all
Acknowledgements of what is COM
ing to be known as World War
TWo-and-a-half."
Mauldin writes through the eyes
of Joe, the younger of his famous
doughboy team of the last war.
Joe graduates from high school
after five years under the CT bill,
and Immediately gets job as a
war correspondent. He tells about
what he found in Korea in letters
home to his old buddy, Willie.
It's worse now because a man
goes on a dirty patrol and never
knows if they're going to sign a
truce five minutes after he starts
out, so he's maybe wasting his
time" Joe writes.
Somewhat to his surprise he
finds the chow is better in this
war-two hot meals a day even n
the front lines-and morale is
higher in the infantry than in the
rear areas because the rotation
system will enable the forward
fighter to go home in nine months
instead Of Is.
There is very little gripping, and
a sergeant explains it to Joe this
way:
mo matter what kind of a job
YOU are doing in these mountains,
YOU can find somebody lot worse
off"
Joe is also startled when a group
of Navy pilots return to their car
rier ito see the sun bouncing off
so many bald heads.
"A pretty big chunk Of this war
is being fought by guys who carry
pockets full of pictures of their
wives and kids while they bounce
on the deck in an airplane shot
full of holes.
Il don't think very many of them
like it, but they seem pretty good
natured about it Most of them
say pretty much the same thing,
that they'd rather fight a war here
than wait till it's in their own back
yard"
Mauldin's book is a fine eyewit-
ness primer for the home folks in
ITO pages. l only wish that his
own eloquent summary of his Ko-
rean impressions could be read in
every pulpit and legislature in
America as a tribute to the frus-
trated soldiers who fought and still
fight there. This is it:
THE combat man in Korea fights
under the dreariest conditions and
against the worst kind of odds. He
looks forward to few of the little
compensations American soldiers
could expect in previous wars. He
fights a battle in which his best
friends get killed and if an account
of the action appears at all in his
home town paper, it appears on
Page II under Lux ad.
There won't be a victory parade
for his return because he'll come
home quietly and alone, on rota-
ton. and there's no victory in the
old-fashioned sense. ANYWAY, be-
cause this isn't that kind of war.
It's a slow, grinding, lonely, bitch
up war, but he goes on fighting in
it, not happy, but in good spirit.
not in frenzy of hatred against
an enemy which is as pitiful as it
is vicious, but efficiently and with
purpose.
I'm the minds of many people
the phrase 'professial soldier
has a stigma verv much like 'pro-
fessional politician 1t implies
cynical and mercenary motives.