AMERICA'S G.I. JOE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 218, 14 September 1944, Page 2

AMERICA'S G.I. JOE

HIS CHARACTERISTICS

A HOME LOVING FREE MAN I

SALT LAKE CITY. One of the most outstanding characteristics of American armies, according to correspondents who have observed them all the way from Alaska to Australia and from Iceland to Africa, is their human oiitlook on life. They are truly people's armies, and their men and officers are individuals, not military robots. In this fact lies perhaps their greatest strength, their ability to endure hardships and to surmount obstacles. Our armed forces in this war represent the best trained men in all their various lines of any American armies ever placed in the field. Thev are excellent soldiers, but they also are "people." G. I. Joe may know all there is to know about the use of a bayonet and all about teamwork on a beachhead, but he also has the viewpoint of a free man. • Wherever American fighting men go, they take a bit of America with them, whether it is Broadway or Main Street. "Vincent Sheean, noted correspondent, writing in the current Red Book Magazine, tells of his impressions in Italy in the following words: "The main characteristic of the American soldier in Italy—as, I imagine, everywhere else—is his knack of carrying America with him. Somehow he will contrive to make his dugout in a ruined village suggest to any observer the heart and mind of home. This is not only because the G.I. equipment is to be seen there, and not only because of the electric generators and pin-up girls, but because the very arrangement of these things is unlike that to be seen among—for instance—the British and French troops, who have just about the same conditions and materials." Perhaps a mixture of homesickness arid Yankee ingenuity makes these things possible. G. I. Joe is accustomed to advertising, and he wants it with him whether there is anything to advertise or not. He puts up signs over dugouts advertising U.S.O. shows which would play to crowded "houses" without a word of display. . It was reported from North Africa that the soldiers missed the advertising in their radio programmes, so some mythical products were "plugged" to satisfy them. The most important aspect of this people's army of ours is the way it works in war. Despite long years of indoctrination and military training, the German Army has not proved superior to these men who were civilians a short time ago. Let Americans take pride in their servicemen and be thankful that these men "take a little of America" along with them to distant battle areas.