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Yank The Army Weekly - Page 2

© Earl Rickard

else. YANK's editorial conveyed what the fallen president meant to the younger generation who were fighting the Second World War. The editors noted that after twelve years in office, FDR was the only president most of their generation had known. He had given some of them their first jobs in the WPA or CCC, and he had led them through the darkest days of World War II. "He was the Commander in Chief, not only of the armed forces, but of our generation." YANK's editorial compared FDR to a fallen company commander and reminded GI readers of how the initial fear and panic of loss fades after a new leader takes over: "... the men find themselves and the company as a whole operating with the same confidence and efficiency." The editorial closed with the observation that FDR's death brought grief, but not despair. "He leaves us great hope."

Within a few weeks of this sad issue, YANK's readers beheld a cover they had waited a long time to see: a totally white cover surrounding a small oval picture of a German soldier, his hands up; the caption read "Fade-out." This V-E Day issue recounted the GI's war in Europe, presenting eight pages of pictures stressing "we" in the caption: "We hurdled barriers in obstacle courses ...We landed in Northern Ireland in January 1942. We assembled men and equipment in Britain. We waded ashore at Sicily... Anzio ... Normandy." The final non-captioned picture showed a smiling staff sergeant replacing a street sign reading Adolph Hitler Str. with one reading Roosevelt Blvd.

The end of the war in Europe turned the focus on redeployment of troops to the Pacific and the accumulation of GI points. These points were part of a War Department plan looking to the eventual German defeat and the subsequent discharge of some GIs and redeployment of others to the Pacific. The plan gave points for total service time, overseas credit, combat service, and parenthood credit. The magic number, or as it was officially called the "Critical Score", was 85. If a GI earned 85 points he could be discharged; he hoped.

Nevertheless, if a Commanding Officer decided a GI was "essential," then even a high critical score would fail to return the man to civilian life. The importance of "getting out" as opposed to "being redeployed" permeated the magazine from the V-E Day issue to the V-J Day issue. Even Sgt. George Baker's comic strip character the Sad Sack, a Yank regular, was redeployed to the Pacific. Sad Sack had enough points for discharge but his CO decided the Sack's latrine digging prowess warranted a tag of essential.

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