Sultan Meets I-B Returnees Roundup Staff Article   A few months back Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan left his India-Burma Theater command to take over the duties of Inspector General of the Army in Washington.   Before going Gen. Dan told Roundup reporters how much he appreciated the work and loyalty of the men under his command. He added that any men from this theater, from private up to generals, were welcome at all times and they should not hesitate to call upon him in Washington.   This week Gen. Dan met some of his former men in his capacity as Inspector General. He said that he had orders from Gen. George C. Marshall to inspect returning troop ships and report on conditions. Whether by accident or design, Gen. Dan selected the ship Gen. Black, full of India-Burma troops, for his first inspection.   From Army News Service reports, Sultan has lost none of his old informality and regard for the G.I. It was said he freely mixed and talked with the men. After conversations with the soldiers who had fought their war in the non-chicken theater school of Stilwell, Sultan and Wheeler, the Inspector General said he found conditions "good."   Sultan accompanied the men to Camp Kilmer, N.J., and said he would go on with some of them to separation centers.   (Editor's note: We don't think that Gen. Dan picked out a ship loaded with troops from his old command by accident. He has always had a soft spot in his heart for the men from this Theater and only a short while back Roundup had a personal letter from the new I.G. asking for a back edition of the paper, plus a copy of Smith Dawless's Conversation Piece, for a woman who had a son wounded over here.) Vol. IV   No. 8      Delhi, Thursday,   Nov. 1, 1945      Reg. No. L5015 45,000 Slated To Go Home This Month By SGT. ART HEENAN   Roundup Assistant Editor   Approximately 45,000 India-Burma and China personnel will clear India by sea during November, bound for the U.S., it was announced this week by Theater Headquarters in New Delhi.   Category IV men falling in the 60-69 (points) group will remain in their units and move with them to the embarkation points at Karachi and Calcutta during November. It is planned, transportation permitting, that all units now designated as Category IV with either be at, or enroute to, ports of embarkation for the States by Dec. 1.   Personnel of the 60-69 designation and not assigned to surplus units will be moved to POE's as casuals on the following schedule, the dates being approximate:   67-69 points, inclusive - Nov. 15.   64-66 points, inclusive - Nov. 19.   62-63 points, inclusive - Nov. 24.   60-61 points, inclusive - Nov. 27.   No estimates were given as to how long it will take to clear all 60 pointers from the Theater. Primary factor, as it has been from the days of early rotation, is allotment of ships. 15 SHIPS   Fifteen ships have been allotted to the Theater during November. Seven will come into Karachi, eight into Calcutta. However, included in this number are some ships which can only take around 2,500 passengers, plus two non-standardized types capable of loading only around 1,700. The 15 ships can accommodate 44,994.   That theater planning has been accurate is evidenced by a check of the Roundup story of Sept. 20. In that edition Headquarters was quoted as saying that around 55,000 would be moved in the period Sept. 23 - Oct. 21.   Actually this figure had to be sliced to 52,850 as one troopship, the Callan, was held up in Karachi with engine trouble and did not sail until Oct. 29. So out of the estimated 52,850 forecast, figures reveal that 48,635 were sent out by air and sea. Another ship sailed two days later, bringing the total, with Callan included, to around the 55,000 estimate.   There is seemingly considerable confusion among the men awaiting shipment at Malir concerning the waiting time. We have received numerous letters the past week, complaining that troops are being held there too long. TWO WEEKS WAIT   This misconception appears to have started because of a Roundup story which stated "efforts are being made to clear the men within four or five days." This effort did not succeed. Men can only be shipped out as the vessels are made available. The average waiting time is about two weeks at the present time. Some men have had to wait three weeks. This was partially due to the breakdown of the Callan.   Numerous other complaints have reached us concerning conditions at Malir. We informed Col. J. N. Hauser, Theater Replacement head, of the situation and he invited this writer to what was to have been a closed officers' meeting of his staff.   The meeting was mostly routine and the only news that came out of it was the fact that plans are being made to provide for more recreational facilities through larger welfare funds. Technical matters, concerning docking of ships, was the principal topic. No evidence presented itself that there was a deep, dark plot to keep the G.I.'s at the ports as long as possible.   After the meeting, we talked with Lt. Col. Franklin G. Pruyn, head of Replacement Depot No. 1 at Karachi. We cited the principal complaints in the letters: Confusion over waiting time; too many details; ignoring of rank by working non-commissioned officers as privates; poor food; too much emphasis on dress; rudeness by permanent party personnel; lack of recreational facilities. C.O. TALKS   Here, according to Pruyn, is the true picture of the situation:   WAITING TIME - The average waiting time in the replacement depot is about two weeks. When ships arrive ahead of schedule, it may be less; if they arrive late, it may be more. But no one should plan on staying less than two weeks at Malir before boarding a troopship. Category IV units are likely to get a break on this, for when they arrive at the replacement depot, their records are usually in order. It follows, therefore, that casuals, as a rule, have to wait longer than their counterparts in Category IV units.   (Writers complained points meant little in getting out. Pruyn stated he moved men out as they came in, if they were eligible for discharge. If, for example, an 80-point man came in on a Wednesday, three days after a 60-point man, the 80-point man would not necessarily go ahead of the 60-point man. He would remain three days behind the 60-point man, all, other conditions being equal.)   DETAILS - The permanent party is still new to its work and swamped by overwork. To aid them, potential returnees are put to work in accordance with their MOS number. But when a man is due to be shipped, he is taken off the job immediately. Pruyn had no knowledge of non-commissioned officers being used as privates of the guard. He neither denied or confirmed it. SOME VOLUNTEERS   MESS HALLS - The permanent party could only allot two G.I.'s to each mess hall, each of which feeds between 500-800 men. The best mess hall in the camp was run by a volunteer from the returnees. Quite a few men have volunteered to help while awaiting their ships.   DRESS - The Depot CO says the men are still in the Army. He said men from Burma and China were the main dress offenders. He said he had required men to shave off their beards but had allowed them to retain mustaches, MAKE THE MOST OF IT This is the second time in recent weeks that actress Jane Harker has displayed her glamorous charms in the Roundup. Hope you don't mind. If this be favoritism, make the most of it. if they were properly trimmed. "One big trouble is campaign hats," he said. "Since Gen. Stilwell wore one, everyone wants to look like him when he goes home. Last week everyone went aboard without wearing campaign hats."   PERMANENT PARTY - Charges that the permanent party is rude, indifferent and refused to answer questions were denied by Pruyn. "I have made a check on that situation and can say through my own personal knowledge that it is untrue." he protested. "With a large body of men, I do not deny there may have been isolated cases of disagreement."   RECREATION - At Karachi, there are tennis courts, 12 day rooms, four EM's clubs, four Red Cross clubs, five shows and an additional cinema rented from an Indian for matinees, swimming pools and baseball, volleyball and badminton facilities. Radios have been installed except in areas where there is no electricity available. Troops generally take all available books aboard ship with them but details now meet the vessels after they dock and replace the "lifted" reading material.   That ends the complaint book for the week.

 Three Meals,
 Light Details
 En Route U.S.

By SGT. C.M. BUCHANAN
Roundup Field Correspondent
  NEW YORK - The Navy transport Gen. C.G. Morton, draped with a huge, colorful CBI Banner across the bow, put into New York harbor Oct. 22 carrying 3,100 jubilant G.I.'s from all reaches of China, Burma and India.
  Second ship to leave Karachi after VJ Day, the Morton was greeted by an Army yacht on which a G.I. band beat out a tuneful welcome to the jungle wallahs.
  At the sight of the Lady with the torch, throats tightened and a strange mixture of emotions was apparent. Some CBI men gave out with loud whoops, but others, moved by the sight of the symbolic statue, wept openly or stood motionless as if in deep reverence as they passed by. They scurried to all parts of the ship to seek vantage points from which to view or take pictures of the sky line as the ship nosed into the harbor.

MANY FROM JUNGLES
  Most of the soldiers on the Navy transport were from the jungles of Assam and Burma, but there were a generous number from Brahmaputra Valley bases, Calcutta, Delhi and dozens of points in China.
  Largest complete unit on the ship was the 48th Evac Hospital, headed for deactivation in the States after 28 months overseas. Others were high point men and over-age soldiers from every branch of the Service traveling as casuals.
  The 15,000-ton transport left Karachi Oct. 1, a few days after the Gen. MacRae. Traveling straight without the necessity of war time zig-zags, the big ship held to its 17-knot speed throughout the trip and made New York in 21 days.
  Taking the shortest and most direct sea route to the States, the liner headed across the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Aden, into the Red Sea, through the 100-mile Suez Canal, stayed at Port Said 17 hours, entered the Mediterranean, sailed past Crete and Sicily to Gibraltar and across the Atlantic to New York.

SHIP LOADED FAST
  Loading the troop transport at Karachi took only a few hours, the advance party coming aboard the day before to prepare meals and make the ship ready for sailing. For the most part, the men were somber as they lugged duffle bags aboard, apparently unable to realize they were finally homeward-bound. They milled about the decks inspecting their quarters and the ship.
  Only deviation from their quietude was when the ship's announcer in a short briefing prior to departure stated that the next stop would be New York, and again when nurses boarded the ship. Loud whistles and yells marked both occasions.
  Life on shipboard was considerably relaxed from the tension of such trips made during the dark days when submarines infested both the Atlantic and Pacific. Fitted with large life boats and raft floats, the Morton still was drab gray, and few lights were installed on open decks. Smoking was allowed at night, however, and there were no blackouts.

PRACTICE DRILLS
  Each passenger was equipped with a life belt and, in true Navy readiness, several practice drills were held during the voyage. As a precaution against mines possibly afloat in the confined waters of the Mediterranean, passengers were ordered to wear life belts and a complete uniform at all times. This order was relaxed as the ship left Gibraltar and crossed the Atlantic.
  Routine aboard the Morton varied little from original trips overseas. Approximately 60 percent of the troops aboard found themselves with a detail of some kind, though the jobs were split up and no one man was saddled with a back-breaking duty such as KP more than a part of the time. KP's worked every third day, but after several days duty were relieved or transferred to lighter work. Many details were extremely minor, taking only a couple of hours daily. Griping and grousing about work was at a minimum, since each man had plenty of leisure time.
  Occupying a "suite" of their own on the superstructure deck of the ship were 15 K-9 dogs, veterans of the North Burma campaign and later transferred to China for duty. Outstanding of the group was "Red," a large German Shepherd that guarded Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, Jr., when the hero of Bataan was released from a Jap prison.

DOG WAS VIGILANT
  Cpl. Robert H. Willeford, his handler for 22 months, said Red took his assignment in stride, oblivious of the rank of his charge but with the same vigilance he displayed on previous occasions.
  Cpl. Jack H. Tattersall, also overseas 22 months, returned with his K-9 for a de-training process which the animals will be given. Tattersall, when asked whether he would be discharged, studied a moment, then remarked:
  "I think the dog's future is more certain than mine. He's got more points than I have."
  The passengers who created most bent necks and turned heads were the 72 women aboard. With staterooms and private deck on the port side of the ship, the women had complete privacy for the duration of the journey. Sixty-eight were nurses traveling as part of the 48th Evac Hospital, though a number of the girls had served with other hospitals in Assam and North Burma.
  Lt. Mary A. Eberly, a member of the 20th General Hospital at Ledo for more than a year, along with several others, was transferred to the 48th a few days before the medical unit left Ledo.

WACS WERE NOVELTY

FINAL STORY   Since March, 1944, Sgt. C. M. Buchanan - "Buck" to G.I.'s from Ledo to the China border - has covered building of the Ledo Road, and the chuckles and heartbreaks of the Men of the Road for The Roundup.   Late in September, with 27 months overseas, Buck slapped down the cover of his battered typewriter in the Ledo Public Relations Office for the last time and started on the long road home. This is the last of his series of stories on evacuation from Ledo, Assam to New York City, U.S.A.

  Three WACs and one female civilian passenger also were quartered with the nurses. G.I.'s on the main deck stretched their necks to get a sight of the WACs, since most of the jungle ----- had never seen an American enlisted girl in uniform except in the movies. One grizzled Engineer, a corporal with 33 months in Outer Assam and North Burma, remarked as he spotted WAC S/Sgt. Kay Pearson on the upper deck, "Jeez, she outranks me but that's one soldier I wouldn't mind taking orders from." Sgt. Pearson was stationed in China and was the first WAC returned to the States on the point system from China-Burma-India.
  Navy chow was the talk of the ship. A large variety of food was carried on the transport and three meals were served daily. The thing that made the biggest impression was the supply of fresh butter placed on tables at each meal. Menus had a surprising variety, with fresh meat, chicken, liver and other treats appearing during the 21-day trip. Trays were used and the men stood up while eating.
  For the most part the G.I.'s were undemonstrative and took the trip home in almost the same spirit as any permanent change of station.

SHIP STRICTLY G.I.
  In typical Army fashion, strict military caste system was observed between officers and enlisted personnel. Ranking brass occupied cabins, but lieutenants and some captains were berthed in ---- similar to those occupied by the G.I.'s.
  G.I.'s pounced upon every display of the favoritism with greater vigor than during the days of war. When officers were ordered over the loud-speaker system to bring bedding from the superstructure deck to their state rooms one evening, a chorus of cheers went up from G.I.'s throughout the ship. While crowded ten-deep from the rail, a tea dance on an upper deck brought a share of gripes from the men below.
  Once underway, a full program of Special Service activities was carried on which broke up the monotony of long hours at sea. A complete Navy band, regular complement of the ship, played thrice daily in different parts of the transport and furnished the musical background for two rollicking G.I. variety shows staged by soldier talent aboard.

BOXING BOUTS HELD
  Boxing bouts were held on the open decks after the transport reached the cool waters of the Mediterranean, the bouts being of an exhibition nature. A crafts shop for weaving leather and woodworking was installed in a hatch amidships, keeping deft fingers occupied making wallets, belts, and other things.
  Books were drawn from the ship's library, G.I.'s listened to recordings played over the public address system, a daily news sheet was published and an Information and Education orientation lecture was aired daily.

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One G.I. Complaint Changes I-B's Policy On V-E To V-J Points

  Roundup Staff Article

  Everyone who was in the India-Burma Theater for the entire period between V-E and V-J Day can chalk up eight points increase over his V-E score because of T/Sgt. Henry Norris' eye for detail and fact.
  Norris, writing from Calcutta, told Theater Headquarters that there were 133 men in his 1007th Engineer SS Battalion who were members of the 59-Point Club. He protested that they had been given only seven points from V-E Day to V-J Day and that they should have received eight points.
  Norris cited a Stars and Stripes story which said that eight points for everyone had been awarded in the European Theater.
  Theater Headquarters in Delhi checked with the War Department. The sergeant was right. The 59-Point Club is now the 60-Point Club as a result, and those who got six or seven points chalked up for the period between V-E and V-J will get eight now.

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900,000 Eligible For Discharge November 1

  By Army News Service

  Another 900,000 soldiers become eligible for release Nov. 1 when the discharge score for enlisted men is reduced to 60, the War Department announced this week.
  Up until Sunday, Oct. 21, more than 2,000,000 men had been discharged, according to the War Department announcement. It was forecast in the announcement that 250,000 would be released in the remaining days of October.
  Of the 900,000 eligible for release under the lowered point score of Nov. 1, 205,000 are in the U.S., 335,000 in Europe and the Mediterranean, 280,000 in the Pacific, and 80,000 in scattered areas or en route to the U.S.
  In an earlier announcement this week, the War Department said that Army forces abroad will be reduced to a strength of 870,000, including occupation forces in Japan and Germany, by next July 1. The announcement said that about 3,750,000 now overseas will be returned home by that time.
  Sen. James Mead (D-N.Y.) told the Senate at mid-week that between Nov. 1 and Dec. 5 the Navy will make available 295 combat ships for transport service in the Pacific. These ships will have a capacity of 395,151 troops. At the same time, the Army Air Forces announced in Washington plans for discharging flying officers with 44 points or two years of service. This will make 7,233 officers eligible.
  Meanwhile, as Lt. Gen. George Stratemeyer told a press conference in Shanghai "that we hope to get all Americans out of China by Jan. 1." Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo declared that 54 percent of 1,194,200 men in the Pacific have 50 or more points.
  In the meantime, back in Washington, Sen. Homer Ferguson (R-Mich.) in a Senate speech asked whether the Army "has not in fact abandoned the point system" for discharging troops.
  He called upon the War Department for a statement of policy in handling discharges by units rather than individual points. Supporting Ferguson's statement, New York's Sen. Mead read a petition from 176 soldiers on Okinawa who said their points ranged from 86 to 105. They complained they were misled by the point system and troops were returning by units.
  Ferguson declared that if the Army has "in fact for the most part abandoned the point system, candor requires that the War Department announce its policy publicly so that men chafing at being held overseas would no longer be misled."
  Charges that ships are returning from the Pacific to the West Coast with empty bunks while G.I.'s with more than 85 points labor in Manila streets were made by Henry L. Foster, recently discharged Army Engineer major who served in both world wars.
  Foster came home on a ship in which he declared there were "16 empty beds." He declared that by using "cots in the holds we could have carried at least 300 more home-hungry men."

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Brutal Japs, Koreans To Be Tried
For POW Atrocities In SEAC Zone

  By SGT. JOHN McDOWELL   Roundup Staff Writer

  Investigations of atrocities committed in prisoner of war camps in Southeast Asia by Japanese military personnel and Korean guards have progressed to a point warranting the lodging of specific charges against war crimes suspects in the near future, Brig. Gen. C. C. Fenn, Theater Judge Advocate and head of the India-Burma War Crimes Branch, disclosed this week.
  Although the question of jurisdiction over the war crimes suspects has not yet been decided, it is expected that Washington and London will agree that British laws of legal procedure will be followed at the impending Southeast Asia trials.
  Where and when the war crimes trials will be held has not been determined. However, it was learned from official sources in Delhi this week that a British Army representative from Southeast Asia Command is now in London awaiting instructions on the procedure to be followed in the prosecution of war crimes suspects.
  It is believed the suspects will be tried at joint trials, with the United States, Great Britain, Australia and The Netherlands setting forth their charges in one combined indictment.
  The Southeast Asia zone of responsibility in the war crimes trials includes prisoner of war camps in Java, Sumatra, the Celebes, Singapore, Rangoon, Indo-China and along the Moulmein-Bangkok Railway in Burma and Thailand.

126 JAPS, 99 KOREANS
  Working with the United States Army's Counter Intelligence Corps and Office of Strategic Services, the British have imprisoned 126 Japanese and 99 Korean suspects at Bangkok to date. Of these, 16 have been identified positively as suspects connected with atrocities committed against Americans. And 19 more are believed to have taken part in atrocities against American prisoners.
  Names of war crimes suspects now in custody of the British at Bangkok are not available for publication. However, it is intimated that several "big name" suspects who stand high on the United States' black list of war criminals already have been imprisoned.
  Responsibilities for war crimes are being based from the top down through the ranks of the Japanese military system. This stepdown of responsibility finds the commanding officer of all prisoner of war camps in Southeast Asia in the role of "Public Enemy No. 1" followed in succession by the commanding officers of specific areas of the Jap command within Southeast Asia, the commanding officers of the various prisoner of war camps, officers and enlisted men attached to these camps and the Korean guards assigned to the camps.
  This graduation of responsibility, however, applies only to general conditions of prisoner of war camps, not individual cases of murder or mistreatment. In cases of murder or mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war, the individual responsible for the atrocity will be tried for the crime, while the commanding officer of the camp in which the atrocity was committed and his superior officers, will be held responsible for permitting such acts of brutality to occur.
  War crimes investigations in Southeast Asia, which began after the fall of Rangoon, have proceeded at an accelerated pace since the capitulation of Japan.
  When released from prisoner of war camps, Americans have been handed questionnaires which asked, among other things: Have you been mistreated? Do you know of any beheadings? Do you know of any murders? Can you name any individuals connected with atrocities.
  The prisoners who gave evidence of knowledge of war crimes were then interrogated by C.I.C. and O.S.S. personnel and their statements put in writing. Reports were compiled from these statements, after which both the reports and statements were forwarded to the War Crimes Branch in Delhi where the evidence was screened for specific crimes and suspects.
  To this evidence facts obtained by teams of Nisei interpreters through questioning of Jap prisoners and study of Jap secret documents were added. In this manner, evidence against war crimes suspects was built up, the seriousness of their crimes was determined and an accurate picture of conditions in individual prison camps was formed.

DEATHS VERIFIED
  Several hundred deaths of American POWs in Southeast Asia camps have been verified to date. Causes of death vary, although deliberate atrocities, malnutrition and lack of adequate medical treatment are listed as the most common.
  The worst conditions were in the "labor camps" along the Moulmein-Bangkok Railway. This project - branded as unfeasible in the 1930's after surveys had been conducted through jungle swamplands in an attempt to locate a possible railroad right-of-way connecting Burma and Thailand - was started in October, 1942, by the Japanese army. A group of Allied prisoners was shipped from Batavia to start this project. Included in this "chain gang" were American survivors of the USS Houston, sunk in the Battle of Macassar Straits in 1942, and members of the 131st Field Artillery Battalion of the Texas National Guard which had fought a losing battle as allies of the Dutch in the ill-fated Battle for Java in 1942.
  In January, 1943, another group of Americans from the Houston and the 131st were put to work on this Jap project. Later, other American prisoners joined the labor crews.
  The work was coolie labor. The Japs had no heavy equipment such as United States Army Engineers used to carve the Ledo Road through North Burma's jungles. The prisoners, under heavy guard, practically were forced to scratch a railroad through the jungles with their fingers.

"WORMY RICE"
  American reports show that the labor camps at the 80, 85 and 100 kilometer marks along the rail line were the worst. The greatest number of deaths occurred in these camps. The prisoners were fed 270 grams of wormy rice per day and a little tea. They received from a pint to a quart of brackish drinking water per day and very little meat or vegetables. In order to survive, they had to eat dogs, cats, rats and jungle leaves.
  Washing and latrine facilities were inadequate and unsanitary. Living quarters were overcrowded and consisted mainly of bamboo hovels located in swampy, mosquito-infested sections which were inundated with floodwaters during the monsoons. Men suffered from dysentery, malaria, beriberi, pellagra and painful jungle ulcers on their legs, which the guards delighted in beating with bamboo sticks. The sick were beaten and forced to work until they could no longer stand. Then they were dragged to their quarters and left to live or die without benefit of medical aid.
  Many of the beatings of prisoners reported in American records are attributed to the Korean guards. War Crimes officials point out that beatings are a common form of punishment in the Jap army. An irate general would beat a colonel, and his displeasure, interpreted in physical violence, would immediately pass on down the ranks. In the end, the Jap privates would beat the Korean guards who, in turn, would beat the POWs.

KOREANS CHARGED
  Charges are being made against those Korean guards with records of consistent and excessive brutality. Prisoners report the guards used bamboo poles, wooden clubs similar to baseball bats or the butts of their rifles when administering the beatings.
  Reports of prisoners of war have indicated that the Japs reserved a "special hatred" for the American Air Forces. Air Forces personnel were treated worse, in many instances, than other American POWs.
  Air raids also brought special punishment. One wing of Rangoon Prison, devoted to solitary confinement cells, was always filled after an air raid, prisoners reported. These cells were tiny, dark holes in the wall with no beds or blankets and a bucket for a toilet.
  At many camps, if one prisoner committed an offense, no matter how slight, the rations of all other prisoners were reduced for the day. There were also mass beatings as punishment for individual offenses. And, at the work camps along the Moulmein-Bangkok Railway, the rations of sick POWs were arbitrarily reduced one-half by the Japs.
  One instance on American records reports the murder of six American Air Force men. Eight crew members of a bomber forced down in Indo-China eluded capture for a month, only to be surprised by a small Jap detachment. In the ensuing skirmish, three Jap soldiers were killed.

TWO FOR ONE
  Following their capture, the eight Americans were taken in a clearing in the jungle and questioned. Then, two at a time, six of the men were led off into the jungle by armed Jap soldiers. Each time shots were fired, and the Jap returned alone. The two survivors were told that the six men had been shot to compensate for the three dead Japs.
  The senior American officer at the Macassar Prison Camp in the Celebes told war crimes investigators that, of 168 Americans in the camp, 20 percent died in a five-month period in 1944. And, from January, 1945 to July, 1945, more than 200 prisoners including 28 Americans, died in the camp. Most of the deaths, the officer said, resulted from dysentery, malnutrition, beriberi, pellagra and edema. At all times the Japs refused to supply proper food and medicine.
  At another prison camp on Java, the senior American officer reported the treatment of prisoners as "brutal, humiliating and degrading."
  There are hundreds of more cases against the Japanese in the American dossier of war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, and as many more in the files of the British, Dutch and Australian governments. The charges range from the withholding of large stocks of medical supplies in warehouses at Bangkok, the pilfering of Red Cross packages and the complete stoppage of all mail, both to and from prisoners, for three and a half years, to reported beheadings of American air crew members by Jap officers using their samurai swords.
  Whatever the magnitude of their crimes, the accused are being hunted down and imprisoned. And Southeast Asia Command officials promise speedy trials for all Japanese and Koreans who committed or were responsible for the many atrocities against all Allied prisoners of war.

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Air Engineers Write History Of Their Outfit

 Roundup Staff Article

  CALCUTTA - About 25 years from now when the grandchildren of the members of the 1880th Engineer Aviation Battalion, Army Air Forces, swarm around and yell: "Grandpop, tell us about when you were in the war," they are going to get their answer straight off the old boys bookshelf.
  The battalion, which doesn't believe in half-way measures - whether it's building air strips, roads or preparing its official history - has just become the first outfit in CBI (as far as The Roundup now knows) to produce a professional-type, full-length illustrated book on its activities.
  The book, titled Situation, CBI and now ready to be sent to the publishers, has 300 pages, 350 photographs, sketches and illustrations, six original poems, a long series of feature stories that start with the unit's activation and covers all assignments through India, Burma and China.

COMPLETE ROSTER
  It winds up with a complete home-address roster of every man who has come into the group from the time the battalion sailed overseas. To add a little extra G.I. flavor to the publication, its editorial staff is including seven sketches published in Yank magazine and a few features typical of the Theater which have appeared in The Roundup.
  The task of preparing such a thorough and serious work, which would be a man-sized job even for professionals, has been handled entirely by 100 enlisted men in the battalion who have spent six weeks working night and day whipping the book into shape.
  Plans for the book were launched Aug. 1, when the unit was in Kunming, China. Several enlisted men, while discussing routine records being kept for the official battalion history, suddenly hit upon the idea of preparing a full book and publishing enough for all of the group's 800 men. The men are sharing the cost.
  A meeting was called and the idea presented to the entire personnel. Tremendous enthusiasm greeted the proposal and an editorial board of nine enlisted men was elected by secret ballot to start the task immediately.
  On the editorial board was T/Sgt. Charles R. Rowley, Ephrata, Wash., editor; Sgt. Edward F. Goetz, Reading, Pa., T/5 Harold H. Gilbert, Jr., Burlingame, Calif. and Pfc. Charles V. Mathis, Wildebrook, N.J., assistant editors; T/4 Alvin E. Rumack, Milwaukee, Wis., in charge of laying out the book, art editor; T/5 Frederick Shetfield, Richmond, Va., who prepared original drawings, staff artist; T/3 Paul Weller, Rye, N.Y., photo editor; T/4 Carl Marmuta, Seattle, Wash., photographer; S/Sgt. John A. Fox, Hamburg, N.Y., cartographer; and Cpl. Russell A. Cardamone, Conshohocken, Pa., business manager.
  The battalion's history proved an interesting subject and special efforts have been made to make the book attractive even to the casual reader. The illustrations include training photographs taken by unit members.

WORKED IN CHINA
  The battalion was activated at Geiger Field, Spokane, Wash., Mar. 1, 1943, trained there and at Alamagordo, N.M., on a bombing range later used for the atomic bomb experiments, sailed overseas Mar. 26, 1944, arrived in Ledo, India, May 25, 1944, transferred to the China Theater, May 15, 1945, and started back for the States Oct. 12. The unit is now in Calcutta awaiting shipment.
  A narrative history covering the entire period also tells how the battalion helped construct the Ledo air strip, roads, warehouses and troop housing, how it helped build the Ledo Road between Warazup and Bhamo, and how it moved to China in six convoys to build combat supply roads.

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Wife, Hubby End ‘Reunion’ Tales

  CHABUA - Scouts honor, this is absolutely the last family reunion tale.
  Lt. Moore (presumably sans first name) sweating out a plane to Karachi and then Stateside, was whiling away the time one recent night at the movies at Replacement Depot No. 5 when the announcement came over the P.A. system.
  "Lt. Moore, your wife is waiting for you in officers' mess."
  In nothing flat, Roundup's family reunion file was one case bigger as the lieutenant raced into the embrace of his ever-loving, Lt. Elizabeth Huether (Don't start asking questions; we're coming to that).
  Mrs. Lt. Elizabeth Huether Moore, formerly a nurse in the 48th Evac Hospital at Myitkyina, had news for her happy husband: She, too, had travel orders to go home and has arranged for them to go together. It would be their honeymoon.
  Lt. Moore (masculine), veteran of the 236th Combat Engineers, met and married Lt. Moore (feminine) while they were both stationed in Myitkyina some months ago. He had become resigned to going home without her after he received his orders. But, being a woman, she fixed that.

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THE POETS’ CORNER

OPEN LETTER TO THE D.A.R.,
WASHINGTON, D.C.

News item: The D.A.R. refuses to permit Hazel Scott, world famous Negro pianist, to give a concert in Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C.  In 1939 this organization similarly refused to let Marian Anderson sing in this auditorium.

Dear Ladies: (A term I trust you'll recognize As pure convention only, the way I'd write "Dear Sir" to James Petrillo or Mayor Hague Or Tyler Kent or the Lordly Double-Haw Or sundry others I should not see fit To greet by voice in passing.) Six years ago Pompous portly genteely apoplectic, Your august group rose up to wrap the flag About the corpse of Liberty Madame. Your Generalissimo arose declaimed Words that aligned your group in Aryan pride With a sister league Die Deiutsche Frauenendschwestern "The D.A.R. will shed its last lorgnette Guarding the memory of those who died To give our land its birth; while we have life And lungs and stalwart busts the sacred walls Of Constitution Hall will never wince To hear the sound of song from sepia thrush While we have lobby strength and puffed-out cheeks This woman Anderson will not perform In any cause in Constitution Hall!" Six years Dear Ladies (polite address of course) You won your point! A smug committee sat Victors! Anschluss was past. The books were burned The Czechs were taken; the Poles betrayed; The Jews Exiled and dying out; the world was poised Precarious upon the perilous edge Of chaos; the skies were red... and Lady Marian Would never sing in Constitution Hall. Six years ago we read the news. We gasped Even the ones of us below the Line. Poorly equipped by history and training For tolerance, were mildly shocked. We thought, When God installed the diaphram and throat He paid no heed to outer skin. The Negro Singing down the years, we thought, was part Of national inheritance. The sound Of Negro voices down the years was warp

To the tapestry America has woven But who were we to dare the D.A.R.? The clerks, professors, tradesmen, housewives, students - Little people in little jobs, content To let the big folks talk. And someone did America's First Lady struck her blow, Withdrew an olden membership, refused Identity with those who use the flag To cloak the knife that slit the Bill of Rights. And Harold Ickes let America hear Her daughter sing of freedom from the steps Of Lincoln Memorial. Justice in this And poetry and pride. The little people Rested, the battle over. Rested. Forgot. But now, Dear Ladies (still an empty form). You rise against the tide, against the times. Now in October, Nineteen Forty Five. You bar distinguished music once again Because the fingers making it are brown Because a war you did not know was on Is over now, you raise your curious flag Your quaint, distorted banner, shouting loud: "Our sons have fought and died to keep intact Our right to hear music... music from hands that have No pigment, nor tinge. We join the fight once more For keyboards made with ivory notes alone (We plan to send all ebony devices Back to Africa.)" You may succeed blood and sweat and tears In barring Hazel Scott from Aryan Hall This time they may convert the Capitol To Concert Stage. And other Christian ladies Somehow clothed in wisdom, may withdraw From cheapening association. But Wait! Your luck is out. This time mere loss of face Will not suffice as punishment for treason The clerks, professors, tradesmen, housewives, students Bullied to quiet or unaware or numb

Six years ago have learned through war and time And blood and sweat and tears and loneliness And the giving away of husbands, brothers, sons The price of a cause, the meaning of liberty The beautiful sound of freedom in the ears The sound of freedom made by happy throats The sound of freedom in uncensored notes! The little people, big in strength from union And big in soul from battle and big in heart From suffering from loss have risen up Revolt has come against intolerance Tolerated long and overlong Against a treason long intolerable The little people roused at last, are now Themselves the Sons and Daughters of Revolution. But they will need no halls and no committees No Social Register, no dues. Dear Ladies Their genealogy is plain: Born once Of ice, and living cold, afraid they rose Were born again of fire and gave their lives. Or else the lives most dear to them that song Be heard again by free men everywhere That words regain their old integrity That men achieve the Founding Fathers' aims That the healing sun of hope come down and drive The darkness back and blind the priestesses Of bigotry. For once the light has struck Philistines flee and leave their temples empty Temples that sound in later years with notes From happy and derisive alien throats Remember this, Dear Ladies, in your wars On Marian and Hazel.   Sincerely yours,    GORDDEN LINK   Kanchrapara, India   13 October 1945

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CLUB  COTTON  EXPRESS Club Cotton Express, liveliest and most entertaining show sent out by the Entertainment Production Unit, recently stopped in New Delhi on its tour of I-B bases. Above, left to right, Warrick Brown, Billy Hills, Reinhardt Parks and Lionel Hampton give out with one of their hot jazz numbers. High spot of the Club Cotton Express was the tap dancing routines of Jim Black and Rossie Woods, zoot-suited pair shown above. With Lionel Hampton on the drums and Billy Hills on the big bass, Big Noise From Wenetka gets a special interpretation by the Club Cotton band.   (Photos by Roundup Photographer T/Sgt. Eddie Wein.)

New York G.I. Makes Claim
As Road King

  By SGT. JACK DEVLIN   Roundup Staff Writer

   This little assignment is something like refereeing a hockey match. You toss the puck in and then rush like hell to get out of the line of fire before somebody breaks your leg with a hockey stick.
In other words, now that the Last Convoy has gone to China, Roundup herewith endeavors to find out who is entitled to the title of "The Champ" and the mythical "Skid and Bounce Cluster" for making the record number of trips over the Stilwell Road to Kunming, China.
Initial attempts to find "The Champ" disclosed, if nothing else, that there might prove to be enough contenders before the dust settles to fill a good-size barracks. The group includes some brass, too.

FIRST CANDIDATE
The first candidate uncovered for the championship was T/4 Charles J. Detrow, 26, Syracuse, N.Y., a member of the 3842nd QM Truck Co. of the 478th Battalion, 468th Group, Ledo.
Detrow not only loomed as "The Champ" for making seven trips, but also as a super champ for being the only man in the Army (or the world in fact) to go over The Road in both the first and last convoys.
Detrow said he drove to China in Convoys One, 37, 58, 153, 260, an unnumbered trip when he took some war correspondents to Kunming in a jeep and the last convoy which was No. 500.

TEXAS COMPETITOR
A competitor for the championship immediately loomed in the person of Lt. Cody H. Wheeler, Dallas, Tex., a member of the same QM Truck Co., who said he has made seven trips and had always been under the impression he set the record.
Just about this time a third champ suddenly was identified.
He is S/Sgt. Louis Calvin0, 30, married, Brooklyn, N.Y., a member of the 478th, who returned to the States before the question of a record came up.
Pals of Calvino, and this included Detrow, said the Brooklyn boy made six trips to Kunming with convoys and three additional trips in jeeps lugging along some war correspondents. Calvino, who had been over here 32 months, included the first convoy in his trips. No records are available.
A fourth potential champion is Capt. James H. Priller, Denver, Colo., who went to Kunming as one of two officers in the "advance party" for the first convoy, and who has since been virtually commuting between Ledo and China as the convoy control station supervisor for Motor Transport Service, the outfit that was in charge of all Burma and China convoys.

‘SANTA CLAUS’
Priller, who could not be reached for an interview, was known by MTS convoy station personnel as the "Santa Claus of the Stilwell Road" because of his monthly visit with the men's payroll and their PX supplies. He was said to have "at least seven trips" to Kunming under his belt.
While attempts were being made to get the record straight, all veteran drivers over The Road agreed to one fact: It's been a tough baby right up to the end. Whichever war correspondent wrote that it was a four-lane paved highway with hotels that have hot and cold showers for convoy drivers, ought to be run through his own presses.

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Last Units In I-B To Get PX Items

   Small units remaining in the Theater to guard or otherwise assist in the disposal of Army equipment will be able to obtain PX supplies even after the branch exchanges in the areas are closed, according to Lt. Col. Kepley, Chief of Army Exchange Service.
It is planned to make such supplies available to these units by shipping some from the Army Exchange Supply Depot serving the particular sections in which such units are located.
As far as practicable supplies will be issued on a cash basis. Otherwise, supplies will be issued on an "accounts receivable" basis and when additional supplies are required, settlement will be made for the previous issue and credit extended for the supplies being currently issued.
Units which are to remain in the Theater after their branch exchanges close, should immediately contact the Army Exchange Supply Officer in their section and make detailed arrangements for their PX supplies.

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CLINIC FOR CAGERS Maj. Chester Chesney, new Base Section sports chief, explains basketball clinic procedure to members of the Camp Howrah Mullets, Calcutta area champion team. Left to right are George Lewis, Herbert Pendergrass, Bernard Steward, Scotty Cross, Frank Brown, Ollie Cox, Bill Patterson and Lloyd Bradley.

DePaul Football Ace Named
Sports Head For Base Section

   CALCUTTA - Prestige of the Base Section Special Service Office was enhanced with the appointment of Maj. Chester Chesney, former DePaul U. football star, as officer-in-charge of sports activities.
Chesney received All-America mention as the DePaul center in 1937, a year which revealed an abundance of great pivotmen. He was named to the college team for the annual Pro vs Collegiate all-star game in Chicago and also participated in another star-studded game in St. Louis. The University of Illinois squad voted Chesney on its all-opponent team that year.
In 1938, Chesney moved to the pro ranks, starting with the Cleveland Rams and finishing with the independent Cincinnati Bengals. The 1939 season found him with the Chicago Bears, and he stayed around to help administer the 73-0 shellacking of the Washington Redskins.
Inducted in 1942 as a private, Chesney's first prominent assignment was to a picked Army outfit coached by Bob Neyland, now brigadier general at Base Section and former Tennessee coach. The team distinguished itself by playing three major games within one week, knocking off the Giants and Dodgers and then losing to the Chi Bears.

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SHIP LOADING
  Dear Roundup: May I, in a friendly way, of course, rib you just a little? And at the same time and in the same breath straighten out your records and take the black eye away from us.
In your issue of Oct. 11, 1945, on the front page lower left hand corner you boldly state that the General Brooke departed this theater with 2,900 troops aboard. Now, again in a purely friendly way, where did you get that figure? If you are correct then I've just put in eight hours of work which merits a sum total of nothing. You see, I happen to be the officer in charge of the embarkation team which loaded the General Brooke. Maybe the exact figures are supposed to be secret although I doubt that. For your information, our team of six enlisted men and two officers worked in the blazing hot sun of India calling off names of men until we were spitting cotton - AND WE LOADED 3,422 PERSONS ON THAT SHIP.
Knowing how avidly the average G.I. is watching the depleting number of troops left in the Theater, I'd like to have you make the correction. It might be added, that it is the greatest number of troops loaded on a C-4 Type Transport from the Port of Calcutta from October 1 through the General Brooke (which incidentally sailed on the 8th), this port has lifted a total of 9,682 persons by transport ship. This figure of 9,682 does include hospital patients - it includes every person lifted during that period.
- Capt. Edward D. Grimes, Assistant Embarkation Officer, Calcutta.

TIME CHANGE
   Dear Roundup: Regarding the new change in time as a result of setting the clock back one hour. I can understand everything except one thing. I have inquired through official channels and can get no information about that and thought that possibly you could secure the tidbit about which I am inquiring.
My problem: has anyone informed the mosquitoes? What I mean is that until now Malaria Control time has been 1800 hours, and here, all of a sudden, we turn the clocks back, which would mean that Malaria Control time should be 1700, unless someone has told the mosquitoes and, to the best of my knowledge, no one has.
This is a terribly serious problem and I do hope that something can be done to alleviate my mental anguish. I'm considering putting on my head-net now at 1700 hours unless some official action is taken in the matter. I trust you will be able to advise me.
- Lt. E. J. Lowry, New Delhi.

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Now It Can Be Told:
 Soldiers Even Trucked Locomotives Over The Road

  By SGT. JACK DEVLIN   Roundup Staff Writer

  (This is a story that can now be told. Previously held up for security reasons, it relates how G.I.'s brought locomotives up to Mogaung from Dibrugarh to use on the Mogaung-Mandalay Railroad.)

  MOGAUNG, BURMA - 'Twas the night before Christmas just one year ago when where appeared in the jungle here the strangest of a series of strange sights since the Allied spearhead began prodding the Japanese southward.
  G.I.'s with their thoughts back in the States 14,000 miles away, were suddenly snapped out of their day dreams when over a muddy combat trail there came a procession of a type never seen in North Burma before, and perhaps in no jungles anywhere else.
  First appeared a huge roaring tractor. Attached to its rear in tandem came another. With spinning wheels and smoking tires, they groaned around a turn in the trail to disclose a massive 20-ton flat trailer. Squatting on the top and strapped down with cables and bolted steel bars was a diesel locomotive.

UNBELIEVABLE STARES
  As incredulous G.I.'s stared unbelievingly, two more tractors strained around the bend with a trailer bearing a second locomotive. At the tail end of the procession came a third tractor with a trailer carrying an extra set of locomotive wheels, and finally a two-and-a-half ton ration truck.
  "Merry Christmas" chirped the driver of the first tractor to the growing crowd of troops.
  It developed 13 enlisted men and an officer of the 3842nd Quartermaster Truck Co., 468th Group, Ledo, India; and a member of the Railway Operating Battalion were delivering locomotives they had loaded on 12 days earlier at Dibrugarh, India, for emergency use on the Mogaung-Mandalay Railroad. The engines were needed urgently to get supplies south to the British 36th Division, fighting its way down the tough Mogaung Valley towards Mandalay under Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan.
  The locomotives each weighed 22 tons and they were placed on the trailers between "U" beams to keep them from shifting back and forth. At each corner a steel rod was bolted from the trailers to the locomotives for further security. The tractors, hooked in tandem to each trailer, were Auto-Cars.
  After leaving Dibrugarh, the unwieldy procession made its way to the 3842's motor pool by December 15 for a final tune-up. The vehicles shoved off to the POL at Mile Point Four on the Ledo Road, where Brig. Gen. Edward Rose drove up to make an inspection and wish the men luck

CONVOY STUCK
  First trouble came near the L-5 landing strip at Mile 8 where road construction caused the convoy to get stuck. A "cat" was hooked on to the "double headers" and the vehicles passed on to make Mile 25 by nightfall.
  Next day at Mile 35, while proceeding past some construction where a culvert was being placed under The Road, one trailer slipped in the damp earth until one end dropped off The Road while the drivers gamely struck in their cabs trying to stave off disaster. A pile of loose earth was all that saved locomotive trailer and both tractors from plunging off into a ravine.
  Three of the tractors and two D-7 type "cats" were chained to the trailer but failed to move the load. Two 10-ton wreckers joined in the task but again efforts were unsuccessful. Then a unit called a "stiff leg" was dispatched to the scene and this succeeded in lifting up the rear of the trailer until it could be hauled back on The Road. In all, 26 hours had been lost.
  At Mile 57, the vehicles became mired in mud. Two "cats" were used, one pulling and the other pushing. When that failed, the men succeeded by using the winch on the first "cat." The strain, however, shattered some of the "cats" gears and the "cat" was left behind for repairs.

STEEP GRADE

STILWELL NISEI STAND PRAISED BY ICKES   WASHINGTON - (ANS) - Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes this week praised Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell for his recent suggestion in the Roundup that American soldiers form a club to protect Japanese-American veterans from discrimination at home.

  At Mile 83 the grade was so steep the convoy couldn't make it. Two "cats" saved the day, however, and the vehicles proceeded to Shingbwiyang for the night.
  Beyond Shing the convoy became stuck repeatedly as it forded shallow rivers with slippery stone bottoms. "Cats" came to the rescue in each case. Once a "cat" stripped its pinion gear and the vehicle had to be sent back to Shing under front-wheel drive for repairs.
  Finally came Mogaung and the next day, on Christmas morning, the locomotives were unloaded by a Railroad Operating Battalion unit. With no cranes available, the railroad tracks were raised to the height of the trailers. The locomotives were jacked up, rails placed under the wheels and the engines driven off under their own power.
  The task of delivering the locomotives, which included 53 miles over the combat road, was handled by a group including:
  Pfc. Louis M. Smith, Los Angeles, Calif.; Sgt. Irvin L. Walden, Iola, Kan.; Cpl. Norman F. Holtz, South Milwaukee, Wis.; T/5 Ignazio J. Greco, Portland, Ore.; Sgt. Jack P. Dennis, Jacksonville, Fla.; Cpl. John M. Gudelaskas, Chicago, Ill.; T/4 Robert M. Stribling, Columbia, S.C.; T/5 Carl D. Alaimo, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Pfc. Bernard D. Diehl, Williamsport, Pa.; Pfc. Henry M. Baumgarner, Marchfield, Mo.; T/5 Robert C. Halburg, Princeton, Ill., and Pvt. Robert Walters of the Railway Operating Battalion. The officer in charge was Lt. William E. Derosier, Leominster, Mass.
  At Warazup the convoy was joined by Col. Edward T. Telford, Santa Barbara, Calif., then commanding officer of Motor Transport Service, which had charge of all Stilwell Road convoys.

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China CG Bares Chennault Story  Roundup Staff Article   Lt. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer, commanding general of the China Theater now in the States, told the United Press this week that Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault had requested retirement because he did not like being superseded as top air commander in China by Maj. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer.   Wedemeyer said Stratemeyer is Chennault's senior and that it was natural for him to become senior air commander when he moved to China from the I-B Theater last July. At that time Chennault's sudden retirement brought demands for Congressional investigation.   The China CG said Chennault had indicated he would like to return to China. Asked whether the former 14th Air Force chief might command China's air forces, Wedemeyer said, "That would be a good job for him. The Chinese know him and like him and he knows China."   Wedemeyer also told newsmen that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang will visit America but said he did not know just when.

700th MP Boys Finish Big Job, Start For U.S.

By CPL. MICHAEL J. VALENTI   Roundup Staff Writer
  The boys of the 700th Military Police Company, who played a vital part in staving off chaos in communications during the building of the Ledo Road, are going home.
  In their time - from the summer of 1944 up to a few weeks ago - they unsnarled more "Sunday Traffic" than any Stateside cop would see in a bevy of lifetimes on Lincoln Highway. They were the men behind the men who scooped their way through to the pay-off end of The Road.
  Now their job is done. The more than 150 of them, mostly Pennsylvanians, have been declared surplus and placed in that much-envied Category IV. On Tuesday they were to take off for Karachi on the first leg back to their Quaker State hearths.
  Led by Capt. Walter "Misfire" McMinn, the men of Co. "C," 502nd Military Police Battalion, from which the 700th was later formed, embarked at Los Angeles July 27, 1943, for what was to develop into the roughest deal ever handed any MP outfit in the CBI. Coming overseas as a combat reserve outfit, ready to support a field army, the battalion was soon assigned to Ledo Road Headquarters. For the kind of operations they were performing, however, it was thought more practical to break up the battalion into three companies, the 678th, the 679th and the 700th. The first two backed up the 700th along The Road.

TWO MISSIONS

NICE PLAYMATE, GRRR! Even in California people stopped and stared when Jewelle Granger strolled down a Los Angeles boulevard with her unusual playmate. The animal is a pet Mexican Jagui, half tiger, half leopard, and quite harmless. The girl is a dancer, equally harmless.

  The mission of the 700th was twofold: first, to control traffic along the lifeline to the Chinese ally, and the second, equally important, to police towns and villages bordering it. This latter assignment turned out to be a not unpleasant one for company men like Sgt. Edwin S. Rowbottom.
  "Bottom," a Sacramento, Calif., boy was stationed at a Kachin village in the Hukawng Valley, where he managed to charm a few of the local belles with unaccustomed MP unction into doing tolerably well as substitutes for his former Stateside lovelife.
  Between acting as mahouts for the 6-by-6's on The Road, a detachment of men commanded by Capt. McMinn drew the detail of having to hunt down a notorious G.I. outlaw in the Naga Hills. That's where McMinn acquired his nickname of Misfire."
  It seems that they finally got the hunted man cornered after a two-day expedition into the hills. McMinn covered the front of the house-on-stilts where his prey had holed up, Carbone primed, the tall, slow-drawling North Carolinian ordered the man to come out. He did, with a rush. Taking careful aim, McMinn pulled the trigger - and slow consternation set in as the weapon produced not the expected sharp report, but merely an innocuous little click. His shot had "hung." One of the detail then proceeded to bring the fleeing prisoner down with a bullet in the chest. But McMinn, who was a stickler on rifle care, won't hear the last of his dud performance until he parts company with his men.

BORDER PATROL
  Another of the duties assigned to some of the men was China-Burma border patrol duty. Lt. Robert C. Roseberry had rigged up an armored car in which the patrol used to operate out of Wanting. The car was more like a cement-mixer as it jounced Roseberry, Sgts. Ray Cochran and Charles Kulp, Cpl. Jerry Trimarco, Pfc. Phillip Guaghan, et al; up and down the wicked border roads. They looked forward to long Stateside rests on plush cushions to soothe aching backs and bruised ends.
  There won't be a regret in a shipload when these boys, with their comrades, get on the boat for that sentimental journey back home.

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Our Boy Fink Again Finds Barracks Bags
Right In The Same Class With Millstones

  By T/7 OSMOSIS FINK   Roundup Roving Reporter

  CAMP MALIR - Boss, I write you this piece so you will get in training before your point number comes up. I suggest you start a daily dozen or, maybe two half-dozens twice a day right away to get in shape.
  Yes, sir, boss, there is a new way of life ahead of you here. You start carrying your own load here again after two or three idle years, or maybe semi-idle in your case, or as the case may be.
  I am not here more than a couple of minutes, or maybe the time it takes for a young sheep to shake its tail twice, when the bitter truth dawns on me that my life of leisure, known by one and all as "Army Life with a Bahra," is bas ho gaya - finish.
  Boss, this sad state of affairs makes me realize again that duffle bags and barracks bags are right in the same class with millstones.
  It is a rude shock to say the least, when I climb off a G.I. 6-by-6 and am not able to find anyone to bear my burdens. This is shocking to the point of physical revulsion to one who bears nothing but what is on his mind during his days as a Calcutta Commando.
  Yes, boss, I climb down out of this old 6-by-6 and I find a bunch of coolies conspicuous by their absence. Thinking maybe that the boys are making so much baksheesh out of Yanks going home that their pockets are filled and one and all are getting lazy, I yell "Bahra!" And the tone of my voice is by no means soft, as I have an exceptionally large and heavy teakwood forest I am taking home for a souvenir
  But this caterwauling does no good whatsoever.
  I think maybe we unload in the wrong place as I shoulder my load and drag off behind other G.I. characters who also disturb the Oriental welkin with cries for a ship of the desert or a wheelbarrow or something or other which can carry a load without groans. We stagger under these great burdens for the first time since we leave Uncle Sugar.
  These permanent party wallahs, boss, do not seem at all sympathetic. They do not need bahras, as they do not carry anything with them but what is on their minds, which as you can see, if you are here, is a very light load indeed. I am confused and these permanent wallahs are amused.
  We come to a shed where permanent party wallahs wish to check all G.I. bags. We see more than 100 poor men's gentlemen's gentlemen who look as if they have strong backs and weak minds and are not occupied at the moment.
  "How about a coolie, chum?" I say to a Form 32 wallah.
  "Nope," says he.
  "Why?" I say.
  "'Cause," says he.
  I can see I am getting nowhere fast with this super-intellectual conversation which I usually carry on with characters one and all everywhere. Suddenly I see a character by the name of Bill the Brass, who is an old CO of mine and I strike up a conversation about the coolie situation with him.
  "With bahras around and about, chum - er, sir - why do we not get some of these poor men's gentlemen's gentlemen to share our load?"
  "Well, it is this way," says Bill the Brass. "One and all of these characters work for an old Uncle of ours by the name of Sugar, and it is well known to one and all, as Shakespeare remarked, that a man cannot serve two masters."
  I can see that this character Bill the Brass is a little delirious from getting his ticket home, so I decide I will see the First Sergeant.
  "Fink," the First Sergeant says, "we want you to be happy here in our little camp which we are running strictly for your benefit, as getting guys home is not important at all. Feel free to bring your troubles to me at any time at all. Take up my time just like it is your own," the First Sergeant says.
  "Thank you very much, First Sergeant," I say, "but I do not need to take up more than a minute of your time. All I want is a coolie."
  "Oh, is that all?" says the First Sergeant. "Then I do not see why we cannot take care of you on the double. There are just umpty-ump boys here who want a coolie. Everybody wants a coolie," says he, "except me. I just want to be an ex-soldier, but with the points I got, I doubt if I'll live that long."
  I think the First Sergeant is going to cry, but he pulls himself together long enough to throw me out of the tent.
  Well, boss, it all ends up that I am no longer a burra sahib, and it is the end of laborless labor. I am lonely, boss, for old Safoor Khan of Delhi and Issou of Calcutta.
  The way they explain it to me, boss, is that I am getting oriented for the States, but after I carry that duffle bag 1,500 yards, I decide they can take their orientation and one thing and another and - but then I decide they may decide 76 points are pretty small potatoes in my case.
  Boss, here's hoping you get out of the tea by '53.

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The Roundup is a weekly newspaper of the United States Forces, published by and for the men in Burma and India, from news and pictures supplied by staff members, soldier correspondents, Army News Service and United Press.  The Roundup is published Thursday of each week and is printed by The Statesman in New Delhi and Calcutta, India.  Editorial matter should be sent directly to Major Floyd Walter, Hq., U.S.F., I.B.T., APO 885, New York, N.Y. and should arrive not later than Saturday in order to be included in that week's issue.  Pictures must arrive by Friday and must be negatives or enlargements.  Stories should contain full name and organization of sender.  Complaints about circulation should be sent directly to Capt. Drexel Nixon, Base Section, APO 465, New York, N.Y.  Units on the mailing list should make notification of any major change in personnel strength or any change of APO.

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NOVEMBER  1,  1945  

Original issue of IBT Roundup shared by Barbara Skinner Lipiew, daughter of CBI veteran George C. Skinner


Similar, better quality image of Jane Harker, used in this re-creation


Copyright © 2018 Carl Warren Weidenburner






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