Show a arm army Y navy marines join in bia ig W caribbean maneuver by BAUKHAGE newt analyst ad commentator washington about the time these lines are in print american soldiers sailors fliers and marines and a aundrea hundred ships will be shoving oh off for the greatest peacetime maneuvers in our history providence permitting your correspondent will be b on the scene A strange and sinister aggressive force which will have seized and fortified the island of vieques in the caribbean will be bombarded by sea and air attacked and we trust captured by a joint marine marina corps and army expeditionary force landed by navy ships and planes which have fought their way past enemy planes and submarines the purpose of this undertaking Is officially described sa to advance and ensure combat readiness lor for fleet marine F force 0 r c e atlantic X units and to proy vide 1 d e a amphibious training for army and marine corps units admiral W 11 P blandy command er cr ln in chief of the atlantic fleet will be in overall over all command gen keller E rockey will command corn the joint marine marina corps and army expeditionary troops which will be composed ot of the second marine division and the infantry caribbean command many of these thesa men me are tilt tiit erans of pacific landings and the north african operations ut nt the experts tell me there are I 1 many things to be learned tor for great progress has been made in amphibious training train lne dince the war this Is the first operation of its kind since the merger of the armed services has been in effect ind and nothing approaching it in size has ever been attempted in peacetime of course the marine corps va was 3 virtually born amphibious and for the past 28 years vears has perfected the methods which were used in the late war now they serve as the instructors in this particular field of activity for the other branches of the service maneuvers maneuver rs which get comparatively little notice in the press are largely regarded by laymen as a spectacle or as a series ot highly technical military problems which are too complicated to follow As a matter of fact the actual maneuvers are a small part of thep the operation compared to the planning which dates back to the days when caesar took his famous tenth legion from small boats onto the soil kofl of ancient britain or before perhaps the earliest important invasion from the ithe sea in modern times iwas was one of the most unsuccessful I 1 the ill III fated bat tle tie when the british troops w were ere almost annihilated in their first attempt to in invade vade turkey in world warl war I 1 Inte intensive nilve of this debacle was made in this country and the marines had bad niada made great strides I 1 long 0 n g before world war 11 II made such training necessary very few peo plo realized this in fact many people probably kahat hat tha laps japs had bad a special patent on amphibious tactics As one officer express edIt to AO me there Is nothing secret about this method of fighting it Is simply a question of know how A vast t conglomeration of minute minute detail which Is not used at all in ordinary land fighting for example tin en infantryman takes for tor granted that he and his rifle ride are more or less one piece but the first time he has to go over the side of a ship and into a small craft he suddenly finds he is faced witha major problem in assuring not only his own arrival on the beach but anat t is equally important the simultaneous arrival of hla his gun it if you hove have ever tried to crawl down a net with no equipment whatever you realize it requires all the hands you have but long before daay D aay day thousands of details have been worked out hundreds of miles from the scene of action As one officer put it the stock stack ol of charts that have to be drawn are a mile high benns beans bullets shoelace sall are part of the picture quite as much as radar and range finders the little island of vasques will bo be pounded with tons of shells I 1 hauled mauled hauled captured and de oser ted and then golback go back to a subtropical sletta siesta but what happens there on and before march 2 and 3 1949 may be of vital importance a decade hence A new truman going to work as A the ides of march approach shenew administration swings into its stride with a good deal of honeymoon fervor still in the air from the day of the first white house ouge press and radio conference after the inauguration latwas clear that we had a new president washington mcp reporters had become used to several harry tru mans there was the very gi grave and not very certain man who was 1945 t jb 00 which he J eigil want and never expected to have with the shadow of tragedy over him A man who waa at first so co anxious to reassure the country that there would be no break in tho the continuity of leadership that he sometimes rushed in where a more experienced man might have feared to trend tread there were many off the cuff cliff remarks with some disastrous results then came A period when he leaned over backward with caution after that the period when his own party to be falling apart and it was no secret that the man in the white house was cited and unhappy then came a gradual change which even many irany of his intimates did not realize M a change that gradually cululi abed in the combative confidence chich most of his sup porters ballel to share washing ton watched his election campaign with considerable admiration for his fighting spirit but without being convinced that even he himself actually had the confidence he displayed then came the election upset and two months later the tremendous turnout at the inauguration there was evidence for those who could recognize it in the manner of delivery of his inauguration speech that h here e re was still another truman at that first press slid and radio conference it was plain enough at last he was his own man he felt he had earned his office he probably had felt all along that he was fully competent to carry on its responsibilities but now something hid had been added a controlled self assurance I 1 think mr truman was sincere when he told a luncheon meeting of c the democratic bartys finance committee that there were a million men in the united states who would woula make A better president but it was his job and he would carry it out ito he was simply saying that he realized there were men in the country with greater ability than he had ile he say nor did he think that he have enough abit pity alty it events prove proc that ho he he probably will be b the he first to admit it that Is my own interpretation and Is offered borwhat for what it is worth it Is an impression based not only on what harry truman has said and done but largely on the way he has sold said and done it it if he continues to handle himself in the way he has since the election the ma men tn in I 1 govern government meni and out in his own M party find and out of it will find him a lot easier to deal with likewise he it is going to be proportionately mari more successful with those with whom helias he has godial to deal dial I 1 press conferences have chanced too at a recent white house nebb conference an old timer came up jo to me and remarked that ane last I 1 fews times lie he had attended the these gatherings all of which had been especially well attended well over reporters he help thinking back to the days of tat taft I 1 when as he put it robert small of the associated abed press and perhaps one of two others who used to be I 1 sneaked into the ahe back door of the white house for confidential talks with the president but no other newsmen or women had any access whatever to the chief executive 1 iwas was not in washington then but later I 1 come came to know small very well and I 1 know he was known as the fair haired boy of the tuft taft administration it was the first fmc time I 1 had ever heard the expression small was a brilliant newsman M an and tat taft was very fond of him I 1 well recall the ex president tatt taft was avas then chief justice comforting smalls father at bobs funeral the former white house reporter was comparatively young cheh he died I 1 do not know how the press corps felt about smalls intimate relationship with the white house or the other fortunate ones who were given these exclusive privileges but bu I 1 doubt if it occurred to an anyone yoneto to suggest the possibility of at having regular open press conferences teddy roosevelt however averi did call in hi press association men on occasion 4 and yet such a situa situation tion no reg ular conference cun terente seems incredible today no president would dare refuse to see news foik folk and stand api upi to questions which sometimes are more impertinent that peril nent 1 |