Show HOME TOWN NEWS Army to Establish News Center For Releases to Local Papers The people in the home towns of the nation are going to hear more about local soldiers in the The army recently announced the establishment of a central news processing center in Kansas The primary purpose of the center will be to obtain recognition in his home town newspaper for each soldier who merits The center will provide more news about local men in the army and relieve combat trained soldier of a big volume of writing and The army central news processing center will collect home town items through direct contact with army camps and units in the prepare them for publication and release them to local newspapers throughout the country in a single package while they are still The army's decision to create the agency after a study disclosed that publication of such stories in home town newspapers not only served to keep the people in the home towns informed but also had a tremendous effect on the soldiers They want credit for themselves and their units when they feel they deserve Newspaper editors long have been aware of the demand by their readers for news about local men in the army and have spared no effort in gathering this But no newspaper even with its own reporters working in the field with the troops is able to give complete coverage without assistance from the The major press which have done a splendid job of keeping the public informed by supplying newspapers with national and state aspects of the army's campaigns and are unable to move a large volume of purely local news because of lack of wire Stories of outstanding heroism and achievement by individual soldiers have received excellent coverage through the press But to a newspaper editor in the story of a Helena soldier's promotion to a sergeant or his winning of the Bronze Star medal is of far more importance to a Helena newspaper and its readers than a lengthy story of a Boston or Seattle infantryman who won the Congressional Medal of Honor or of a five-mile advance by an army in the none of the wire services has the facilities to send to the newspapers concerned the myriad items of this The army has few public information men in units smaller than a and even at division level the public information staff is It is the primary job of the small staff at this level to see that major news is news items that would be of great importance in towns throughout the nation often are passed The army has appointed Major Walter A. former Boston Globe writer and far east Command news chief in Tokyo until last to command the army central news processing He has just been relieved of assignment with the army's office of information in Washington to organize and operate the A small but competent staff has already been chosen for the The army expects to release approximately home town stories annually when full operations get |