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Show Stripes Don't Tell The Whole Story ; Tom Wolf, writing from London, recently had a most pertinent ai-ticle appear in American newspapers. news-papers. One paper had it headlined head-lined "This Is A Story Every American Soldier Wants You to Read". Wolf began his article ;with the statement that unless the folks in the states fully understood under-stood the story of the army's T. 0. (Table of Organization), that .a lot of good and deserving soldiers jwho haven't been promoted are 'going to be badly under-rated and ! unjustly maligned at home. Every man in the service who has never received' a promotion or I who has been in grade for an "embarrassing;" "em-barrassing;" period of time is j acutely aware of the truth of j Wolf's statement. Many a soldier .feels that his repeated explanations explana-tions to parents and hometown friends as to why he isn't getting ahead in the army are coming to be regarded as "alibis". Men have been known to delay going home on furlough until they might have an added stripe to display. Others, facing trouble if apprehended appre-hended by officials, have resorted to sewing on unauthorized strips while on furlough in order to avoid making explanations for not having hav-ing attained the rank expected of them. It isn't a case of vanity or ego. It's hurt pride. Not to be aWe to iget ahead in the army of a democratic demo-cratic nation which boasts that any ione of its citizens can forge to the jtap on his own merit casts a had j reflection on a man and just because be-cause the general public doesn't i understand! the system which i regulates promotions in the army, i The Tables of Organization (T. O.) contains the army's in flexible rules for promotion. Every unit in the army has its T. 0., in which it specifically states how many men may hold commissioned and non-commissioned ranks. It is also specified how high these ranks may go. Therefore, if the T. O. of a cer-jtain cer-jtain unit calls for seven enlisted men in grades not to exceed one technical sergeant, one sergeant, 'one corporal, one private first class !andl three privates, the rank of each one is "frozen for the duration" dura-tion" unless one of the men having jrank is transferred from the out-fit. out-fit. If it so happens that none of jthe men holding any rank ever I transferred out, Pvt. Willie Jones icould remain a buck private until mustered out of the army. He j could work his head off or win a jbushel of medals for action against the enemy ibut it wouldn't win jhim a promotion. It's a hell of a note,' but then, "War is hell", ac. : cording to the oft-quoted state-jment state-jment of General Sherman of Civil war fame. The only chance an enlisted man has of beating the T. O. when he is held down by it is to be appointed appoint-ed to attend officers training ! school. And his chances are very slim due to the fact that preference prefer-ence is being given to the men overseas for the relatively few vacancies occurring since the officer of-ficer quota has been nearly filled and school enrollments have been drastically cut. The enlisted man serving overseas has one other chance. In battle he is eligible for battlefield appointment to lieutenant lieu-tenant if a vacancy exists, ac-, cording to his outfit's T. 0. No one should ever judge a man by the rank he holds in the army, for rank is no true indication of his character, work or ability. The buck private might possibly be a "gold brick", but, on the other hand, he may be doing a great job and deserving of master sergeant stripes. "Daisies won't tell," they say. Neither will stripes. |