September-October - Air Defense Artillery

From the Front Office
SELECTED SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS OF
GEORGE C. MARSHALL. Edited by Major H. A. De-
Weerd. \Vashington: Infantry Journal, 1945. 259 Pages;
Index. $2.75.
Forty-eight speeches by General of the Anny George C.
l'vlarshall appear in this book; they were made in such diverse
places as in Congressional hearing rooms, and to nation-wide
radio audiences.
Traditionally, soldiers in the position of General l\'larshall,
Chief of Staff of the Army, have either said nothing, or have
said things that have caused political and military repercussions.
General Marshall's speeches, on the other hand, have
brought unity and understanding to the country as a whole,
and to those who shape our policies.
Qispassionate, with no axe to grind except the welfare of the
United States, the General's speeches and statements have in
them the quality of simplicity, the germs of time-proved
prophecy, and the calmness born of knowledge and confidence.
The speeches are not stuffy-they are too full of meat and too
straightforward for any of that.
Douglas Southall Freeman, the great historian of the South,
says of this book, "To these papers, when they have read
everything else, students will turn for final explanation and integration.
This volume is a major source book of American
military history."
The New Army
UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING. By Colonel Edward
A. Fitzpatrick. New York: Whittlesey House, 1945. 358
Pages; Appendix; Index. $3.00.
The subject of universal military training is one that is
guaranteed to touch off acrimonious debate in almost any
gathering. Colonel Fitzpatrick's treatment of the question is so
unbiased and so temperate, without resorting to hedging, that
this book may well be used as a handbook by debaters on
both sides of the question, even though the author believes in
universal military training.
The author sticks pins in the bubbles of the more active
proponents of the proposition as well as in those of its opponents.
He believes in universal military training because it is
necessary for the protection of the United States in the event
of future wars, not because it will make our youth any better
mentally, physically, or mo~ He admits that the~12ny has
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The JOURNAL can supply any book in print,
at the usual Association discount.
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made mistakes and will make them again, and that absolute p
Army control of the program might be a mistake in itself, but
he questions the idea that this is a valid reason for rejecting the m
program-Congress could specify the conditions of the training.l
He rejects the idea that young people owe a year of their
lives to the government; the thought that a glorified CCC is de.\
sirable also leaves him cold. He does not believe that the year
of training should be anything but training-no garrison dut)',
no occupation duty. He sticks to the premise that we need
trained men in the event of another war, and that the way 1
to get them is to train them. The side issues, one by one, pro .
and con, are analyzed, evaluated, and then filed-we still need I
a trained reserve and a fair-sized standing army. The most I
economical and fairest way to attain this objective is universal s
military training. I
The conscientious objector problem is treated justly and com. "
pletely in this book, as are the problems of the National Guard
and countless other issues. Temperateness and cold logic based {
on facts and statistics are the outstanding virtues of this volume. !
Nobody, from President Roosevelt to the pacifists, is treated !
as a sacred cow-the reader is never permitted to forget that
the objective is important, and that there is one just and certain
way to reach it. .
Semper Fide1is
THE U. S. MARINES ON IWO JIMA. By Five Official Marine
Combat Writers. Washington: Infantry Journal, 1945.
312 Pages; Illustrated. 25~ to Members of the Armed
Forces. I
The bloody battles of Guadalcanal and Tarawa, Kwajelein •
and Bougainville, were war enough for any man or group of
men, but Iwo Jima will remain as the toughest of them all. I
There was a lot of killing in a small area when this volcanic
pile was wrested from the stubborn Japs. When we at home ~
read about this campaign we wondered what there was on the
island worth the losses-until we began to hear about the
numbers of B-29s that were saved on the island or by search ~
planes from it.
The whole story of the fighting would take volumes, but this
book (and it isn't such a little book, at that) makes a good
start in explaining what the Marines met in the way of resistance,
and how they overcame it. The ~)ictures are more plentiful
than is usual in a book of this sort, and they add much to the
final product. Iwo, as ictured, is a rather dismal ile of ash.