American Newspaper Repository | Readings

Chicago Daily Tribune
Wednesday, December 10, 1941, page 1

We Are at War

In war there is only one place of honor and that is in the armed services. It is in recognition of that fact that the recruiting stations have been thronged these last few days with young men whose sense of duty will not permit them to wait until they are called. They know where they belong when their country is in peril.
There is no honor in holding down a safe, slacker job in Washington. Of recent months the country has seen a great many burocrats [sic] of both sexes throwing their weight about and talking big. If there was ever any excuse for that kind of behavior, it has passed. Today the OPM, the SPAB, and all the other alphabetical organizations which have enjoyed a mushroom growth in Washington must realize that they are the humble servants of the fighting forces. Self-respecting young men will lose no time in getting out of slacker jobs and into uniforms. Older men can easily be found to replace them. The burocrats who are too old to fight should cease running around the country and return to such duties as they are capable of performing.
Every young man’s place is in the army, the navy, or the marine corps, there to prepare himself to meet and defeat the enemy. The training of the army must be revolutionized. There has been too much of the boarding school atmosphere about our military camps, a fact which may account for what happened at Pearl Harbor.
Our men must learn their brutal trade as quickly as they can, and that means that discipline must be severe and training must be greatly intensified. Our men must learn to stand up to the Japanese and perhaps the Germans. Out soldiers must learn to take whatever comes without yielding, to attack against overwhelming odds if ordered to do so. At the same time, our army and navy must be purged of incompetent generals and Pinafore admirals who must be replaced with men of energy and discretion.
The responsibility for the Pearl Harbor incident remains to be determined, but once again the air arm has demonstrated its superiority over the surface fleet. The attacking planes appear to have been carrier borne. The result was an expectable one in view of the events of the war in European waters. After Norway and Crete and especially after the successful pursuit of the Bismarck, it must have been apparent to anyone capable of receiving new ideas that the battle ship is at a disadvantage in combat with airplanes and that the airplane is the great new naval weapon. The point has been made repeatedly by students of naval warfare and yet our navy appears to have been slow to provide itself with carriers or to prepare adequately against them. If our admirals have not learned the strategic value of the airplane carrier they should be retired to the Army and Navy club to make room for men whose minds are not closed.
This nation is at war and its young men are eager to play their part. They don't want and don't need to be coaxed and coddled. They will welcome a stern, driving, unrelenting discipline and they will glory in it. All they ask is a keen, capable, fighting leadership.

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This selection was typed by Jenna Bodurtha, University of New Hampshire