A SHORT WAIT BETWEEN TRAINS

Terse, objective reporting in stories of this war's civilians into soldiers -- here, from basic training on, to overseas and the testing of their conditioning. The ordeals -- for young and older men -- of basic; the limitations of the new officers; possibilities of pleasant fatigue detail; a bivouac and its unpleasant aftermath; a veteran of Alaska busts out of O.C.S.: Nazi prisoners-of-war are given preference over a Negro soldier in a Southern R.R. restaurant; there's the wait at the staging area; evasion of overseas duty; a return home to wife and child in a drab hotel; an Italian American under fire in Italy; a veteran and his girl's sister; armchair officers over here; a furlough where civilian interests and conversations ostracize the returning soldier; of a landing and an accidental death... Here are the inadequacies, the personal, selfish manoeuverings, the patience and modesty of the military -- with no flags waving nor bands playing. No sentimentality and little action for incisive sketching of today's soldiers.