Some years ago war reached into the American Home and the fair wells were everywhere. The farms, the shanty on the tracks, the lavish apartments, the uptown flats, the shrubbed estates, the modest houses of the suburban streets. Everywhere the men were borrowed or taken for keeps. The youngest, the cleanest, the best. Each man went into battle in his own way, to do his own job. More than half of them saw combat service. A small percentage of these, not nearly as many as you may imagine, were in the front lines and in shell range of the enemy. For anyone in this latter group, a very special experience. He was at any moment, expendable. For him, the baseball parks were full of late, exciting rallies. For him, the beach parties were not as pleasant as they had been a few summers before. For him, the rivers ran high. And the boating was not so good. For him, the flight decks were not as wide as the fields of texas. For the rest, there were 10,รท nonmilitary jobs, each dependent on the other. Each vital to the winning of the war. Each made memorable by the fact that it represented the protection and the lives and the security of all of us. But whether in combat or not, whether in machine gun or 300 yards from the enemy or a switch Board Operator 300 miles from the enemy, the serviceman learned about water. He knew the loneliness of it. He knew the unending boredom of it. He knew the mud of it. And the dust of it. He knew the food of it. He knew the coffee of it. Weather in the heat of the equator or the cold of the arctic, through it all he worked and waited and suffered and endured. Until one day he heard the bells of peace. Turned his back on the darkened battlefields and raised his arms to the bright, new future. Now he returns with all of his experiences in the fight to kill fascism. To kill japism. Now he returns. With him those who gave a permanent share of their bodies and minds to the nation. The permanently wounded physically, 1 of all returning servicemen. Those with severe emotional disorders, 1 of all returning servicemen. But returning with them, the huge majority group, more than 9 out of 10, the unhurt physically or mentally. The average returning soldier. It is of him we speak, of this average soldier that we report on the questions, has he changed . What has he learned . What does he want . Has he been brutalized by war . Can he readjust to the life and times of a civilian . Readjust . Consider some of his adjustments of the last few years. He adjusted to a considerable loss of privacy. He adjusted to the often unbearable authority of the top sergeant. He adjusted to 50 a month. He adjusted to the foxhole, the slip trench, and a number of unprecedented ways of going to bed. He adjusted to plenty. Through it all he kept his stride. He didnt lose his sense of humor. He brought the touch of a connecticut yankee to the banks of the rinne. He ran a country fair in india. He staged the Kentucky Derby in austria. He relaxed in the luxurious resorts of europe. And went nightclubing in the islands of the pacific. In england, he learned about rugby. Somewhere in the mediterranean he discovered an old egyptian game called three card monte. He kept his stride. He didnt lose his sense of decency. There were times he went hungry so that the kids would not. He was an ambassador to the children of the world. Let those who worry about his painful readjustment to civilian life. Remember husband adjustment to war. Now, he returns, the average soldier. Has he been brutalized by war . Listen to a very angry army chaplain. Brew brew a losed . Is this war going to breed a generation of hoodlums . Ive seen killing, but ive never met an american soldier who liked it. Ive seen men under combat achieve humanity such as ive never seen before. Ive seen them laugh together over common discomforts, cry unshameedly when their comrades die. And offer the final sacrifice, the risk of their life to save another mans life. I saw democracy overseas. There were no foxhole penthouse is the wealthy. No restricted areas for white christianes only. Brutality is something more than rough beards, bloodshot eyes, strong language, torn clothes, bloody bodies. Real brutality is lack of imagination. A disregard for the rights of others. The very things weve been fighting to destroy. If theres any suspicion that returning soldiers are not fit for our civilization, i can only say its an indictment of our civilization, not of our soldiers. What did the average soldier learn in the army . Well, among other things, he learned a certain selfreliance. A certain resourcefulness. There were washing machines made in wondrous ways. When he didnt have a ladder, he used an elephant. To the infinite virtues of a jeep, he added a new one. He jacked it up and turned it into an ice cream freezer. And when his life depended on it, he used a parachute for an air brake. He learned the quintessence of democracy. He learned to work with people. Because he knew how many people depended on him, and how he depended on them. He was a man in the air directing a man on the ground where the artillery should fire. He was a man on the ground directing a man in the air where to drop his bombs. He learned to work with people whether he was one of two men in an observation post, one of five men in a b25 bomber crew, one of ten men in an antiaircraft battery, or one of five dozen clerks in the rear echelon headquarters. Has he changed . Listen to a very calm war corresponde correspondent. Sure, i suppose hes changed. Say he may have left home a mamas boy. I doubt that hell be coming back that way. Chances are, he will seem a lot older, more thoughtful, you will wonder about things, question things a good deal more. You dont go through hell and high water and stay unchanged, you dont see your friends die or badly hurt and stay the same. Yes, hes changed in many ways. But theyre good, sound ways, by and large hes in better physical condition. Hes got a lot of know how, technical skill and common sense that he didnt have before. And hes more mature. And heres something, hes more stable. Hes had his belly full of adventure and violence. Enough to last him for the rest of his life. But the face is the same. And youll find the heart is the same. He hated war from the beginning, and he hates it more now. He did a good, decent, tough and necessary job. But more than any of us, hes ready for peace. And determined to make it stick. What does he want . With the sight of home still beyond the horizon, hes undeniably thinking of a number of things. The longest sleep in the softest feather bed the world has ever known. A steak so thick it would take a buzz saw to cut it. A platoon of bathing beauties who only have eyes for him. But when the idle dream has drifted, most of all, the average soldier, sailor, marine, coast guardsman, want simply to be an average citizen. An average civilian with all the responsibilities and rights of one. Plans, well about one ten plans to go to school, trade, or college. One out of ten hopes to have a business of his own. About one out of ten wants to operate a farm. But for the great majority, the basic need and the fundamental desire is a job. Over twothirds of men getting out of the army want a job. Eight out of ten of these want to work in the same state they came from. Many more than half of them want different jobs than they held before. And almost all of them want a job characterized not so much by the big money as by pesecurity. Dont think the average serviceman comes out of the war only able to fire a rifle or crawl on his belly. He returns armed for a civilian future with training and skills adapted to an amazing variety of civilian jobs. He has held over 1,000 military jobs in the arms forces ranging from bugler to surveyor to xray technician. All of these jobs are related in some way to 17,500 civilian occupations covering 130 industries. Conversions from military to civilian jobs can be made immediately with no additional training by many men. Construction workers, truck drivers, carpenters, airplane mechanics, meat inspectors and tire workers, locomotive repairmen. Hundreds of others. All these military jobs can obviously find their counterpart in civilian life. Some men may require additional study or on the job training to adapt their new skills to nonmilitary use. But there are wide opportunities for the men who served in radio repair work, auditors, chemists, medical corpsmen, able seamen, hundreds of others. And aside from technical skills, the Arms Services now return many equipped with executive ability. Men who have had large groups under their command. From a colonel leading a bum barredment group to a mess sergeant supervising the meals. This man and woman, rifleman and the logging foreman, it plate weld eastern radio mechanic and the thousand odd others of him now return. Back to the American Home with welcome and well done everywhere. And what does he want . Most of all, he wants a job. Not a handout, not sympathy, not hero worship. But one of the things he fought for, the thing he returns for, a stake in the american future. He returns with a new sense of responsibility, initiative, new skills acquired, with old skills sharpened. And he returns from the wars he represents once again the best of america. 12 million men and women returning to civilian life, the greatest asset, the most capable potential group of workers, businessmen, farmers, students, citizens the nation has ever known. He has earned a welcome to outlast the joyous whistles and pap paper streamers. We welcome him to our hearts. We must also welcome them to our benches, desks, shops and fields so that once again he becomes part of us. Part of what he fought to make possible, a bolder, better, more democratic land. We must match his courage, his vigor, and his faith. Snend youre watching American History tv. All weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Throughout the world, tlohros of people hail the end of the war in europe. Years full of suffering and death and sacrifice. Now the war against germany