Some years ago or, war reached into the american home. The farewells were everywhere. The farms, the shanty on the tracks, lavish apartments, the uptown flats, the shrubbed estates, the modest houses of the suburban streets. Everywhere, the men were taken for keeps. The youngest, the cleanest, the best. Each man went into battle in his own way, and through his own job. More than half of them saw combat service. A small percentage of these, not nearly as many as you may imagine, where in the front lines. Within 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 exciting rallies. No for him the peach parties were not as pleasant as they had been a few summers before. For him the rivers ran by. The boating was not so good. For him the flight tax were not as wide as the fields of texas. For the rest, there were 1000 non military jobs, each dependent on the other, each vital to the winning of the war. Each made memorable by the fact it represented the protection and lives of all of us. But whether in combat or not, whether in machine gun 300 meters from the enemy or from a switchboard 300 miles away, the serviceman learned about war. He knew the unalterable loneliness of it. He knew the unending boredom of it. He knew the mud of it. The dust of it. He knew the food of it. He knew the copy of it and the coffee. Weather in the heat of the equator or the cold of the arctic, through it all he worked, waited, suffered an injured. Until one day he heard the bells of peace. Turned his back on a dark and battlefields and raised his arms to the right new future. Now he returns, with all of his experiences in the fight to kill fascism, to kill japanese im. Now he returns. Within those who gave a permanent share of their bodies and minds to the nation. The prominently wounded physically, 1 of all returning serviceman. Those with severe emotional disorders, 1 of all returning serviceman. But returning with them the huge majority group, more than nine out of ten, the on hurt physically or mentally. The average returning soldier. It is of him we speak of this average shoulder that we report on the questions has he changed what he has learned . What does he want . Has he been brutalized by war . Can he readjust to the life and times of a civilian readjust . Considered some of his adjustments in the last few years. He adjusted to a considerable loss of privacy. He adjusted to the awesome unbearable authority of the top sergeant. He adjusted to 50 bucks a month. He adjusted to the foxhole, a slit trench and a number of unprecedented ways of going to bed. He adjusted to plenty. Through it all he kept his stride. He did not lose his sense of humor. He brought the touch of a thank you to the bank to the rind. He ran a country fair in india. He staged a Kentucky Derby in austria. He relaxed in the luxurious resorts of europe and when night plumbing in the islands of the pacific nightclubbing. 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 did not lose his sense of decency. There were times when he went hungry so 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 his adjustment to war. Now he returns. Has he been brutalized by war . Listen to a very angry Army Chaplain brutalized . That means is this war going to breed a generation of hoodlums and gangsters . Ive seen killing. But i have never met an american soldier who liked it. Ive seen man in combat achieve a level of humanity they have never seen before. I have seen them come for each other when homesickness damper their spirit. Laugh together over common discomforts. Cried unashamedly when their comrades died. Without hesitation, offered a final sacrifice. The risking of their lives to save another mans life. I saw democracy overseas that is only talked about at home. There were no foxhole penthouses for the wealthy. No restricted areas for White Christians only. Brutality its something more than a surface matter revealed by rough beards, bloodshot eyes, strong language, torn clothes, bloodied bodies. Real brutality is lack of imagination. A disregard for the rights of others. The very things we have been fighting to destroy. If there is any suspicion that returning soldiers are not fit for civilization, i can only say it is an indictment of our civilization. Not of the soldier. What did the average soldier learn in the army . Well, among other things, he learned a certain self reliance. A certain resourcefulness. There were washing machines weight maiden wondrous ways. Yuck when he did not have a latter, he used an elephant. To the infinite virtues of the jeep, he added a new one. He jacked it up and turned it into an ice cream freezer. When his life depended on it, he used a parachute for an air break. Law he learned the quintessence of democracy. He learned to work with people. He knew how many people dependent 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 hit. He was a man on the ground directing a man in the air or to drop his bombs. He learned to work with people, whether he was one of two men on an observation post, five men on a 25 bomber crew, one of ten men in a mighty aircraft battery. A one of five doesnt clerks in the rear echelon headquarters. Has he changed . Listen to a very calm war correspondent. Sure i suppose he has changed. Say, he may have left home a mamas boy. I doubt that he will be coming back that way. Chances are, he will seem a lot older. More thoughtful. He will wonder about things, question things a good deal more. You do not go through hell and high water and stay unchanged. You do not see your friends die or badly hurt, and stay the same. He has changed in many ways. But they are good sound ways. By and large he is in better physical condition. He has got a lot of know how. Technical skill and common sense that he did not have before. He is more mature. And here is something. He is more stable. His head is believed full of adventure and violence and that will last him for the rest of his life. But the faces the same. And you will find the heart is the same. He hated war from the beginning. He hates it more now. He did a good, decent tough and necessary job. But more than any of us, he is ready for peace. He is determined to make it stick. What does he want with the side of him be still on the horizon . Hes undeniably thinking of a number of things. The longest sleep in a 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 guardsmen want simply to be an average civilian. And average civilian with all the responsibilities and rights. Plans . Well, about one out of ten tends to go to school, trade or college. About 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 preponderance majority, the basic need and the fundamental desire is a job. Over two thirds of them and getting out of the army want a job. Eight out of ten of these want to work and at the same state they came from. Many more than half of them want different jobs than they held before. Almost all of them want a job characterized not so much by big money as by permanence, by security. Dont think the average serviceman comes out of the war able to only 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 is held over 1000 military jobs in the armed forces ranging from bugle or, survey or, to xrays technician. All of these jobs are related and some way to 17,500 civilian occupations covering 130 industries. Conversions for military to civilian jobs can be made immediately with no additional training by many men. The construction workers, truck drivers, carpenters, and telegraphy furs. The meat inspectors and tire workers, locomotive repairman. Hundreds of others. All thesect military jobs can obviously find their counterpart and civilian life. Some men may require additional study or on the job training to adapt their new skills to nonmilitary used but there are wide opportunities for men who served in radio repair work, auditors, chemists medical corman. Councillors, abled seaman. Hundreds of others. And aside from technical skills, the Armed Services now return men with executive ability. Men whove had large groups under their command. From a colonel leading a bombardment group, to a sergeant supervising the meals of an infantry company. This man and woman, a rifleman and the logging foreman, the armor plate wilder and the radio mechanic, the thousand others of him now have returned. Back to the american home. Welcomed and well done everywhere. What does he want . Most of all, he wants a job. Not a hand out, not sympathy yuck. 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 of initiative, with new skills acquired and old skills sharp and. As 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 the paper streamers. We welcome him to our lives. We must also welcome him to our benches and our desks. Our shops and fields. So that once again, he becomes part of us. Part of what he fought to make possible. A bolder bolder, better, more democratic land. We must match his courage, his vigor and his faith