Reached into the American Home. The farewells were everywhere. The farms, the tracks, the lavish apartments. The uptown flats. The shrugged estates. The modest houses of the suburban streets. Everywhere, the men were borrowed or taken for keeps. The youngest, the cleanest, the best. He each men went into battle his own way doing his own job. More than half of them cell combat service. A small percentage of these not nearly as many as you may have imagined war in the front lines and within shell range of the enemy. It. 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 white. 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 1000 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 of the lives and security of all of us. Whether in combat or not, whether in machine gun at 300 yards from the enemy or a switchboard operator 300 miles from the enemy, the servicemen learned about war. He knew the an utter rubble 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 coffee of it. Weather in the heat of the equator or the cold of the arctic, through it all, he worked, waited, suffered, and injured. Until one day, he heard the bells of peace. Turned his back on the dark and 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 japanese them. 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 serviceman. Those with severe emotional disorders, 1 of all returning servicemen. But returning with them, the huge majority group, more than nine out of ten, the unheard physically or mentally, knee 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 . The adjust, consider some of those 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 dollars a month listen he. Adjusted to the foxhole, the slit trench, and a number of unprecedented ways of going to bet. He adjusted to plenty. Through it all, he kept his stride. He did not lose his sense of humor. Yuck he brought the touch of the connecticut yankees to the banks. He ran a country fair in india. 30 he staged a kentucky derby. He relaxed in a luxurious resort in europe. Went night clubbing 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 did not lose his sense of decency. There were times when 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 his adjustment to war. Now he returns, the average oldier. 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 gangsters . Ive seen killing, but ive never met an american soldier, ive seen men under combat achieve humanity such as i have never seen before. Ive seen them comfort each other when homesickness shattered their spirit. Cried together over common discomforts. Cried unashamedly when their conference died. Without hesitation offered a final sacrifice. Risking their lives to save another mans life. I saw democracy overseas. There were no foxhole penthouses of the wealthy. No restricted areas for White Christians only. Brutality is something more than a surface matter written by bloodshot eyes, strong language, torn clothes, bloody 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 our civilization, i can only say it is an indictment of our civilization, not for soldiers. With the average soldier learn in the army . Well, among other things, he learned a certain self reliance, a certain resourcefulness. There were washing machines made and wondrous ways. When he did not have a lather to be 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 arrow break. He learned the quintessence of democracy, 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, when he was one of two men on an observation post, one of five men on a be 25 bomber crew, one of ten men on an anti aircraft battery, a one of five dozen clerks in the rear echelon headquarters, as 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 see him 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. Yes, he has changed in many ways. But they are good sound waves, by and large isnt 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. Enough to last him the rest of his life, but the face is the same. You will find the heart is the same. He hated war from the beginning, and he did a good job, but more than any of us, he is ready for peace and determined to make it stick. What does he want . Will the side of homes still be on the horizon . He is undeniably thinking of a number of things. The longest sleep in the softest feathered 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 civilian. And average civilian with all the responsibilities and rights of one. Plans, well about one out of ten will go to school or a trade or college. But when 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 the men getting out of the army want a job. Eight out of ten of these want to work in the same estate they came from. Many more than half of them want different jobs than they held before. Almost all of them want a chalk characterized not so much by big money as by permanence, by security. Do not think the average serviceman comes out of the war able only to fly or use a rifle and 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 1000 military jobs in the armed forces ranging from bugle or to survey or, to xray technician. All of these jobs are related and some way into 17,500 civilian occupations covering 130 industries. Conversions from military to civilian jobs may be made immediately with no additional training by many men. Construction workers, truck drivers, carpenters, telegraphy ares, airplane mechanics. The meat inspectors, locomotive repairman. Hundreds of others. All these military jobs can find their counterpart and civilian life. Some men may require additional steady or on the job training to adopt their new skills to non military use, but there are wide opportunities for the men who served in radio repair work, auditors, chemists, medical corman, able seaman. Hundreds of others. Aside from technical skills, the Armed Services now return with executive abilities. Men who have 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, the rifleman and the logging and armor plate welder and the radio mechanic, there are thousand others like him now returning. Back to the American Home with welcome and well done everywhere. What does he want . Most of all, he wants a job. Not a hand out, not sympathy. 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, ive initiative, with new skills acquired, with old School 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 a joyous whistles and the paper streamers. We welcome him into our hearts, but we must also welcome him to our benches, our desks, our shops and fields. So that once again, he can become part of us. Part of what he fought to make possible. A boulder, better, more democratic land. We must match his courage, his vigor, and his faith