Sweating It Out At Swan?
It's 'Rough Duty!'--

(EDITORIAL)

Right now, you and I are in the midst of "rough-duty."

Sure, it isn't like bucking a chow line aboard the APA Clunk and it's one h--l of a long way from trying to sweat out a standby alert out on Iwo but it's "rough duty" because . . . we're slowed up in Objective No. 1 now: "Getting Home!"

But fast.

The Navy's job in the past was to get you "hep" to the navy way, get you to your job and keep you on the firing line until that job was com­pleted.

That was the navy's job yesterday. Today, the job is to get you back to the states and get you demobilized because, if you're not regular navy ma­terial, there's no reason for the navy to keep you in the service. You're taking up bunk and locker space that could be alloted to a man who could really use it.

Here at Swan Island most of us are awaiting rail or ship transportation to a separation center. This business of getting home has been on our minds for a long time and most of us feel that every second we spend in the navy from now out is like draining blood from an anemic ... it isn't good!

But the navy has a problem at home that neither the boys with the gold braid or anybody in a red plush seat in Washington, D. C., can't do a heck of a lot about.

And that's a shortage of rail transportation.

Portland has been lucky because in the main most of the men coming here from the SoPac have been processed and sent on their way in a relatively short time. But every once in a while there develops a bottleneck that slows things up.

And you and I start in to beefing.

And by golly, the gripe is as legitimate as Molly's Sister Fanny.

But the delay can't be helped because it's'just a plain shortage in rail equipment and the only comfort you can possibly get from the situation is that the rail equipment is being used to advantage in some place, whether it be in Long Island or Pomona to transport some G-I. And even if it misses you this trip, it will be around again.

And since we have to wait for:the transportation here we might just as well make the most of it while we are waiting and keep in mind this fact:

There's a lot of guys that you and I used to pal around with aboard ship and at boot camp years ago who won't need any transportation because they won't be coming back---------

............ever.

THE EDITOR
(Jack Gordon, Y3c)