Blaze's Trail

ANIMALS Blaze's Trail Lieut. Herbert Barnett was as happy as a soldier could be. He was back in the U.S. last week after months in the South Pacific. His two dogs, nicely crated and tagged with their No. 1 priorities, were stowed away beside him on the plane. He lounged, watching the good earth below. Somebody said something about "royal pets." The Lieutenant turned. His fellow passengers were glaring at him. What could the matter be? The cold stares slid over him like a glacier.

Lieut. Barnett began to wish the trip were over. He hoped the sick dogs were all right. They had schistosomiasis, a tropical disease the Army needed to know more about. He had to deliver them to Walter Reed Hospital fast--the disease diminished in a temperate climate. As things were, it would be a social as well as a military pleasure to be rid of them.

Not until he reached the Washington, D.C. airport did bewildered Lieut. Barnett learn about Elliott Roosevelt's dog Blaze and his No. 11 priority (TIME, Jan. 29).

Without Oxygen. U.S. Senators, who usually get no better than a No. 3 priority, heard the official version of Blaze's ride last week. The Air Transport Command's able Major General Harold L. George did his frank best by laying before the Senate Military Affairs Subcommittee a carefully detailed account of the animal's voyage by Army aircraft from England to California. Senators noted that the air arms of both the Army and Marine Corps had done their best by Elliott and his dog.

Blaze had crossed the Atlantic, as Elliott had said, in a Fortress commanded by the President's second son.* Hal George was careful to explain that Blaze had deprived no one of a place on that trip.

At Presque Isle, Me., Blaze was put off the B17, whether because the lack of oxygen had unstrung him or for some other reason. But he was not long marooned. An Army B-25 took him aboard, carried him to New York City's LaGuardia Field. There a Marine Corps pilot picked him up, delivered him safe & sound to Washington. The pilot called the White House and someone sent a station wagon to gather up his passenger.

Without Question. How did Blaze get the No. 1 priority which crowded three No. 3 priority servicemen off the A.T.C. transport at Memphis, a short while later? Well, the President's daughter and No. 2 official White House hostess (who was all ready to go off to Yalta--see Foreign-Relations) had fixed that. It was simple. She called the A.T.C.'s priority officer, and asked him if A.T.C. would take the beast out to Elliott's new bride, Cinemactress Faye Emerson, in Hollywood.

Anna Boettiger never once mentioned a priority. But nothing moves on A.T.C. without a priority, and Colonel Ray W. Ireland, who took her call, knew what to do. Blaze got his No. 1--and before the week was out, the hardworking, globe-girdling Air Transport Command was right in the middle of the kind of news it does not like to make.

Said Hal George in sober summary: "A serious mistake has been made, and it cannot be justified."

-Whose promotion to brigadier general was confirmed by the Senate this week.

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