"I'd Rather Have That Medal"

On the White House appointment list were five notable callers--three marines, an Army private, and volcanic General George Smith Patton Jr.

Patton made news by going in unarmed. But he took his riding crop along, waved it rakishly at the cheering White House staff. When a reporter asked about his ivory-handled pistol, Georgie quipped: "Oh, that's my social pistol."*

The other fighting men got the Congressional Medal of Honor, in a homey ceremony on the White House lawn. Reading the citations, Harry Truman got stuck when he came to "Peleliu Island," called on brown-haired, heavy-set Medal Winner Major Everett P. Pope of Wollaston. Mass, to pronounce it. Next time he reached the same name, the President got grins all around by ducking the pronunciation, substituting the phrase "on that same island named a while ago."

Said onetime Artilleryman Harry Truman to the medal winners: "I congratulate you. . . . I'd rather have that medal than be President."

* It will apparently remain just that. Last week George Patton learned that he will not go to the Pacific. He will return to Europe, resume command of his hard-hitting Third Army, now detailed on occupation work.

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