In Rebuttal

With creaking of caissons and clattering of brass, the Army wheeled up to the firing line and took aim at Chaplain Otto Sporrer, U.S.N. The chaplain, a lieutenant commander who was at Chosin Reservoir with the Marines, came home to accuse the Army in Korea of being poorly led, its officers softened by luxury, and its men, at one point, guilty of cowardice (TIME, April 2). Countered General Matthew Ridgway in a report to the Pentagon last week: "The specific allegations which could be checked in this theater have been disproved in their entirety . . . [Chaplain Sporrer] has slandered the reputation of many brave and honorable soldiers, both dead and alive."

In California on duty in San Diego, Chaplain Sporrer said only that "military authorities" had ordered him to keep quiet. The Navy had also sent him a letter of admonition, which is tougher than a letter of caution, but a notch nicer than a letter of reprimand.

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