Off Limits For Officers

Many a veteran of Korea came home angry and bitter about G.I.s' inadequate training. General Van Fleet wrote: "American boys . . . learn . . . only in combat, after three or more heavy battles, during which their casualties from enemy fire are enormously greater than they need be, [if we] could . . . have properly trained them (killing a few) back in the States on maneuvers."

One tough vet felt the same way--only more so. He was Charles C. Anderson, a St. Louis boy whose split home and large family forced him to go to work when he was twelve. In 1947, when he was 17, he at last found a home--in the Army.

When the Korean war came, he had a soft touch in the finance service, but he wanted combat duty. He was sent to an infantry refresher course, and then as a corporal to Korea. After 123 combat patrols, he came home a master sergeant, took an officer candidate course, ranked seventh among the 54 who last August got commissions in his group.

At Camp Gordon, Ga., Lieut. Anderson was given eleven days to whip one company into shape. ("The men wore dirty uniforms, their pants were unbuttoned, and they needed haircuts.") In eleven days it was an honor company.

How did he do it? "I told them I was going to be rough and make good soldiers out of them." When Alabama Private Jesse Wyatt picked up a club in a scuffle with Negro Sergeant Hayward Walker, Lieut. Anderson ordered Wyatt strung up by his heels. When two of the men were dirty, the lieutenant ordered public sand baths. When a 24-year-old law-school graduate who had taken one of the sand baths fell exhausted after doing pushups, Lieut. Anderson ordered him covered with dirt and a cross placed in his mouth. "If he wanted to act like he was dead, I wanted to let him look like he was dead." Last week Lieut. Anderson was brought to trial. A court of ten professional soldiers took one hour and 56 minutes to decide that he was guilty of maltreatment of enlisted men, conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. The sentence: dismissal from the service.

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