Dress Rehearsal

Amid all his other problems, Charlie Wilson chose last week to surpass himself in the art of getting into needless trouble over an essentially trivial matter. From the Defense Secretary's office came an order requiring military officers with Washington desk jobs to wear civilian clothes to work. Ignoring officers' complaints that they would have to spend substantial sums of their own money for such clothes, Wilson airily explained to newsmen: "We don't think at the seat of Government it is a good thing to put on the military act."

His concern for the seat of Government promptly got Wilson kicked in his own. News of Wilson's order was received in the hospital by former Army Chief of Staff Dwight Eisenhower. He bluntly disapproved the order, and Charlie Wilson hastened to amend it; for Washington's officers, civilian clothes suddenly became "optional or voluntary."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.