Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

H
Combat may make you Lazy
By Maj. Walker M. Mahurin
F. was a good guy. I'd known him in England and I'd
f1O\\"I1 with him. I knew he was a fine pilot, a good
flight leader and a reasonably eager lieutenant. But
here he was in the States, assigned to the kind of job he
used to gripe about not ha\'ing~~l11d he was miserable.
:\ lost of the time he was sore, sore inside, and the rest of
the time he did a lousy job as assistant base operations officer.
Somehow his reports, schedules, forms "ere ahl'ays
davs behind; he never could be found when he was needed.
A{ter three months in this job he still didn't know all the
personnel ,,'orking directly under him.
\\'hat's more, the people he worked and lived with didn't
like him. They resented his arrogance, his sloppiness, his
I'\T- been -wi nni ng -th c-war-and-risking-m y-nec k-wh ilc-you' \Tbeen-taking-it-easy-in-the-States
attitude. Overseas, he had
been a popular member of his group, ~J!\I'aysthe center of
a happy gang in the local pub. Bnt in the States he ,,'as
playing a lone-wolf role, acting as though nobody around
was worth his time. I'd see him in the PX or the canteen,
talking to no one and looking as though he'd snap off your
head if vou so much as said "hello" to him.
I wish I could say he was the only onc of his kind, but
after I had visited ~; few more bases' I noticed quite a few
like him. And I heard hints in couvcrsations. A base CO
once remarked in my prcscncc, "One thing I don't want
~my more of is gun just back from combat. \\'c have too
much work to do to take time off to pampcr them."
Well, I resented wh.it he said, uuturallv. But I kncw this
CO \I'as an honcst hard worker \VIIO meant nothing spite-
firl. Not that I hold any brief for those in the States who
arc obviously in no hurry to fight, although thcy were
trained for combat duty. There arc guys like that and there
are people who arc just plain reluctant to gi\e a combat
man a chance to adapt h irusclf-s-Ctrs who don't want to
disrupt their nice, neat little outfits for anvbodv.
However, most of the men who haven't been overseas
arc kept here because they have particular specialties that
make them more valuable behind the lines than in thcm ; ;
The CO who made that remark was this kind of man-one
of the best~and I thought about wh.it he said. Then, when
I got my new assignmcnt and tried to settle down in a job,
I found there were certain tendencies in me that I had to
fight. I can't honestly swear that !'IT bcatcu them all yet,
but at least I can tell you men still o\TrSC1S"hat to be careful
of, and I can gi\e you my ideas on why we get that way.
First, in combat jobs, no matter how many hours they
gi\'e us on the ground gadgets and no matter how many
lectures S-2 arranges, most of us don't have enongh to do
when we're not fh'ing. Particularly in theaters like the ETO
where weather can keep you on the ground sometimes for
davs and days, a guy gets in the habit of lying flat on his
hack a good deal of the time. \Ve become students of the
horizontal. But we know it's all right. We rationalize it to
ourselves by sa:'ing we risk our necks and deserve plcnty of
leisure when we're not operational.
Well, in a com but zone that attitude is all right. Fighting
is what we're there for and if we do our fighting OK
that attitude makes sense. Bnt back in the States, where
there isn't mnch dying tomorrow or even the next d.iv, it
gets a little silk The habit of thinking of yourself as a kind
of supcrman who deserves the best the world has to offer
[Continued on Pagc 50)
Men back from combat frequently have trouble
adapting themselves to jobs in the States. Here a
fighter pilot with 17 months in the ETO and 21
Nazi planes to his credit gives some reasons why
TLT.rS1'I:,\T!O:s" HI' 1'/S(;l', D. BUOt'KEI.T.
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