Nothing designed to improve fighting morale kicked up more rancor than the World War II system of handing out decorations. In the current issue of the Informtry Journal, Major David E. Milotta produces some figures to support the feeling that there was something wrong.
Taking as his yardstick the ratio of combat awards to the number killed in action, Milotta found that the ist Division handed out 5.1 awards per man killed. But the 3rd Division, which saw more combat, got only 2.0, and the 42nd Division, with relatively little combat, 11.8. Two U.S. airborne divisions, the 82nd and the...