ARMED FORCES: The Re-Enlistment Blues

"Got paid out on Monday, not a dog soljer no more," exults a barrack-room ballad in From Here to Eternity. But a few days later, his mustering-out pay gone, his new-found freedom turned sour, the pre-Pearl Harbor infantryman in James Jones's novel surrenders to The Re-Enlistment Blues and signs up.

In Washington last week a Senate appropriations subcommittee heard a 1956 version of the re-enlistment blues. As sung by Assistant Defense Secretary Carter L. Burgess, it was a different tune. It did not concern the "dog soljer"; it was about highly trained specialists whose skills range from running an infantry...

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