the Red G xiliary of my Arm couldn’t get along without it. They are doing magnificent job in e ay. - ver the Stars and Stripes fly ov. rP. ific Islands, lso is found the ne tole oe Rada ntatives work tire Army, and “I am delighted to express the debt of gratitude” of the Fifth Army to the American Red Cross for the fine work- it has done. men and women of the Red Cross have __ not been deterred by fatigue, discomfort or danger.” GENERAL MARK CLARK CT Commander of the Fifth U.S. Army "The American Red Cross has made an outstendie con- tribution to the high morale of the soldiers in the China- __ Burma-India theater.” : GENERAL JOSEPH STILWELL __ Commanding the U. S. Army Forces - ina, Burma, and India | The American Red Cross is one of our most loved, and his most useful institutions. The work it has done here has “THAT THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN ...” By DEMAREE BESS American fighting men overseas are usually homesick; they get all their basic needs from the Army and the Navy, with one exception— and that is the feeling that they are not for- gotten by the civilian world which is always in their thoughts. I have lived among our soldiers abroad in both world wars, and have seen how much it means to them to have close contacts with the life at home. ... In this war, duplication of effort has been avoided by entrusting to the American Red Cross the chief responsibility of bringing a touch of home to homesick men. Red Cross men and women work courageously and inde- fatigably in hospitals, in rest areas, in bases at the rear, and with units at the front. They eae entertainment and comforts and a ielping hand to men whose leisure is some- times more trying than the hazards of actual _ battle. _ Theirs is a great privilege and a great respon- sibility and, judging by my observations, the Red Cross has admirably fulfilled it. Saturday Evening Post “BIGGEST THING IN THEIR LIVES.....” By RAYMOND CLAPPER The pilots of the small, deadly, trim, little A-36s climb out of their planes. ‘The squad- ton leader, a lieutenant colonel, says: ‘Let’s check in and get over to those Red Cross doughnuts.” The biggest thing in their lives at the moment is an American Red Cross girl under an olive tree serving coffee and doughnuts. Only after a second cup of coffee and a third doughnut do you begin to hear what hap- pened. 5 _ The whole sky may be open to them in the air but on the ground they lead isolated lives, too far from town to get in for a bath or fecreation. And they must fly every day in a big drive like this, so their visit to the Red Cross girl with the big tank of coffee and the contributed notably to the patriotic spirit, as well as the — comfort and happiness of the Alaskan soldier.” — _' LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIMON B. BUCKNER | : Commanding General, Alaskan Department crate of doughnuts becomes the most exciting event in their lives. The real revolutionaries of this war are these flyers, munching Red Cross doughnuts on a dusty, isolated airfield, and the American Red Cross is always there to make their lives bearable and a little more human. All my life I have been a friend and a sup- porter of the Red Cross, but it took such an incident as this to make me realize how much Red Cross means in the lives of these men who must fight the war. True, this was only one fragment of Red Cross service, a service that extends throughout the world, but even this fragment symbolizes the fact that Red Cross is always at the side of the fighting man. "SOMETHING FINE TO BEHOLD .cccacee” By ERNIE PYLE Everywhere I went in the European war theater—in the British Isles, in North Africa. and in Sicily—there was the American Red Cross giving its services to our fighting men. It is something fine to behold, this touch of home which the men and women Red Cross workers are able to bring to our troops abroad. When the Red Cross opens up in a new wat theater, its growth has to be as fast as the growth of the Army. The way clubs spring up overnight in newly occupied centers, the way restaurants and dances and movies and clubmobiles and doughnut factories mushroom into life all over a new country, is something that still astonishes me. Right in the field with their regiments are the Red Cross field directors, who act as a link between the soldiers and their homes: In most of the hospitals, doing the recreational and welfare work for which the nurses can spare so little time, are the Red Cross hospital girls. With every medical unit are countless quantities of the indispensable blood plasma made from the voluntary blood donations of the American people. Our soldiers and sailors abroad literally worship the Red Cross, and I personally can find nothing*but praise to say about its program as I saw it in operation. ee ees Se ee eee eee American Red Cross Washington, D. C. ARC 1133 Jan. 1944