Old Soldiers

Two old war horses were whistled up from the pasture last week and slipped back into heavy-duty harness. To World War I's heroic Sergeants Alvin Cullum York and Samuel Woodfill went commissions as majors for active service with Army ground forces on infantry problems.

Alvin York, a conscientious objector ("War's ag'in the Book"), changed his mind after a heart-to-heart talk with his superior officer and a plodding, nightlong bout with U.S. history. His feat in France that brought him a Congressional Medal of Honor is still a nonpareil: singlehanded he killed 20 German soldiers, captured 132 more with a squad of seven men.

In June 1939, he saw no reason for U.S. participation in the war ahead--"I don't know why we need get tangled up with any foreign row"--but the unmasking of Axis ambitions again changed his mind. Said he in June 1941: "Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them." At 54, Alvin York is still soldier material, notwithstanding his thinning red-grey hair, his portly build, his occasional arthritic twinges.

For Sam Woodfill, the order to return to active duty was belated recognition for another World War I feat: he knocked out a series of German machine-gun nests alone, incidentally killing two Germans with a trench pick. He too received a Congressional Medal of Honor, and decorations from six nations. From General Pershing he drew a simple tribute: "Here is America's greatest doughboy." During the war he held a "Jawbone" (temporary) commission as first lieutenant and was temporary captain for a brief period in 1919, but was eventually returned to his permanent rank of sergeant. Uncomplaining, he re-enlisted as a buck private, cashed out in 1923 as master sergeant after 22 years of service. Since then, balding, weather-beaten, publicity-shy, he has lived like any other Kentucky farmer. To U.S. oldsters who remembered Sam Woodfill's war record, his recall from retirement was not a minute too soon.

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