15,000 Exceptions

Not all of them want to come home. In the past two months, nearly 5,000 highpoint G.I.s in Europe have asked to be discharged on the spot. By last week about 15,000 had applied for civilian jobs with the Army and UNRRA in Germany and France.

Reasons for staying ran from A to Z. Some of the men wanted to avoid breaking off with local sweethearts or mistresses. A few were idealistically inclined to help finish the job and decided they could do more as civilians.

Another attraction lay in the prospects for graft and black-marketeering. But most of them, looking homeward with critical eyes, were prompted by the feeling that the U.S. was too confused a place to come back to just now. Whatever the job prospects at home, they knew they could save money in the jobs at hand, with salaries ranging from $1,704 to $5,800 a year, with all expenses paid. And those who joined UNRRA could also be sure of getting their fare home paid if they stayed for at least a year.

So far only a small percentage of the 15,000 have been placed--1,654 with the Army and 270 with UNRRA. Since military rank does not figure in the qualifications, many a former enlisted man has turned up in an upper-layer job. The head of UNRRA's motor pool, at a salary of $5,000, is an ex-corporal. UNRRA's chief clerk, at $4,600, is an ex-sergeant.

For the same reason, few of the officer applicants have been accepted. One young lieutenant colonel was beaten out by a more experienced ex-sergeant for the top job in a branch of the Army's Criminal Investigation Division. When he was offered a secondary job, the colonel refused because he felt that his experience in giving orders qualified him for something better.

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