Change of Heart

Oh, we asked for the Army

To come to Tulagi,

But Douglas MacArthur said "no!"

He gave as his reason,

"This isn't the season.

Besides, there is no U.S.O."

Such boondock minstrelsy (and other more ill-humored doggerel) summed up the feeling of many World War II marines for the U.S. Army's ranking officer in the Pacific. But by last week it was different. The word out of Korea and out of Washington was that MacArthur and the marines were now old buddies. MacArthur had been heard to say that there are no finer troops on earth than the marines, and was giving all his support to the Marines' air arm, which a year ago, in the integration fight, was battling for its life. At his insistence, high Army brass had even begun a fight to take tactical aviation away from the Air Force and put it back in the Army, so that it would be coordinated with ground forces as it is in the Marines. And the ranking Marine Corps officer in the Pacific, Lieut. General Lemuel C. Shepherd, was reported to be disappointed because Harry Truman had given MacArthur "only" a Distinguished Service Medal (his fifth) instead, of the Medal of Honor, to add to the M.H. he won in the Philippines.

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