• U.S.

HORRORS OF WAR: Casualty?

1 minute read
TIME

The War Department seemed to be unable to decide whether Private George Baker was alive or dead. This indecision, communicated to Private Baker’s parents, naturally caused them a certain amount of anxiety.

Day after the Japs roared down on Pearl Harbor, the War Department informed Mr. and Mrs. Roy M. Baker of Emmitsburg, Md. that their boy was dead. Then the Bakers got a letter from George, written after the attack saying in effect that the report of his death was grossly exaggerated. Next the Veterans’ Administration wrote to Mrs. Baker, enclosing a form to be signed so that she could collect George’s insurance.

Last fortnight came a third official message—this time from the Quartermaster Corps—a brief form note informing Mrs. Baker that her son’s body would be brought back to the U.S. for burial.

At week’s end, Mrs. Baker did not know whether her son was alive or dead. Neither, obviously, did the War Department. Army officials said the case is being “investigated very carefully.”

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