ARMY: Late-Comer

When a harassed, middle-aged soldier turned up at Fort McPherson, Ga., to report back after a ten-day leave, he was promptly tossed into the guardhouse. His ten-day leave had lasted 22 years, six months, 13 days. When he had finished his furlough in May 1919, he decided to stay home because he felt emotionally upset. Later, feeling better, he went back to the fort; his outfit had disappeared. In 1932, when he tried to straighten things out through the War Department, the Department coldly advised him that he was classified as a deserter, but “didn’t seem to want to do anything.” When he checked into Fort McPherson again last week, he posed the Army quite a problem, which at week’s end was still in midair.