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Book contributed by Ed Miller
of 3AD, HQ PAO, 1968-70 |
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From the book The American Enlisted Man
By Charles C. Moskos, Jr. - Published:
1970 - Pages 102-103
Excerpts describing the Overseas Weekly:
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"The most significant independent newspaper
for the American soldier abroad is the Overseas Weekly.
Published in Europe since 1950, the newspaper under its publisher
Mrs. Marion Rospach has developed into a unique periodical -
a commercial enterprise aimed at an enlisted military audience.
With its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, the Overseas
Weekly has a press run of around 50,000. Most of the newspaper's
staff are ex-GI's who joined the Overseas Weekly after
completing military service overseas." (Continued
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Book Jacket
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Continuation:
"The Overseas Weekly has no news agency ties and
confines itself almost entirely to three subjects: sports; court-martial
stories in which testimony about sex cases is explicit; and what
is happening to the GI, particularly what the officers are doing
to him."
"The paper long ago acquired the nickname of the 'Oversexed
Weekly' by blending pinups with come-on headlines: 'Torso Killer
Lt Mad, Headshrinkers Rule,' 'Captain Seduced My Wife, Genius
GI Tells Court,' 'Raped Twice in BOQ, Army Nurse Charges,' 'Old
Sarge Drops Dead on Gen's PT March.' Yet along with its lurid
tabloid qualities, the Overseas Weekly has a consistent
editorial viewpoint. The newspaper is for racial equality, articulates
a kind of democratic populism, and is forthrightly concerned
with GI rights. Most characteristically, it has continually exposed
the sometimes unbelievable antics of officers. For example, the
battalion commander who made a practice of roping up soldiers
who returned late from leave and having them led around the base;
or the lieutenant colonel who dressed his twelve-year-old son
in a military uniform to help conduct troop inspections."
"It was the Overseas Weekly that in 1961 first
broke the story of Major General Edwin Walker's efforts to indoctrinate
the men under his command (the 24th Infantry Division) with a
program of extreme conservative political content. In his subsequent
testimony before the Senate subcommittee investigating his relief
from command, General Walker stated: 'We have Communists and
we have the Overseas Weekly. Neither is one of God's blessings
to the American people or their soldier sons overseas. Immoral,
unscrupulous, corrupt and destructive are words which could be
applied to either.' (General Walker further testified why he
used the standards of the rightist Americans for Constitutional
Action as proper guidelines for troop voting: 'The Stars and
Stripes is as much biased to the left as the ACA Index is
biased to conservatism.')."
"Although most officers generally concede that the Overseas
Weekly gets its facts right, the paper is nevertheless regarded
as encouraging disrespect for the military establishment. In
fact, the paper is paying a price for its candid coverage of
the indiscretions of military officialdom. In 1966 the Overseas
Weekly set up a Far Eastern edition (published in Hong Kong)
but has had its circulation effectively limited by being denied
space on military newsstands in Asia. The Defense Department's
official argument is that there is no available newsstand space.
The Overseas Weekly has taken its case to the federal
courts charging a violation of freedom of the press."
"Whether or not the Overseas Weekly is allowed
on military newsstands, it will continue to have a large and
loyal readership within the military community. To a large degree
the popularity of the Overseas Weekly is due to the innocuous
quality and government-laundered features of the Stars and
Stripes. Where in World War II, the 'B-Bag' letters-to-the-editor
column of the Stars and Stripes and the cartoons of Bill
Mauldin served as an outlet for GI grievances, it is the Overseas
Weekly that now performs this function for the armed forces
overseas. It would not be much of an exaggeration to state that
the Overseas Weekly has become the enlisted man's
newspaper in contemporary times."
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More about The American Enlisted Man (published 1970)
in excerpts from its dust jacket:
"Who is the man behind the gun? In an effort to find
out, Charles C. Moskos, Jr., a sociologist and journalist, interviewed
American soldiers in Germany, Korea, the Dominican Republic,
and, especially, in Vietnam. From these interviews and from his
own participation and observations, Dr. Moskos has constructed
a fascinating, highly readable account of the norms, attitudes,
and styles of life in the 'enlisted culture.' Often quoting the
frank idiom of the soldiers themselves, he shows what life is
like for the man in combat, with the prospect of loss of life
and, even worse, the loss of limb. He describes the soldiers'
commitment to service life, their political attitudes, and their
relation to the larger American society."
"In this first comprehensive study of the rank and file
since the end of World War II, the author, himself a 1950's veteran
of the ranks, traces the changes in the portrayals of enlisted
men in the mass media, plays, and novels over the past decades
and reveals the strains within the ranks arising from class differences
among enlisted men."
"Dr. Moskos finds that the once successful integration
policy of the Armed Forces has been confounded by persistent
white racism and the emerging black consciousness, and that the
conventional explanations of combat motivation - particularly
in Vietnam - are no longer adequate. The author believes that
the convergence of the military and society which began in World
War II has been reversed and that the military is becoming increasingly
isolated from civilian society."
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