AT HIS SIDE

unplastered and tormented beach heads from the South Pacific to the North Sea this year of war like the year past will find America's fighting men pitting their youth and courage and strength against an enemy whose power is still to be broken upon scores of such beachheads Tarawa will be enacted again and Guadalcanal and Salerno and a2 in all their remembered heroism and tragedy but this year the heavy cost of victory will again be lessened the number of lives lost reduced because of the blood plasma gift of the American people which is brought to the fighting forces through the American Red Cross and as long as the war lasts wherever our forces advance the American fighting man will find his long heroic Road a bit easier because the Red Cross is at his side today the men and women in every branch of the service know what the Red Cross means to them Red Cross service means that when some wounded boy in a hospital thousands of miles from home needs help there is someone close at hand to make him more comfortable and keep him contented while he's getting well it means American girls working 16 hours a day or longer will perform a thousand friendly tasks that help drive away homesickness and discouragement I've been in the hospital about six weeks but I'm doing all right now so don't worry about me do you think mr. Bryant would want to give me my job back after this is over I suppose he's got his troubles - am I going too fast for you - the able-bodied soldier Red Cross service means that there is always a field director he can turn to when he is worried from whom he can get advice on his problems or even a loan to take care of special emergencies somewhere in every combat area there is always a Red Cross rest home where he can spend his furlough or where he may be sent when mind and body need a period of recuperation to enable them to withstand the strain of combat all that many fighting Americans overseas know of comfort and relaxation and entertainment is provided by Red Cross clubs in canteen men who have lived for so long without anything but the barest necessities are grateful for even so simple a thing as a piece of writing paper a book or a magazine thousands of miles from the United States any American soldier can step into one of these clubs at almost any time there he will find the Red Cross field director to make him welcome and provide him with a chance to blow off steam to the men of our Pacific forces returning dog-tired from a tough and dangerous mission it means a lot to be met by red cross girls ready with something to eat and drink out there where the nearest store or restaurant may be a thousand miles away a cup of fruit juice or coffee is definitely appreciated along the roads of any theatres of action there is no safe more welcome to the eyes of an army man than a Red Cross Club mobile open for business club Mobile's are equipped for almost anything they are a travelling combination of lunch room and library movie theater and Clubhouse and wherever they are parked that spot is home for the moment at least to any soldiers passing through where there are fighting men who can't reach the Red Cross the Red Cross does its best to reach them workers of the newly organized food dropping units pack bundles of supplies and comforts for lonely men stationed in isolated jungle outposts located far beyond the reach of any means of transportation except the airplane army planes making routine flights over otherwise inaccessible regions deliver the Red Cross bundles by parachute for those beyond the direct reach of the American Red Cross men who are prisoners of war in Germany or Japan more than 8 million packages of food and clothing and medicine have been prepared in America for delivery through the International Red Cross to these men who must live on what supplies the enemy can give its prisoners the few comforts contained in Red Cross packages are a gift of incredible value helping to make more bearable the slowly dragging days of their detention from now on more and more of the Red Cross's work will have to center around the care of the wounded and disabled who are being brought back from the front men who will have to be prepared for their return to civilian life in hospitals in this country as well as abroad the Red Cross is helping to rehabilitate men who will never again face the world whole in able-bodied this work which has been going on since Pearl Harbor must continue long after the war has ended learning to work with his hands and use his injured muscles many a crippled soldier is being helped to meet with confidence his future which not long ago may have seemed dark and hopeless what the Red Cross has meant to American airman through months of air war over the continent of Europe no one knows better than major general Jimmy Doolittle the Red Cross is an important factor in improving a life and morale of the American soldier our boys in hospital are cheered by the food books games and entertainment furnished by the Red Cross Red Cross crews serve the ambulance plane bringing wounded back from the front when our combat crews return from a tough mission the Red Cross donuts and coffee wagon the first spot they hit for it is my pleased that the American Red Cross is deserving the wholehearted support of the entire nation today facing the long hard struggle that lies ahead every American fighting man in Europe knows the worth of the Red Cross from the millions of enlisted men to top ranking officers like Lieutenant General Mark Wayne Clark wherever the fifth Army has moved the American Red Cross has kept pace with its advance it is heartwarming to know that the families of America are so eagerly supporting this fine service I want the folks back home to know that the fifth Army is grateful for the splendid work of the Red Cross in this most bitter and destructive of Wars it is the merciful mission of the Red Cross to be at the site of every American son or husband father or brother to do for him what those would do but cannot who wait at home and those who wait can take heart from the fact that of every hundred men wounded 97 may be expected to recover thanks in great part to the skill of Army and Navy medical units in administering the blood plasma collected by the Red Cross and to the faithful care of nurses the Red Cross has recruited for the Armed Services today facing the invasion year that is to bring the hardest and costliest fighting our forces of yet seen the American people know that in ever-growing measure the work of the Red Cross must go on that wherever the American fighting man goes into battle at his side must go the Red Cross