Joe

Folks at home began to feel embarrassed. Almost since the war started, they had innocently used the term "G.I. Joe." Then from Santa Barbara, Calif., came a report that soldiers resented it, thought it patronizing. Hearst Columnist Damon Runyon gave his old-soldier version of the name: "For over 40 years a Joe has meant a Jasper, a Joskin, a yokel, a hey-rube, a hick, a clodhopper, a sucker." Runyon remembered that in the last war G.I. (i.e., "government issue") meant "the big galvanized iron garbage and ash can in the back of each company barracks."

Other columnists and letter writers took up the protest. The New York Times lectured: "[The U.S. soldier] is never a nameless character in a comic strip, and maybe we should stop treating him as such."

But recently came a note of reassurance from abashed users of the opprobrious phrase. Stars & Stripes Reporter Jimmy Cannon had asked a group of soldiers at the front how they felt. He reported: they don't give a damn what they're called.

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