AMERICAN PRIVATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1942, Page 3

AMERICAN PRIVATE

TYPICAL UNITED STATES SOLDIER MEMBER OF NEW ZEALAND DRAFT. ■ SPECIALISED TECHNICAL TRAINING. One of the United States soldiers who arrived in New Zealand was Private Michael Sulovsky. Trimly built, well-spoken, cheerful, interested' in New Zealand, New Zealanders, the camp he had been sent to, the job ahead of him and the thousands of miles of sea vpyage behind him, with extraordinarily, good clothing and equipment, he was typical of most of those who came with him. Others could have been chosen just as easily to provide a picture of an American soldier. It could have been Private Martin Spector, or Private Roy Anderson, Private (First Class) Bernard V. Fox, Private Hal Choitkin. Private (First Class) Stanley Sowinski, or any one of half a hundred more. FROM NATIONAL DRAFT. They are mostly soldiers because of the national draft. They correspond with the conscripted soldiers of New Zealand, and like the New Zealanders are no worse soldiers because of that. They are mainly in the twenties, more assured for their age than the general run of New Zealanders, very proud of the fact that they are Americans, completely lacking any national inferiority complex. If the average New Zealand soldier has his picture taken for a newspaper he is just as likely as not to look self-conscious, but these American soldiers, even if they have not had their pictures taken before, will be completely confident. Private Michael Sulovgcy comes from Cleveland, whose population is roughly about two-thirds that of the whole of New Zealand. He was a first assistant in a large grocer’s store and was called in the national draft approximately a year ago. This -soldier spent 13 weeks doing intensive training. The first five went into the rudiments—weapon training, drill, marching—and the last eight into increasingly specialised technical training. Now he is a full-fledged member of the Signal Corps. He is interested in his job and wants to be good at it.

DEPARTURE FOR NEW ZEALAND. Every month of his Army life he has qualified for two and a-half days’ leave. Many of these wore accumulated in the United States and gave him satisfactorily long furloughs at home. Altogether, in the time he was in his own country he had three weeks’ leave. A year, if he had still been in the United States, would have entitled him to an aggregate of a month. Private Sulovsky had just, completed one furlough and was back at camp when his captain ordered him to prepare to go overseas with an advance detail. "If you had told me a year ago that I would be in New Zealand now I would have laughed at you,” he said. Even when warned that he was going overseas he thought it would be across the Atlantic. New Zealand never entered his mind. For his first four months in the Army he received 21 dollars, or about £6 6s, a month. Then he got 30 dollars. or about £9. Later he began to get further bonuses as his technical ability grew. Then he qualified for an overseas bonus. Then he got al

bonus for a year’s service. Then he was expecting an increase m the basic rate. "Why,” he said in his soft voice, “I'll be getting over 60 dollars a month." VARIOUS CAMPS. Like most New Zealand soldiers, Private Sulovsky is used to varying degrees of camp comfort. The Americans say that mobilisation in the United States long since outstripped building capacity and they have been in permanent barracks, tented camps, "pup” tents in the field, and with nothing between them and the stars. Private Sulovsky went _ to a regular division after doing his qualifying training and has been on manoeuvre with the whole force. Although a signaller, he has qualified for the silver rifle shooting medal which many of his comrades wear on their tunics. He has had the training of a soldier and he looks like one. As for the future —“Why, he says, "who knows?” He liked New Zealand. He likes travelling and he likes seeing new things. He thought very highly of the camp to which he was sent on arrival and found he could be happy among New Zealanders. It was cold, but he has been in places just as cold in the United States. The food might be rather different, but ‘‘every man in every army expects home cooking,” he says. KEEN ON WORK. This soldier is thoughtful. He wonders what would have happened to war if the United States had kept its discoveries to itself. "Why,” he said, "didn't the aeroplane, the tank, the dive-bomber, the submarine, all start in the United States?” Private Sulovsky and his comrades appeared to be a good cross-section, of American youth. They were much the same as a similar number of New Zealanders picked at random from the various branches of the service, and like the New Zealanders on home defence, arc so far for the most part untried. However, they all seem to have their mind on getting the war won, and, again like the New Zealanders, are keen to do whatever work is given them.