Army & Navy - Serve In Silence, Soldier

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A new decoration was handed out last week at Fort Clark, Tex. It was unofficial and it was for anything but heroism. Inspired by a sergeant's report that soldiers on furlough were talking too much, officers created a paper Maltese cross:

Each Fort Clark soldier going on furlough is handed three or four "iron crosses." If he hears another soldier spilling secrets over a beer, he hands the miscreant a cross and walks away. "The theory being," said Lieut. Colonel C. B. Wales, the post executive officer, "if he walks up to him and tells him to shut up, the fellow might take a swing at the fellow who tells him to pipe down. With the cross, by the time he turns it over and reads the printing the lad who handed it to him will be out of the play."

¶At Camp Roberts (Calif.) a soldier was sentenced to six months at hard labor. His crime: telephoning a friend the details of a departing convoy.