National Affairs: Cargo from Korea

Under a bright California sky, the grey transport General George M. Randall nosed into the cluttered estuary of Oakland. Aboard her last week were some 1,500 officers and men of the 1st Marine Division, home from Korea for a 30-day leave.* In her hold were the bodies of 52 men, the first of the dead to be brought back from Korea. They included men of all services, ranging in rank from private to major general (Bryant E. Moore, who had commanded the IX Corps).

The faces of the men lining the transport's rail showed little emotion. They puffed cigarettes and stared at shoreside railroad cars loaded with jeeps, at fireboats squirting a welcome. There was no mood of wild celebration. "We figure we'll have to go back there," said Pfc. George Miller, of Brooklyn. All Corporal Raymond Herren wanted was to get back to Alton, Ill. and see his wife and kids. "The boy, Paul, I've never seen," remarked Herren. "He was born in October. You miss things besides drinking and helling around. You just want to see green American grass."