ARMY & NAVY: For Enlisted Men Only

ARMY & NAVY

On V-E day Pfc. Vincent Rizzitello, a small, wiry, 26-year-old combat infantryman from Newark, N.J., was at Fort Dix, a replacement center near Trenton, N.J. What victory in Europe mostly meant to him was that he would probably be seeing something of the Pacific.

Pfc. Rizzitello had fought in Africa, Sicily, Italy and France. He wore a Purple Heart, a Presidential unit citation (the 3rd Division's), battle stars for six campaigns. On his furlough to the U.S. this spring he had taken a wife; he had made his farewell the day he went to Dix to get on with the war.

On V-E plus four, Pfc. Rizzitello got a series of pleasant surprises. A Fort Dix clerk had figured Rizzitello's discharge credits under the Army's scoring plan announced last week. Infantryman Rizzitello had been in the Army 56 months—that was 56 points; he had been overseas 32 months—that was 32 more; he had 40 points for his battle stars and decorations. He had a total of 128 points and he had won discharge from the service.

Pfc. Rizzitello collected his mustering-out pay, turned in all his gear except one complete uniform. Finally he stood before a colonel who handed him a paper, shook his hand, said: "Good luck, Rizzitello." Mr. Rizzitello blinked, said "Thank you, sir," out of long habit, made a snappy salute and went home to his bride, a suit of civvies, and his plans to "get into the chicken business."

Top Secret. Mr. Rizzitello and some 2,500 other combat veterans who were in the U.S. on furloughs from the Pacific and European theaters were the lucky ones who caught demobilization on the first R-day. They were the easiest cases in the Army's program for releasing 2,000,000 soldiers in the next twelve months of successive R-(for redeployment) days.

Long before D-day in Normandy, the War Department had begun to plan for this job as part of the business of shifting its top weight from Europe to the Pacific. The number of men to be discharged, the yardsticks by which they would be selected, the manner in which others would be reshuffled had been one of the top secrets of tall, schoolmasterish Major General William F. Tompkins and his special planning division of the General Staff in Washington.

The point system had been decided upon (TIME, Sept. 18) as fairest; a poll had shown it favored by enlisted soldiers, and it made no difference what officers thought (the plan does not apply to them and they will have to take their luck as the Army can spare them). But not until V-E minus ten had any theater commander known what the point values would be. Only 24 hours before the official announcement of R-day were the commanders told in coded telegrams what total of points would make a man eligible for release.

The critical score of 85 points was set high, as a temporary par for the demobilization course.*It provides a margin of military safety until, probably within six weeks, the Army can tabulate the Adjusted Service Rating Cards from all the theaters, thus can arrive at a points total which will permit release of 1,300,000 of its able-bodied men.