I queried my dad about that story, and I got a few details wrong: the guy was his CO (a Lt.) who was a good battlefield leader from the West Coast; apparently he was also a real authoritarian-type who simply believed that unions should rule the world. He couldn't remember more details, other than everybody thought he was a wacko.
Jason
> Apropos to the above: My dad was a front-line infantry grunt during the
> Battle of the Bulge. He told me that when his company finally got to the
> Elbe and met the Russians (who were in rags and without much food), his Sgt.
> - who was a union man from the midwest - told my dad that they shouldn't
stop
> but just keep rolling on to Vladivostok! My dad and his buddies thought the
> guy was nuts.
I think this is an excellent illustration of my general point about citizen soldiers. Under the right conditions, anyhow, and the end of WW2 was one of them, a huge majority of citizen soldiers will refuse to be (or even think) as