Word: mule
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...glamor. Then he looks like any other soldier except for a cocky ski cap, sole reminder of the days when he whooshed down slopes and tramped the peaks on snowshoes. Last week, somewhere in the West, he plodded up a narrow mountain path, holding the bridle of an opinionated mule. The view he saw was mostly the rump of the mule ahead; the sounds he heard were the clip-clip-clop of mule hoofs, labored breathing, an occasional heavy stumble over stone...
...Meets Mule. To many a mountain soldier, spring with its mules was a comedown. When trooper met mule, man & beast were mutually suspicious. The Army began a glamorizing campaign, argued that mules were smarter, surer-footed and more playful than horses, hung a sign: "Through These Portals Pass the Most Beautiful Mules in the World" (see cut, p. 62). Result: many a ski trooper volunteered to work with the animals, now thinks that mules as well as skis have their points...
...picked its mountain troops from among skiers, horsemen, mule-skinners, mountain climbers, trappers, prospectors, guides. Short to medium-sized men, the Army has found, tire less quickly at high altitudes. Fear of high places (acrophobia) is not always a disqualification: many a man who has felt nervous on a stepladder quickly learns a mule's aplomb on precipice edges...
...which had no ski-and-mule troops until 1941, is far behind the Axis. A new camp abuilding in Colorado (elevation 9,500 ft.) will train a whole division. This is only a small start. Of possible U.S. theaters of war, nearly a fifth are mountainous: e.g., Alaska, the Canal Zone, Iceland, Malaya, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece. In such terrain, where mechanized divisions stall, the U.S. may some day have to depend on its mountain troopers and slogging, sure-footed mules...
Critics point out that while the men on Bataan were slowly starving on mule-meat, they picked up short-wave exhortations to go to the ice box and make a luscious cheese sandwich. Since most of the shortwave broadcasts are made from records; it would be a simple matter to leave out the commercials...