The Decoy Doughboy

Souvenir Edition -- Printed in Czechoslovakia

May 23, 1945. -- Publishes by and for the men of the 18th Combat Team. -- First Infantry Division, U. S. Army.

A Word To Incoming Reinforcements

V-E Day is an actuality which, if there are 4345 men in the Combat team today, will affect the 18th Infantry 4345 different ways. For the oldsters there are assurances from General Eisenhower that veterans of Africa should not do battle in the Pacific. These 6 and 7 star-veterans are already leaving us in fairly large groups and with a mixture of joy and sadness you wish them goodbye.

To you who remain falls the burden and honor of maintaining the tradition and reputation of the 18the Infantry. If the outfit to which you now belong were a newlyformed one fresh from the States, your concerns in upholding a unit name would be merely for the sake of the unit name. In the 18th Infantry -- the FIRST Division -- that is not so.

For in the days to come your role -- and that of the First -- may be an all-important one upon which the success or failure of a great operation may depend. And you will fight -- not to uphold reputation -- but to kill Japanese and accomplish your military mission because you will know that only in this way will you bring about your own victory day, just as the veterans beside you have brought about theirs. In this way reputation takes care of itself: in this way you best take care of yourself.

Lose no time in learning from those about you while you can: old blood blends well with new, and you will acquire pride, and the priceless professional "know-how" which has made your outfit second to none in all the world.