The Coffee House Philosopher

War correspondents of World War II often received minimal military training, both as to martial techniques and military procedure and protocol. They were more or less a kind of “civilian military misfit.”

Correspondent personnel wore officers’ uniforms that were not associated with any branch of the military, and had no indication of rank thereon, except for a green brassard marked with a large “C” on the left arm. A bona fide military man might salute a correspondent approaching in the strange officer’s uniform, only to receive the boy scouts’ three fingered salute from the ambiguously clad m...