#5-005
Memorandum for General Handy
January 3, 1945 Washington, D.C.
I do not think the attached memorandum meets the situation.1 There has
been no doubt in my mind for a long time, and this animated my frequent
inquiries sent from Cairo and other places, that the physical exemption business
has reached the point in some cases of almost a racket.2 I frequently see
soldiers well up in years who, on a superficial basis alone, decidedly lack the
stamina necessary to arduous service, yet they are in the Army. At the same
time we have athletes engaging in the most violent sport of football and the
strenuous sport of baseball—I suppose there are others in the boxing ring, I have
no knowledge of this—who have been exempted.
The other day as I recall we sent out instructions that in the case of
celebrities, radio and motion picture stars, etc., they would not be discharged
without the approval of the War Department.3 Is there not some approach such
as this that might properly be made in the case of famous athletes whom the
medical officers are about to turn down? The man by his action has publicly
indicated great physical prowess, therefore should not the doctor’s
recommendation against his being accepted in the service be cleared by higher
authority?
I do not think we can rest on the statements in the attached
memorandum.4
G. C. M.
Document Copy Text Source: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (RG
165), Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (OCS), 327.02, National Archives and Records
Service, College Park, Maryland.
Document Format: Typed memorandum signed.
1. On December 27, 1944, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson wrote to General
Marshall that James F. Byrnes, head of the Office of War Mobilization and
Reconversion, had directed Selective Service to reexamine the draft status of
professional football players and other athletes. Patterson said that parents of men
fighting overseas, “like Justice Byrnes, cannot understand how a professional football
player, who takes gruelling punishment before thousands of spectators, evades military
service by the excuse of a punctured ear-drum, wetting the bed, or some other trifling
blemish.” He recommended that the Army and Navy departments take firm measures
to see that these athletes “are not again certified unfit by Army or Navy doctors on
technicalities or hair-splitting decisions. Nothing short of the plainest disability of a
major character should exempt these men from military service.” (Patterson
Memorandum for the Chief of Staff, December 27, 1944, NA/RG 165 [OCS, 327.02].)
G-1 (Personnel) had drafted a reply to Patterson, in which Deputy Chief of Staff
Thomas T. Handy concurred. (Pasco Memorandum for the Chief of Staff, January 2,
1945, ibid.)
Byrnes recalled, “I asked General [Lewis B.] Hershey of Selective Service to
investigate the large number of young men, between the ages of eighteen to twentysix, allegedly unfit for military service, who were featured in professional athletics. He
set the local draft boards to work. Although some ardent sportsmen were incensed at
the curtailment of their pleasures, the fact that the American troops in combat were
without any diversions was sufficient reason for our course.” (James F. Byrnes, All in
One Lifetime [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1958], p. 250.)
2. In November 1943, while in Cairo, Egypt, General Marshall had notified Deputy Chief
of Staff Joseph T. McNarney of his concern that prominent athletes had been deferred
or placed on limited service by Army medical officers. “I fear a serious scandal in this
matter if this action was taken by Army doctors. It is ridiculous from my point of view to
place on limited service a man who can catch with his broken fingers a fast ball. If he
can’t handle a machine gun, I am no soldier,” wrote Marshall. “I have seen dozens of
men with half a dozen serious complaints, in addition to their years, passed by their
Army doctors—and now to find great athletes, football and baseball, exempted is not to
be tolerated.” (Papers of George Catlett Marshall, #4-164 [4: 190–91].)
3. On November 29, 1944, the War Department had issued Circular Number 452 titled
Separation or Discharge of Military Personnel Who Were Prominent in Civil Life, which
stated that the discharge of nationally prominent persons was a cause for adverse
public reaction and criticism of the War Department. “To discharge a well-known
professional football player for physical disability when that individual is able to
participate in professional games immediately after discharge is obviously
inconsistent.” While not intending to discriminate against any particular group, “cases
involving the discharge of nationally prominent athletes, stage, screen and radio stars,
etc., which might occasion criticism of War Department discharge policies, will be
referred to the War Department for final determination.”
4. The memorandum was rewritten and dispatched on January 8. Referring to the
November 1944 directive that no professional athlete, celebrity, or radio or motion
picture star in military service be discharged without War Department review, General
Marshall replied that these individuals should be handled in the same manner. “I have
accordingly directed that professional athletes will not be rejected for military service
until each case has been reviewed” by the War Department’s Personnel Division. The
Navy had no objection to such action by the Army, but “it will accept the above
individuals only if they meet physical standards for general service.” (Marshall
Memorandum for the Under Secretary of War, January 8, 1945, GCMRL/G. C.
Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].)
Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland and Sharon
Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic
version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1,
1945–January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp.
6–7.