St. George's shield (upper right) and
the Kangaroo Rat (lower left) were both
insignias of the British Eighth Army.
"Desert Rats" was our nickname.
dust cover information:
Some men bury their past, others put them on pedestals. Some retell boyhood stories ad nauseum, others have to be pried open like an oyster just for a memory here and there. But as Joseph Desloge, Jr., author of the engaging autobiography Passport to Manhood, might have written, the few who die with their boots on---meaning those with lives well-lived---most often die with their mouths shut. So readers younger than, say, forty-something---too young, that is, to spend much time thinking about such things---should be thankful that Desloge got around to recounting his life before he too kicked the bucket---barefoot or not, only time will tell.
Passport to Manhood shines in the glow of that great literary tradition of writing a book whether people want to read it or not. No one asked him for it, his children have heard it all before, and it certainly won't fly off the shelves of the bodice-ripper section in your local Brentano's. No name dropping of the rich-and-famous here, nary one kiss-and-tell story, and certainly no knife-sharpening vendetta against Mommie and Daddy Dearest. Just plain old porch swing simple talk.
But Desloge has a singular perspective on this country's turning points, along with an ironic, often self-mocking point-of-view, and so we're glad to hear what he's got to say about ... The Great Depression, seen through the eyes of a St. Louis rich kid who befriends and takes up the songs of his father's two-dollar-a-day laborers; World War II, as a 16-year-old who experienced it while loading the dead and wounded out of North African and Italian foxholes into American Field Service ambulances; and Latin American backwater poverty, where the rigors of bare survival are shared by a aging gringo in the years before the full flood of the Third World's backwater poor---fleeing joblessness, war, or in Desloges' estimation, the population explosion--- landed with a thud on our very doorstep. The Depression era was hard on America's own poor, and Desloge is sufficiently honest and well-traveled to see those whom he knew and respected back in the 1930s---old codgers like the country bachelor Charlie Rogers who couldn't grasp the twentieth century. He "house sat" the family mansion but wouldn't waste good money on electricity, so instead lit the grand drawing room with a lantern, or the down-on-their-luck like Matt Sullivan, a city friend of his father who was reduced to living in an Ozark shack wall-papered with throw-away pages from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of which reported on a society ball hosted by none other than Desloge, Sr.---reflected in the eyes of today's Latin American poor. Different decade, same values---dignity, resilience, responsibility, and hope for a better future.
What came between the Great Depression and today's awareness of Third World poverty is, of course, World War II, a watershed which set into motion a chain of events making the United States and its allies (and enemies!) rich and left the rest of the globe behind. And Desloges' memories of the war bring his book most vividly---and humorously, in the "black" sense---to life. As an ambulance driver he saw his share of combat, and a lot of its aftermath, as well as the absurdities of the military hurry-up-and-wait approach to war.
If it was Egypt where Desloge first gained empathy for Third Worlders---he seems almost to have had more kinship with the Arab camp followers than his British Tommy messmates---he has carried it forward in his philanthropy in the field of family planning. This, he hopes, will be his legacy, and it certainly seems to have brought his life around full circle, back to the days of the Depression, when dire poverty and the extremes of rich and poor shook this country and much of the world to its knees.
Louis Werner, August 1995
Foreword What historian said, "If it's not written down, it never happened"? Yes, it was an ego trip being told that people really would be interested in my experiences during the Great Depression and World War II, events of more than half a century and several wars ago. But my daughter Marty convinced me that young people today find it hard to realize that such events occurred recently and not in some pioneering past. Captain Carol Venable, RET, founder of the Armed Forces Museum of St. Louis, and his war re-enactment group were quite enthused with my accounts. They urged me to set them down in writing.
I dug out old letters and photographs that had been moldering away in my attic and basement for too many years. Papa proudly distributed copies of my war letters to friends and family who promptly nicknamed me the "Ernie Pyle of the British Army."
I was but a child in the Great Depression and just newly turned seventeen when I sailed to Africa to serve as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service of the British and French troops in North Africa and Italy.
The war and Depression were two events that made an indelible mark on my life and left me somewhat out of tune with American affluence. I am grateful for the experiences and wouldn't trade them for anything, as they have enabled me to shift gears with ease from eating on a linen covered table in a country club dining room to eating on a mud floor in a jungle hut. They have given me the inspiration for my present involvement with the Population Planning Trust.
If this book is a success, much of the credit goes to those who helped me arrange my reflections in words and type. Right at the start, Rose Marie Brauer gave me the title, and I love it. While others said, "Aren't you ever going to get the damn thing to the printer," Donna Charron, ever the critic, made me pause to round out the story with vignettes previously locked in memory.
The funny thing about memories is that once you start thinking about them, they all come tumbling out in a heap and you amaze yourself at how much you remember! I am glad I have been able to write them down.
Joseph Desloge, Jr.
St. Louis, 1995
CONTENTS
I. The Great Depression
II. Enfant Terrible
III. Passport to Manhood: World War II
Middle East
North Africa
Italy
India, Dachau, London
IV. A Long War Ended: A "Real" Life Begun
V. Contrasts U.S. and Latin America
VI. Mercenary "Association"
VII. Why Family Planning
APPENDIX German War Letters
work under copyright
copies may be available at:
