[Granville-Hough] 4 Feb 2010 - Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and the truthful soldier

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:33:46 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and the truthful soldier - 5 Feb 2010

    Within my family and perhaps as a story I told to all, there is the 
incident of one of Mrs.Roosevelt's visits to the training centers of WW 
II.  As FDR was crippled and weighed down by his White Housse duties.  
he delegated to his wife Eleanor the  opportunity to visit the camps and 
report on the viewpoints and conditions of the young trainees. 
    Now in every part of the country, there were different cultural 
groups, with their own phrases and mannerisms. One such phrase which 
caught on and spread like wildfire was that of "NO SHIT!" It could be 
used as an interegator,  NO SHIT? , meaning  Is that really true?  or as 
NO SHIT! meaning How Amazing! or as And that's NO SHIT!!, meaning That's 
the unadorned truth. 
    Mrs. Roosevelt had savvy enough to request that no officers or 
non-coms be present   She was talking to a group of recent recruits who 
had barely learned the Army lingo..One had quite a load to tell her 
which he ended with "And that's NO SHIT, Mrs. Roosevelt!"  To which 
Eleanor replied, without any break in the in the flow of the 
conversation, " NO SHIT!"
    Each old soldier must have his or her own list of curious phrases. 
Another phrase is that of "Eleanor Clubs."  Eleanor, in her camp visits, 
could see the inequalities of treatment of blacks and whites in the 
services. FDR did not believe he could introduce widespread reform 
within the Armed Services without chaos.  It was up to Harry S. Truman 
to prove otherwise. Anyway, I did not learn about "Eleanor Clubs" until 
I got to West Point in 1943.  From what I understand, the goals of the 
Eleanor Clubs were modest indeed.  The wanted to achieve a status so 
they could have tea and sit down and enjoy the work they hd done for the 
guests of their employers.  At West Point, the sons of white southern 
elites from across the South, solid Democrats all,  could wax long and 
loud about the follies of Eleanor.  I do not know what happened to the 
Eleanor club movement.  By the time I finally took an interest in such 
matters, I had served in black units, Puerto Rican units, and mixed 
units.  I can honestly say that the best unit of my service was Puerto 
Rican, the next best was black, followed by a long line of mixed units. 
    May God Forgive us all our transgressions to our fellow humans and 
Rest us All in Peace.  Grandpa Hough.