After Sex, What?

When Air Force Staff Sergeant Robert Wilkins was taken prisoner in Korea in 1951, he did not let time hang idle on his hands. In the prison camps, he soon discovered that most of his fellow prisoners had two major topics of conversation: women and autos. Wilkins, who had been a salesman for Detroit's Hanson Chevrolet Co., felt right at home. Every time he met a new prisoner, Wilkins would ask if the prisoner didn't think he might be in the market for a new car after he was freed. Then he would take his name and home address.

Two months ago, when Sergeant Wilkins, 28, came out through Panmunjom and Freedom Village, he had a list of 3,272 fellow prisoners as potential customers. As soon as he could get pen and paper, he sent the names and addresses to his old employer. Hanson Chevrolet sent out 2,000 letters offering the sergeant's friends a $300 "Wilkins discount" on a new car, urged them to come to Detroit to pick it up. Last week the company announced that 21 ex-prisoners have already done so (one former colonel came all the way from Georgia), and 500 in all have written to say they are interested. Salesman Wilkins, who is on a 60-day leave until his discharge in December (he was pheasant hunting last week), did not have to worry about getting his old job back.

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