Scalped

"Be a good boy," wrote a mother to her son, "and get a haircut." It was too late. Airman Third Class Donald Wheeler, 20, stationed near Tokyo, did not "want to walk down the street looking like a shaved jackass," so he was court-martialed.

The story of Wheeler's uncivil disobedience unfolded in an air of solemnity as four Air Force officers sat in judgment at U.S. Fifth Air Force headquarters in Fuchu, 19 miles from Tokyo. As everyone knew, the ceremonial Honor Guard, to which Wheeler belonged, was the very model of modern spit and polish: 70 frozen-faced six-footers, strictly disciplined, heads closely cropped, attended by twelve pants-pressers, twelve shoeshine boys, two full-time tailors, and bevies of shy, eye-batting Japanese girls. Yet Airman Wheeler, a rebellious sort who did not like his job anyway, disregarded the orders of his superior, Lieut. William Shortt, to get his hair "clipped close from ear to crown, with only a fringe on top of the head"-a haircut variously known as a white sidewall, an Apache, a chrome-dome.

Friendly Sock. Lieut. Shortt pleaded, even offered to pay for the haircut (25-c-). At length Wheeler consented, went off to Tokyo, returned--unshorn. He explained gravely to Shortt that he had only visited a hospital ("I am thinking of being circumcised--as a health measure"). He had also stopped off at a brothel.

During the 30-hour court-martial, the prosecution prosecuted relentlessly. Declared Lieut. William Pridgen: "American soldiers did not challenge an order at Bataan or in France; they did not disobey orders at Pearl Harbor or Valley Forge . . ." Airman Wheeler was convicted. His civilian defense attorney, Manhattan Lawyer Murray Sprung, sprang to his feet, pleaded for leniency: "Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat/ Or hurl the cynic's ban?/ Let me live in my house by the side of the road/ And be a friend to man." Appealed Attorney Sprung, his voice hoarse with emotion: "Gentlemen, be a friend to Airman Wheeler."

Pulling itself together, the four-officer court-martial amiably socked friendly Airman Wheeler with a $200 pay loss, a one-stripe demotion and four months in the stockade.

Considerable Change. Four days later, the nonsense having gone far enough, higher authority intervened. The conviction was reversed because of "cumulative errors and procedural irregularities in the trial." Said Colonel Charles W. Johnstone, Wheeler's commanding officer: "Wheeler told me he is going to be a fine airman and I believe him. I am convinced he has undergone a considerable change of attitude." Said Don Wheeler, as he shoved off for Tokyo to celebrate the scalping he gave the Air Force: "You spend a few days in the stockade, and your attitude would change too. But I feel that it was an unfair, ridiculous order and I would challenge it again."

At week's end these results left at least 26 more people searching for a new attitude--twelve pants-pressers, twelve shoeshine boys, two tailors. Reason: Somewhere along the line the white-sidewall Honor Guard had been disbanded.

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