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Penalty Too Harsh

   Readers are beginning to write in about the strange case of Pvt James Minker who faces a dishonorable discharge and a two-year sentence atr hard labor because he deserted one branch of the service to enlist in the paratroopers under an assumed name.  Two of these letters are in the Morning's Mail today.
   Attorney Anthony F. Caffrey is seeking a judicial  review of the harsh court-martial decision, on the basis that Minker served with valor in the paratroopers and that he was a prisoner of war for 11 months.
   It would seem that the appear is ell taken in this fscase.  Of course Minker erred in leaving his post at West Point, but because of a desire to sere his country more, not less.  Desertion can not be condoned in time of war, but this was no ordinary desertion of a coward.

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Urges Honorable
Discharge for Minker
To the Editor of The Post-Sentinel

   I am writing this letter in behalf of James Minker, who is being sentenced for AWOL.  Let's have a little justice in this case.  Here is a man who left his own unit to get overseas and help his country. What is he getting in return for that service?  A stretch in the cooler.
   Maybe it is  true that James Minker was AWOL, but where was he was away?  Was he home visiting?  no, hew was with a combat unit on a foreign battlefield.  I do not know to what parachute unit James Minker was attached, I do know this much.  If he was with the same airborne unit that I was, and landed across the Rhine, I have first hand knowledge of just what he went through.
   Getting back to the AWOL, What about the guys who jumped the boat just before it left Boston?  What about all the fellows who went AWOL on this side and then transferred from a combat unit before it left for overseas?  Can James Minker be classed with these men?
   If he can, then I have lost a lot of respect for the Army.  In my opinion, James Minker should be reinstated to military service and then discharged as an honorable veteran of World War II.

JOHN A. COLEMAN

(Former member of 17th and 82nd air- borne divisions.
Munnsville.

   James Minker's 2-year sentence was reduced last week to six months.  It will be reviewed again in Washington. --- Editor