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�ASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 1, 1985
PAGE 13
tian warlord John Carter and Harold Bell Wright's "That Printer
of Udell's," in which the hero rises from printer to successful
businessman to member of Congress through hard work and Christian
principles. Recalling his childhood reading when he was 66 years
old, Reagan said, "There were heroes who lived by standards of
morality and fair play."•••
Reagan tried his hand at some heroic behavior of his own early
on. Beginning at age 15, he worked seven summers as a lifeguard
at a city park on the Rock River and claims to have rescued 77
people from possible drowning••••
Reagan, who began his acting career in high school, played a vil
lain in his second production, a play called "Captain Applejack,"
and said, "I learned that heroes are more fun." He never played
an unsympathetic character on film until his last theatrical mov
ie, "The Killers," in which he portrayed a mobster. He has said
many times that accepting the role was a mistake.
During World War II, Reagan's exploits were confined to a movie
lot, making morale and training films for the armed services. "A
great many people to this day," he wrote in 1965, "harbor a feel
ing that the personnel of the motion picture unit were somehow
draft dodgers avoiding danger. The Army doesn't play that way."
Reagan was classified "limited service" because of poor eyesight
and said that he and others in the film units contributed to the
war effort by making films that, among other things, cut the
training time for aerial gunners by six weeks••••
As president, Reagan's penchant for heroes became evident in his
first inaugural address on Jan. 20, 1981, when he told the story
of Martin Treptow, a.small-town barber who joined the Rainbow Di
vision in World War I and was killed after writing in his diary
that he would "do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle
depended on me alone."•••
On Sept. 10, 1981, the president paid posthumous tribute to Gen.
Douglas MacArthur in a Pentagon ceremony, calling the Pacific
commander in World War II a "front-line general•.•a wise states
man•••an authentic American hero." The very next day, Reagan
presented medals to seven young people selected by the Justice
Department for outstanding acts of bravery or service to others.
Some of them had performed the deeds as long before as 1975 or
1976, but had not received the medals because former President
Jimmy Cart�had not continued the practice of presenting them,
although the program had been going on since 1950.
Another indication of the remarkable contrasts between Mr. Reagan and Mr.
Carter was the difference between the boundless, almost magnetic optimism
exuded by the President during his most recent State of the Union address,
and the nationwide telecast, about five years ago, by Mr. Carter, in which
he bemoaned what he perceived to be a spreading "national malaise."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau