You might expect a professional soldier to start a book like this with a long blast on the importance of military customs and traditions. I will refrain. Not because I don't feel strongly about it, but because the effort would probably be wasted.

I would like to point out, however, that this field has been neglected in our country. To my knowledge, this is the first attempt in America to deal with the entire subject in a single book. While I make no excuses, I know I have rushed in where the real authorities apparently have feared to tread.

This is a small book not because the material is limited (there is a two-volume work on uniform buttons alone!), but because I want it to appeal to the general reader. My problem was not in finding things to put in this book, but in deciding what to leave out.

When some real military scholar gets around to giving the subject the definitive treatment it deserves, I will be the first to applaud. In the meantime—and we have already waited a century and a half—Military Customs and Traditions is for the civilian as well as the person in uniform. Out of consideration for the reader whose interest is more than casual, I have tried to cite references and authorities, but not at the expense of readability.

I would be grateful for suggestions, material and "leads" into the field of military Americana. Mail will always reach me at this address.

M. M. B.

PENRITH PLANTATION
JACKSON, LOUISIANA
March, 1956