Mar. 21, 1962 - President Kennedy (pictured aboard the PT-109 in the South Pacific in 1943) commiserated today with impatient Reservists who were mobilized in the Berlin crisis last fall and now are clamoring to be released. “There is always inequity in life,” the President observed philosophically at his news conference. Some Reservists, he noted, had been called back to active duty even after apparently fulfilling their military obligations, while others continued a “normal life.” The Reservists, he said, will be released at “the first possible date consistent with our national security.” The President indicated that this might be in August. After stressing the continued importance of keeping the Reservists on duty, the President went on: “There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war, and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic, and some are stationed in San Francisco. It’s very hard in military or personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.”
