The Children's Echelon
“The Children’s Echelon” is an unpublished work of short fiction by J. D. Salinger written in 1944 when the author was serving in combat during World War II. The work was referred to as both “The Children’s Echelon” and “Total War Diary” in Salinger’s professional correspondence. It can be located in the Firestone Library in Princeton University. Summary The story is in the form of eleven diary entries by Bernice Herndon with the first entry on January 12, her 18th birthday, and the last on March 25 of the same but unspecified year. With the war escalating in the background, Bernice changes her opinion about almost everything she mentions - her friends, family, and the war. In one entry, Bernice, like Holden Caulfield, mentions that she loved to watch children at the merry-go-round. (Bernice recalls the time at the carousel when "one darling little boy in a navy blue suit and beanie...nearly fell off the horse once and I nearly screamed.") Background Salinger struggled to write “The Children’s Echelon.” while he was stationed in England with the 12th Infantry Regiment during preparations for the D-Day invasions. Alternating between a first-person and third-person narratives while writing the work, Salinger had grave