US Edition 
Joe DiMaggio made a poor soldier, military records show
Joe DiMaggio was celebrated as one of baseball's biggest stars and the one-time husband of Marilyn Monroe but he made a very poor soldier, newly-revealed military records show.
US army records obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request portray the sports hero as deeply selfish and desperate to obtain a discharge despite the fact that the USA was at war.
The New York Yankees player served for two and a half years in the US army, enlisting in February 1943.
He never saw combat or even service abroad, but instead had a comfortable and safe job, much of it spent in California and Hawaii, as a physical education instructor in the army's special services division.
However, two separate reports written by officers from the medical corps shortly before DiMaggio's discharge in September,1945, suggest that even his special treatment was not good enough for him.
He showed a "defective attitude towards the service" and "conscious attitude of hostility and resistance" to his army duties, said Maj Emile Stoloff and Maj William Barrett in their reports, published on the website thesmokinggun.com.
DiMaggio, 30 at the time of his discharge and having just gone through a divorce, struck the officers as someone whose "personal problems appeared to be of more consequence to him than his obligations to adjust to the demands of the service".
He shirked duties by feigning illness, the documents said. Staff Sgt DiMaggio was regularly hospitalised for dubious health problems.
He frequently complained about an ulcer – claiming that, along with a "nervous condition", it justified his discharge - but Maj Stoloff noted there was "no evidence" to support this "alleged history".
The baseball star also resented what he saw as the military's "exploitation" of his fame by making him play on army baseball teams.
After trying in vain to understand during a psychiatric review DiMaggio's aversion to army baseball, Maj Stoloff concluded he could still be of use to the military so long as he was not asked to play, sign autographs or do interviews.
However, he was discharged a few months later.