Service gave Vonnegut his start -- and lots of good material: Paltry pay 'worth it' for famed novelist, then a grad student

The City News wire service is often referred to as a boot camp forjournalists.

On Thursday, one of its most decorated foot soldiers sounded offon its impending demise.

"That's sad," novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. said when told of theChicago Tribune's plan to shut City News down at year's end. "It wassomething to be proud of -- like being in the infantry."

". . . I learned how to be a tough guy [there]," Vonnegut, 83,said. "You know, it's something to boast about. And it won't meananything anymore, I guess, except to a few old-timers."

Vonnegut was fresh out of the U.S. Army, having been freed from aGerman POW camp, when he took a job at the original …