Sultan of the Guard

Last week there was a small but hopeful sign that the U.S. Army might be on the way to getting tough--tough enough to face modern military competition. Major General Daniel Isom Sultan was ordered to command of the 38th (National Guard) Division at Camp Shelby, Miss. He was the first Regular Army officer in this emergency to replace the National Guard commander of a Guard division. He will not be the last. Of the 17 National Guard divisions which went to France with the A.E.F., only one (the 27th) had its original commander (Major General John F. O'Ryan) at the war's end. The others, along with many a Regular Army commander, had been axed by General John J. Pershing. At the slightest sign of fault or bobble, he broke offending officers, replaced them without mercy or delay. He was hard, but so are the requirements of war, for bad generals mean lost battles and lost lines.

Retired and 80 though he is, "Black Jack" Pershing still has his hand on the U.S. Army. "Pershing men" who survived service with him in the Philippines, on the Texas border, in World War I, have shared largely in recent promotions, have many a key staff or command assignment. One of them is Major General James L. Collins, the new commander of the Puerto Rican Department (see p. 20). Another: General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff. But so far, officers of the new U.S. Army have not been subjected to the rigorous Pershing standards of World War I.

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