Change of Stars

Once before--it was about the time he had pinned the third star on his shoulder --he had packed his kit. But the misfortunes of war sent him back to his old job. Last week Lieut. General Alexander Archer Vandegrift of Guadalcanal and Bougainville packed up again. This time he was really on his way. Where that way would take him is still a Marine secret. His successor as commander of the South Pacific's Marines: Major General Roy S. Geiger.

Thickset, poker-faced, chilly-eyed General Geiger is another Marine's Marine. He joined up in 1907 as a private, was a second lieutenant in 15 months. He won his first Navy Cross for service in France in World War I, his second (Gold Star) for his work as commander of all aviation units on Guadalcanal in the hot time from September to November 1942. In those 63 days, his command shot down 286 Jap planes, sank six enemy ships, including a heavy cruiser.

Professionally, Roy Geiger is one of the best qualified officers in all three services for the kind of command he now holds. A veteran pilot (since 1916) he is especially tops with aviators, still flies his own plane.

One day on Guadal, when some of the airmen were griping about the holes in the runway, Geiger walked down to an SBD (Douglas dive-bomber) spotted on the apron, climbed in. Without a single escorting fighter, the Old Man took the SBD off the flight strip, flew north to a village where the Japs were headquartered, dropped his 1,000-pounder, went home. His pilots got the idea.

On another occasion, the General was asked to loan his personal Catalina flying boat to help PT boats flush a covey of Jap ships. Geiger first refused ("Got it filled full of holes the last time you fellows flew around out there"), finally gave in. But there was a string attached. He insisted on going along as copilot.

Beyond this flair for cold-blooded fire-eating, Roy Geiger is a thoughtful soldier and one of the Marines' most carefully educated officers, with courses behind him in the Army and Navy war colleges, the Army's Command and General Staff School. Like airmen, groundling Marines have long since decided that he is a handy man to have around.

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