The General's Son

Genial, balding Brigadier General Robert Denig, U.S. Marine Corps public-relations director, walked into a Navy conference in Washington last week, anxiously asked for casualty reports from the U.S. invasion of the Marshalls. Captain Leland Lovette, director of the Navy's BPR, told him no reports were in yet. Said oldtimer Denig, "I'm keeping my fingers crossed."

Soon after, the news came. His son, Captain James L. Denig, Marine tank officer, had been killed in the fighting.

The sons of four other Marine Corps Generals survived the first invasion days in the Marshalls. They were: Lieut. Colonel A. A. Vandegrift Jr., son of the new Marine commandant; Major Richard K. Schmidt, son of Major General Harry Schmidt, commander of the Fourth Marine Division which spearheaded the northern arm of the invasion; Lieut. Joseph C. Fegan Jr., artillery officer and son of Major General Fegan, commanding officer of Camp Joseph H. Pendleton, Oceanside, Calif.; and Lieut. David A. Brewster, infantry, son of Brigadier General David L. S. Brewster, now on Pacific duty.

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