Mr. Smith Goes to Town

Without benefit of Hollywood, a tall (6 ft. 3 in.), drawling Princetonian ('32), once one of the most familiar characters in the U.S., last week found his finest recognition--as a crack U.S. fighting man. In England, 34-year-old Brigadier General Edward J. Timberlake Jr., commander of a B-24 combat wing, announced the appointment of 36-year-old Lieut. Colonel James Stewart as his chief of staff. Ted Timberlake, one of the Air Forces' greatest tacticians and red tape cutters, picks men for ability, not for public prestige.

Pennsylvania-born Jimmy Stewart had a conservative education, blossomed after college into unconservative fame as a nice-looking, homey cinema hero. His longtime hobby was aviation. When he entered the Army in March 1941 (one of the first screenmen to do so), he was already a licensed commercial pilot.

Commissioned in the Air Forces, Jimmy Stewart spent the first two years of the war quietly, became a bomber-pilot instructor, occasionally and unostentatiously visited Hollywood. In the fall of 1943, as commander of a B-24 squadron, he arrived in England. He led his outfit on 14 missions over Europe in a bomber named "Nine Yanks and a Jerk," was several times decorated, promoted. Finally, because Jimmy Stewart had administrative brains, he was made operations officer of a bomber group. From there it was only one more step to the top spot on Ted Timberlake's staff.

Protected by the Army from publicity, serious-minded Colonel Stewart has also protected himself, staying at his base, avoiding interferences, parties, newspaper men. Cinema fans would have to wait until war's end to hear anything but military comment on the swiftly rising career of James Stewart.

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