After Four Years

The training of U.S. troops for World War II had reached its Indian summer.

Now the chief of the Army Ground Forces, shrewd, small Lieut. General Lesley James McNair, could go overseas. Last week the Army announced that he had received his orders.

Riveter. Scottish-blond General McNair has been called by his good friend George C. Marshall "the brains of the Army." In 1918, McNair at 35 was one of the youngest general officers in the AEF. An artilleryman (which is said to account for his partial deafness), "Whitey" McNair was even then preaching closer coordination between all forces. When World War II drew near, it was McNair whom Marshall picked to weld the biggest, most highly specialized fighting team the U.S. ever had.

Few months ago, Whitey McNair, in tribute to the infantry, said: "[Their] guts and brains . . . put the finishing touches--the copper-riveted handiwork--on the craftsmanship of the air forces, the artillery, and the tank corps." Last week it looked as though Whitey McNair was off to do some copper-riveting himself. Best guess: he would command an American army group somewhere in Europe.

Successor. To take McNair's job on the home front came rugged, crusty old (65) Lieut. General Ben Lear. He had held the job before. In 1943 Whitey McNair made such a close-up inspection of U.S. troops in action on the African front that he was hit by German shell fragments, briefly hospitalized.

Ben Lear, a crack training man who was on the point of retirement for age, took over McNair's command in the interim, later took a desk job. Canadian-born Ben Lear came up from the ranks (enlisting in 1898 for the Spanish-American war). As Army-wise as a rolling caisson, Ben Lear would give uncompromising stability to the ground forces command on the home front.

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