General's Choice

As chief of the U.S. Army Ground Forces, Lieut. General Lesley James McNair had whipped millions of civilians into the greatest Army in the nation's history. A skeptical, gently dour little professional, "Whitey" McNair had done it without raising his voice, and with rare recourse to his considerable vocabulary of caustic profanity.

One of the youngest of U.S. generals (temporary) in World War I, a devoted student of his vocation in the frustrating days of peace and military parsimony, he had won his permanent brigadier's star by 1937. He had also won recognition as one of the Army's best officers.

George Marshall, Chief of Staff, knew just the man for the vital job of directing troop training. "Whitey" McNair, who had dreamed of leading troops afield once again before he retired, became a schoolmaster. He broke sharply with easygoing tradition, trained troops under live fire at home, pounded endlessly at the basics of combat training--physical conditioning, tight discipline, painstaking reconnaissance, good shooting.

"Whitey" McNair was 58 when war came, but he was slim and fit and his mind was as flexible as a youngster's. Marshall called him "the brains of the Army." There was no new trick in war, whether British, German, Russian or improvised American that he was not ready to try, and to use if it were proved.

Fifteen months ago, West Pointer McNair got away from his desk for a while, went to Tunisia to see his pupils perform in battle. It was a brief and unlucky experience: in his first day under fire he was wounded. He came home with his arm in a sling and went back to work.

In mid-July, the War Department announced that "Whitey" McNair was no longer in his old place. In recognition of a job superbly done, he had been sent overseas to combat duty. Last week from the Normandy battlefield came the end of the story. "Whitey" McNair had been killed in action.

Said General Marshall sorrowfully:

"Had he had the choice he would probably have elected to die as he did, in the forefront of the attack."

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