Exit Tooey

At 56, General Carl ("Tooey") Spaatz had a lot to remember. In World War I he had shot down three planes. In 1926, he had been a defense witness at Billy Mitchell's court-martial. In 1929, a major, he had commanded the Question Mark, which established the feasibility of refueling planes in mid-air--and drew some badly needed attention to a badly neglected Air Corps.

In World War II, as commander of the Strategic Air Forces in Europe and later in the Pacific, Tooey Spaatz had led more men in air battle than any man before in history. He had earned Ike Eisenhower's accolade as "the world's greatest air strategist."

As the Army Air Forces' Commanding General, he had fought the good fight for a separate air arm. When the fight was won, he had become the independent Air Force's first Chief of Staff. Last week, following the earlier example of Hap Arnold, Jimmy Doolittle and others of the little group of pioneer U.S. birdmen, Tooey Spaatz retired.

To replace him, Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington chose Spaatz's second in command, General Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg, 49. A favored nephew of Michigan's influential senior senator, Gen. Vandenberg rates as an able, affable officer, long on administrative ability, short on personal force.

After a poor start (he graduated close to the bottom of the West Point class of 1923), Vandenberg had forged a brilliant career. He was commander of the Ninth Air Force in World War II, head of Army's G-2 and later Director of Central Intelligence for all the armed forces. He was Deputy Commander of the A.A.F. before he succeeded Ira Eaker as Spaatz's vice chief of staff.

Tall, lithe and handsome, he is the airman's idea of what an airman should look like, but some airmen felt that his lack of assertiveness was likely to handicap him in interservice arguments with the Navy and the Army.

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