EIGHTH ARMY'S NEW COMMANDER

Name and Rank: James Alward Van Fleet, lieutenant general, U.S. Army.

Born: March 19, 1892, at Coytesville, N.J. His father, William, took the family homesteading to Florida a year later, became first president of the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railway.

Appearance: Big-boned and muscular (6 ft.1 in., 190 tbs.), blue-eyed, with greying, close-cropped hair.

Education: High school at Summerlin Institute, Bartow, Fla.; West Point, Class 1915. Played halfback on the Army varsity in his senior year. Ranked 92nd among 164 graduates. Among his classmates: Dwight Eisenhower (ranked 61) and Omar Bradley (ranked 44).

World War I: Commanded 17th Machine Gun Battalion 6th Division, on the Meuse-Argonne front. Wounded seven days before the war's end. After the war, served at Fort Benning and the Canal Zone, instructed R.O.T.C. students at University of Florida.

World War II: Between 1941 and 1944, while some of his West Point classmates were winning general's stars, Colonel Van Fleet trained the 8th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Division; on Dday, one of the Army s older combat colonels he led his regiment to the landing on Utah Beach in Normandy. For Colonel Van Fleet, battle was the true test. Within seven months he was a major general, commander first of the 4th, then the 90th Divisions. He fought the 90th across the flooded Moselle against heavy German counterattacks. By March 1945, he was commander of the III Corps and spearheading the First Army's advance into Germany. Eisenhower called Van Fleet's battle record the best "of any regimental, divisional or corps commander we produced."

Postwar: Commanded the Joint U.S. Military Advisory and Planning Group in Greece from February 1948 to July 1950. Helped the Greeks win what he called "a first-class war against international Communism. Hampered by a bad political situation and a tight budget, he promoted a Greek army training program, a shake-up in the army command, a revamped strategy. Under his direction, hard-hitting, mobile Greek columns finally destroyed a tough Commumist guerrilla army.

Private Life: Quiet, inclined to be aloof, a teetotaler and a man of plain tastes who shuns all but the quietest social engagements. Likes hunting and fishing, married 35 years to former Helen Hazel Moore. They have three grown children all service folk: two daughters who are married to Army lieutenant colonels and a West Pointer son, James Jr., who is an Air Force lieutenant.

Qualifications: A rugged combat soldier and crack commander who has thrice been wounded, won three DSCs, three Silver Stars, three Bronze Stars, plus the general officer's uniform medal: the DSM. Showed ability in Greece at adapting himself to a Communist brand of guerrilla warfare that is not normally found in U S Army field manuals. No seasoned politician, no maker of phrases, but tactful and firm in dealings with foreign allies.

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