Infantry Soldier

Among the thousands of uniformed men striding through the halls of the Pentagon next week will be a tall, balding young Army major reporting for an assignment that promises a significant step upward in his career. The officer: Major John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower,* 35, who is the only child of the 34th President of the U.S. His new assignment: duty on the secrecy-shrouded Joint War Plans Division, in the office of the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations. Says one knowing old Pentagonian: "It's a training ground for people tabbed for bigger things."

Being tucked away in the Pentagon suits Major Eisenhower fine. Without making a fetish of shunning the Presidential limelight, Soldier John has tried hard to shape his own life without fuss or favor. Bigger (178 lbs.) and taller (6 ft. 1 in.) than his father, John has Ike's grin and his parents' blue eyes, the Eisenhower receding hairline. His entire life has been touched by the climactic moments of his father's career as the top Allied commander of World War II, President of Columbia University, head of NATO forces, and finally President of the U.S. Few Presidents' sons have handled themselves so well. Says one Army friend: "Most of us have to fight to get ahead, but John can't throw his weight around, since it might reflect on his father."

Colonel's Daughter. Before World War II, John grew up, like any Army brat, in the long prewar round of the elder Eisenhower's duty assignments--Manila, Ft. Lewis, Wash. He graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma, Wash., took an appointment to West Point (from U.S. Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas). This was John's own decision, as were later choices, e.g., applying for infantry duty; his father counseled but never interfered. A modest, natural "hive" (scholar), he spent much of his time at the Military Academy coaching deficient plebes, graduated 138th in a class of 474 (his father was 61st among 164) on June 6, 1944, the day General Eisenhower sent invasion forces storming ashore at Normandy.

Infantryman Eisenhower was assigned to Stateside training, but first got a month's furlough to serve as aide to his father during the Allied drive across France. After the war, traveling with Ike, John watched parades in Moscow with Stalin, danced with Princess Margaret at Balmoral Castle. Promoted to captain in 1946, he commanded U.S. garrison troops in Austria, in Vienna met, wined and dined and soon married (1947) Barbara Jean Thompson, slim, calm, brunette daughter of an Army colonel.

Assigned to West Point as an English instructor, Scholar John housed his growing family in a tiny walk-up apartment, enrolled at Columbia University (where his father soon became President) to earn his M.A. in English literature. (Thesis: The Soldier as a Character in Elizabethan Drama.) In mid-1952, while his father campaigned for the presidency against Adlai Stevenson, John went off to his first combat in Korea, was assigned to one of Ike's old prewar outfits, the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. As G-3 (Operations) and later as a 3rd Division Intelligence officer for 14 months, John came under Communist mortar fire, earned his Combat Infantryman's Badge and a Bronze Star, won high praise from his superiors. Reported one of them, Colonel Edwin H. Burba: "He's a very competent, long-headed individual with a quick, analytical mind."

Eyes & Noes. In election year 1952, the growing spotlight on the Eisenhowers shone even to Korea. It took John a while to get used to what he called "notoriety." And Eighth Army brass, worrying over the possibility of his capture by the Communists, tried hard to keep his frontline whereabouts a secret. On Election Day, John listened to the returns by radio in his tent. Three months later, John was on hand to see his father inaugurated as President of the U.S.--by special order, at first unknown to Ike, of outgoing Commander-in-Chief Harry Truman.

As President, Dwight Eisenhower has taken his son along as aide on important trips, e.g., the Big Four Conference in Geneva. In July he represented his father at the funeral of Guatemala's assassinated President Castillo Armas (TIME, Aug. 5). Last week he wound up his two-month chores for White House Brigadier General Andrew Goodpaster, the President's staff secretary, sifting the stream of secret reports which daily pour into the White House.

At home John and his family are shielded from sightseers, photographers and reporters under the noes of White House Press Secretary James Hagerty and the eyes of Secret Service men. In their starkly furnished, rented three-bedroom brick house in Alexandria, Va., just ten minutes by car from the Pentagon, John and Barbara Eisenhower live, by deliberate design, a quiet life. With the customary occasional helping hand from the in-laws, they get along on John's Army pay and allowances (monthly total: roughly $670). There are four youngsters to feed and clothe: rambunctious, outgoing David, 9; lively, pigtailed Barbara Anne, 8; Susan Elaine, 6; and Mary Jean, 20 months. David and his sisters play with the neighborhood children, and Barbara gets out and mows the lawn. Says John: "If David gets into a fight the Secret Service men stay out of it."

Both John and Barbara enjoy reading, good conversation, sometimes go dancing with friends at the Army-Navy Country Club. No longer a tennis player, non-Smoker John** plays golf (his father bests him consistently), keeps a 15-ft. powerboat in Chesapeake Bay. Recently, John bought a small converted schoolhouse as a weekend refuge on the southwest edge of the Gettysburg farm, is paying his father for it in small, long-range monthly payments.

Soldier Eisenhower's studious bent recently led him to consider, then turn down, an offer from a big Eastern school to become a teacher--on the offer's own merits, not because the alternative would embarrass his father or the Army. He is determined to make the Army his career. Says he: "I'm an infantry officer one thousand percent."

* Named for his maternal grandfather.

** "Dad figured out that two packs a day would come to something like 30-c- a day, about $75 a year, so he gave me $300 if I wouldn't smoke until after I left West Point. I never have since."

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