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ARMED FORCES

With his grey hair, horn-rimmed spectacles and stooped shoulders, J. P. (for John Paul) McConnell has a grandfatherly look about him. But there is nothing old-fashioned about McConnell, 56. He is a missile-age airman who can double as a diplomat, and last week he was tapped to succeed General Curtis LeMay, who retires Jan. 31, as U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff.

An Arkansas boy who graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree from his home state's tiny Henderson-Brown College, McConnell went on to West Point and flying school, rose from shavetail to colonel in ten years. During World War II, he was assigned to the Southeast Asia Air Command under Admiral Louis Mountbatten, became Chief of Staff of the Air Force Training Command in the China-Burma-India theater, after the war was senior U.S. air adviser to the Nationalist Chinese government.

McConnell has also served hitches as planning director and later vice commander of the Strategic Air Command, went to Europe in 1962 as deputy to NATO's Commander Lyman Lemnitzer. In that capacity, he was assigned to brief Defense Secretary Robert Mc-Namara during his frequent trips to Europe, and he struck the boss's fancy. Last year McNamara brought McConnell back to the Pentagon as deputy Air Force chief of staff.

In his new job, McConnell can be expected to push for very much the same Air Force projects as LeMay-but do it more diplomatically and, therefore, perhaps more effectively.

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