COMMAND: Old Pro

(See Cover)

With sirens wailing, two shiny jeeps with .30-caliber machine guns mounted on their hoods rattled last week along a dusty South Korean road, passing long truck convoys plodding north. Weary G.I. truck drivers were slow at first to give the jeeps the right of way, but after a startled doubletake they pulled over in a hurry. On the fenders of the lead jeep were two small shiny metal flags, one carrying the three stars of a lieutenant general, the other bearing the letters "CG—8." In the lead jeep, his big hand grasping an arm rest, was grim-faced Walton Harris Walker, 60, commanding general of the Far East Command's Eighth Army.

MacArthur's ground commander in Korea bulged a little in his sharply pressed suntans. But from his gleaming three-starred helmet to his shiny low boots, he looked every inch a fighting man, which he was. Few G.I.s who saw him along that road would forget him; most of them were likely to see him again. General Walker is the frontline, show-yourself type of general.

The two jeeps hurried on past the dried river beds and bare hills of inland Korea —country that reminded Walker of his familiar territory of west Texas. Here & there along the road the general stopped. Sometimes he smiled and politely asked enlisted men for information, such as the location of regimental or battalion command posts. Occasionally he turned on his parade-ground voice in a blast of censure. A luckless 1st Cavalry shavetail got it:

"Damn it, lieutenant, don't you know better than to park your jeeps on both sides of the road? You're blocking traffic."

Caught In the Glare. Getting to the front, General Walker made his business short and to the point. On a long, flat stretch of road (used at the moment as an improvised landing strip for liaison planes), he went over the situation with one of his division commanders. Then he started visiting colonels and majors. Sometimes, gesturing at map positions with a stubby forefinger, he made crisp suggestions for trimming lines or improving positions. Sometimes he silently absorbed information, left without a word.

Day after day Walker went back to the front, frequently using airplanes, including grasshopping liaison craft, and always refusing fighter cover. One trip took him to the east coast to inspect the 1st Cavalry's landing area at Pohang (see above). Walker had always been a man to avoid the limelight, a quality which had long endeared him to less modest superiors. Now he was, willy-nilly, caught in the glare of public attention and public concern.