World: An Unusual General

He seemed an unlikely sort of man to be a combat general. Dour, shy, peering at the world through sedate, rimless glasses, he looked more like a college president or a banker. His voice was soft, his language reserved. A small measure of the man was his constant companion, a big, silver German shepherd named King, who had been sent to Viet Nam as a sentry dog but had proved too tame for the task.

Major General Keith L. Ware's military career began when he was drafted in 1941. He soon proved that he had few peers in battle. During the allied counteroffensive in France at the time of the Battle of the Bulge, Ware, then a lieutenant colonel, assembled a small squad of men and personally led the attack on a German fortification that had held up his battalion's advance. For that act he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for gallantry.

In Viet Nam, Ware played a similar role on a larger scale. Not long after he arrived in Saigon, the Communists unleashed their Tet offensive. Within seven hours after its onset, Ware had organized a pick-up force of some nine infantry battalions and assorted other units and led them into positions around Saigon, where they disrupted enemy supply and reinforcement units and killed Communists retreating from the city.

A short time later, Ware was given one of the Army's most coveted combat assignments: the command of the famed 1st Infantry Division. A shrewd and sure tactician, he improved the Big Red One's ability to fight at night and to pursue the enemy in running battles. Just such a running skirmish erupted last week when a Big Red One brigade met the Viet Cong near the town of Loc Ninh, 75 miles north of Saigon. Ware, who made it a practice to be with his troops in combat, rushed to the battle in his helicopter. As it flew across the battle area, Ware's helicopter suddenly caught fire and crashed, most likely brought down by enemy ground fire. At 52, Ware became the fourth U.S. general to die in combat in Viet Nam.* Three of his staff and the four helicopter crewmen died with him.