ARMED FORCES: Infantry Soldier

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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.