Nation: Case of the Fallen Star

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Caught in a Pentagon crossfire, a general resigns

He led his troops into combat in Korea and Viet Nam with such gallantry that he was twice awarded the Silver Star, the nation's third highest combat medal. He moved easily from battlefield to classroom, from Pentagon desk to international command, gathering ribbons and rank along the way and, last year, becoming the youngest four-star general in the Army. Then, last spring, Sam Sims Walker became trapped in a bureaucratic Pentagon crossfire, and last week he resigned from the Army after more than 32 years of service—at the same time bringing into the open a battle between generals and the Army's highest ranking civilians.

It was the end of the only life Sam Walker had ever known. Born at West Point, he was the son of General Walton H. ("Bulldog") Walker, who fought across Europe under George Patton and died in a 1950 jeep accident while commanding the Eighth Army in Korea. Sam Walker became an expert infantryman, master parachutist, and even learned to pilot a helicopter.

Fourteen months ago, Walker was given his fourth star and his toughest assignment: commander of NATO's land-based forces in southeastern Europe, with headquarters at Izmir, Turkey. This command used to have 600,000 troops, but the Greeks pulled out their 150,000-man contingent after Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974. Walker thus found himself in the unenviable role of being an American general leading a Turkish army on Turkish soil at a time when the U.S. Congress was punishing Turkey with an arms embargo.

Walker knew that a Turkish general would soon replace him. "I supported it," he told TIME Pentagon Correspondent Don Sider last week. "I thought the Turks were right to want one of their own people in the job." In February, Walker received an "eyes only" message from an old friend, Army Chief of Staff General Bernard W. Rogers. The communication assured him that Rogers was working to line up another "four-star slot" for him and implied that there would be no problem in finding one.

In May, about a month before Walker was scheduled to leave Turkey, he received another "eyes only" message. In it, Rogers confessed that he had "struck out." There would be no new four-star billet for Walker. He could take a demotion and an assignment as a lieutenant general. Or he could retire. All three-and four-star generals hold temporary rank and are subject to losing as many as two stars if suitable assignments cannot be found for them. It is a rare reality of military life, not one likely to happen to a Sam Walker.

Walker flew home and spent 30 minutes face to face with Rogers, seeking an explanation. But Rogers had none. "He said I'd done a great job over there in Turkey, but there weren't enough four-star slots," Walker recalls. He then appealed his case directly to Army Secretary Clifford Alexander Jr., who makes the final decisions on reassigning generals: "I asked him why. He wouldn't answer. Finally he said, 'I'll let you know.' Later he sent a colonel to tell me he had not changed his mind."