Exit Fighter

Of all the witnesses who testified before the Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee on the state of the U.S. defenses, lean, beribboned Lieut. General James Gavin, 50, boss of the Army's Research and Development section, spoke up with the most telling criticisms and the most imaginative recommendations. Paratrooper Gavin declared that the Army could have put up its own Sputnik before the Russians (but was dealt out of the race), complained of what he felt was the continuing downgrading of the Army's mission in modern war, urged that the U.S. head straight past missile development into the no man's land of space-war thinking; e.g., develop a sophisticated satellite for reconnaissance as well as an anti-satellite weapon. Then, rising beyond his passionate service loyalties, Jim Gavin pointed out the weaknesses of the present Joint Chiefs of Staff establishment, said that U.S. defenses would never be satisfactory without some sort of general staff system.

As Gavin paused for breath, Subcommittee Chairman Lyndon Johnson asked him: "Do you anticipate any criticism as a result of your very frank responses to [our] questions?" Replied West Pointer Gavin: "No sir, I do not." Last week, to the surprise of his closest friends, Jim Gavin--often called the most important man in the Army--announced that he will retire in March, after 30 years of service.

Scholar & Spaceman. The logical assumption was that somebody had made it clear to scholarly, impatient Jim Gavin that he had written off his chances of becoming Chief of Staff. Certainly his career-had been headed in that direction. Born in Brooklyn, he climbed steadily up the brass rungs of the Army's ladder since the day in 1929 when he pinned on his shavetail's bars at West Point. General George C. Marshall tagged him as a comer early in World War II. He served with distinction as General Matt Ridgway's deputy commander, jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division on Dday. At 37, succeeding Ridgway as boss of the 82nd, he was the youngest division commander in the U.S. Army.

As the Army's R. & D. chief, Gavin bristled with new ideas that he hoped would put the service into the space business; he got the Nike program into the field, helped the Army keep for a while its continental defense mission. He became the biggest inspiration for the Army's research work in missiles, protected the missilemakers at the Army's Huntsville Arsenal while they developed the Jupiter C without formal Pentagon authorization.

Brilliance & Bluntness. The Army insisted that Gavin's decision to retire was wholly his own. Said Army Secretary Wilber Brucker, who spent 30 minutes trying to dissuade him: "We cannot afford to lose one of our most brilliant officers, one of the most brilliant we ever had." Gavin, who will be eligible for retirement in March, explained with his customary bluntness: "I am getting out, frankly, because I feel I can do more for our country's defense effort out of uniform than in. I have spent 6 1/2 years out of the past nine in the Pentagon, and I haven't been able to do the things I think ought to be done. I have asked, recommended and pleaded with little success."

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