Army & Navy: No Cause for Action

Bob Patterson made his first explosive announcement since becoming Secretary of War (TIME, Oct. 1). He had completed a personal investigation of 57-year-old Colonel Theodore Wyman Jr., the Army’s district engineer in Hawaii at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, and found him a fit officer and gentleman.

In a hitherto suppressed portion of the Army Pearl Harbor Board report, Regular Army officer Wyman and his great & good friend Hans Wilhelm Rohl, a German-alien contractor, were accused of “. . . a scale of riotous living, drunkenness and both private and public misconduct . . . together.” Rohl, on whose yacht Wyman frequently made what he called “inspection trips,” was awarded many Army contracts in Hawaii in 1940-41, even though he was not always the lowest bidder.

The board also found that Rutgers-educated Colonel Wyman had lied to his superiors about his knowledge of Friend Rohl’s German citizenship, which made Rohl ineligible to handle secret Army contracts. Patterson did not disagree.

That was the record. This was the conclusion of the Secretary of War: “. . . disciplinary action against Colonel Wyman is not justified upon the present record.”

Patterson did not mention the rest of Ted Wyman’s gaudy career. For his “meritorious and distinguished service in Hawaii,” he got the D.S.M. Then he was assigned to the ill-fated Canol Project and the Alcan Highway. At the request of the Canadian Government he was removed. But he stayed on the job in Canada long enough to be officially reprimanded for “failure to enforce safety regulations” after one of his contractors’ trucks exploded, killing eleven men and destroying a third of the town of Dawson Creek, B.C.

Later, while in Europe in charge of the Normandy port of Cherbourg, Colonel Wyman received what the War Secretary described as “… a well-deserved Legion of Merit.” Said Patterson sadly: except for the Army board’s investigation and report, “Colonel Wyman would have received at least one promotion,” to Brigadier General.