National Affairs: TOP MAN OF THE MARINES

Nominated by President Truman to be Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps: Lieut. General Lemuel Cornick Shepherd Jr.

Born: February 10, 1896, in Norfolk, Va., only son (two sisters) of Lemuel C. Shepherd, a physician. His mother was Emma Lucretia Cartwright of Nantucket.

Education: Public schools in Norfolk; Virginia Military Institute.

Family: Married Dec. 30, 1922 to Virginia Tunstall Driver, a strikingly handsome woman. Three children: two sons, Lemuel III, 26, and Wilson, 23, both Marine lieutenants, and both married this year to naval officers’ daughters. One daughter, Virginia, 22, also married this year, to a Marine captain her father’s aide.

Appearance: Brawny (5 ft. 9 in., about 1601bs.), hard-eyed, balding, a trim, athletic, professional soldier.

Tastes: Rolls his own cigarettes, likes bourbon (two drinks), underwater spear fishing, fox-hunting and polo.

Early Career: Made up his mind to be a soldier when he was in short pants. Graduated from V.M.I, a 2nd lieutenant in 1917, led a platoon, then a company of the 5th Marines at Belleau Wood and St. Mihiel, came out with three wounds and a reputation for tenacity and courage (D.S.C., Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, Croix de Guerre). Returned from occupation duty in 1919 marked out for command, put in the standard series of tours prescribed for rising young officers: aide to the commandant, to President Harding, sea duty, foreign duty (China and Haiti), staff schools, C.O. of the President’s guard at Warm Springs, Ga.

World War II: Was a hard combat leader in the South Pacific. As a colonel training the 9th Regiment, he kept up a relentless pace (often 18 hours a day); his insistence on perfection earned him the nickname, “Combat Ready.” Every new marine got a talk from the C.O. Subjects: duty, selfdiscipline, religion (he is a devout Episcopalian). Became a brigadier general in 1943, then led the Cape Gloucester operation at New Britain. On Guam, his ist Provisional Marine Brigade led one of the beachhead assaults; on Okinawa, Major General Shepherd led his 6th Marine Division to its objective early, wheeled, and lent a much-needed hand in the bitter street fighting for Naha, the capital city. In World War II he picked up two D.S.M.s, two Legions of Merit and a fourth Purple Heart. Postwar: Spent four years as C.O., first at the Amphibious Training School at Little Creek, Va., then at the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico, Va. In 1947 was called to Washington, in line for the job of Commandant with his friend, Clifton Gates. Gates, also the possessor of a topflight record, got the four stars on seniority. Shepherd, said the President, would have another crack at it. Shepherd became boss of the Fleet Marine Force in the Pacific in June 1950. Old-line Marine officers consider him a “schools” man, versatile, able, grimly serious, obsessed with combat training. “Life under General Shepherd,” said a Marine officer last week, “is going to be very uncomplicated. All he’s going to stress is combat readiness—today, tomorrow, next year, and four years from now.”