You don't hear a whole lot about Gen James Van Fleet. When you study WWII general officers you hear mostly about Marshal, Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, and MacArthur. But Patton called Van Fleet one of the top combat commanders of the war. Van Fleet graduated in the same class as most of these generals. I agree with the author of this book who points out that Van Fleet never wrote his autobiography and no one else wrote a book on him and as a result his name just didn't get the press that the other generals got. He walked his own path to greatness but is overshadowed in history by better publicized leaders.

Before the war Van Fleet worked with the ROTC program in FL and coached the Gator football team for two years. Creating the best winning team record in Gator history. He was a great motivator and really believed in only asking people under his command to do things he would be willing to do. His whole career he would literally get down in the dirt and show soldiers how to best use their guns. He made a point to familiarize himself with every weapon in the soldiers arsenal.

Van Fleet commanded forces who landed on D-Day guiding them to capture their objectives. Theodore Roosevelt's son, Teddy Jr. died in this command during D-Day earning the Medal of Honor.

Van Fleet was so successful he was pulled aside and given the Texas Oklahoma (Tough Ombres or T.O. they called themselves) to command. They were suffering from poor leadership and higher command was not certain that they could be depended on in battle. Van Fleet brought his brand of optimism into the situation. Be showed them he believed in them and they responded by winning repeatedly against difficult odds as they pushed all the way into German.

After WWII Gen Marshal sent Van Fleet to help Greece fight off the communist invasion of their country. Van Fleet became friends with the King and Queen of Greece and got busy training the poorly trained Greek troops. Their officer ranks were poor and he had a lot of commanders relieved for poor performance and failure to be aggressive in battle. After several years of effort and work to equip the Greek army with the effective equipment and better training the Greek army defeated the communist forces and drove them out of their country. Americans trained and observed but Van Fleet felt it was up to Greece to win or lose in their country. Only one American under Van Fleet's died in combat there. To the Greeks he was a hero. They erected statues and awarded him high honors in thanks.

He was brought back to the US and placed in command of the 2nd Army (IIRC) until MacArthur was fired in Korea. Marshal and president Truman reviewed Fleet's record of motivating troops and winning and sent him to take charge of the ground forces in Korea. Which he did and was the guiding hand thru a great bit of combat over there becoming friends with Korean president Rhee at the same time. He carried his opinions about helping people fight their own battles with him and encouraged the Korean army to improve their training. He was a driving force behind creating the Korean version of West Point so they had a plan on how to educate their officers.

Van Fleet was a combat commander. He was not a politician. He only spent a little amount of time at the Pentagon as he was getting ready to retire. He made our Army better and the world a better place thru his leadership to victory abilities. He should not be forgotten. ( )