Evening star., 1944-09-04
Gen. 1ompkins Drafts
Plan 10 DemobiIize
Greatest u. 5. Army
Ry the Associated Press.

~ the AsSoetAteo FreSS.
The man who is directing prep
aration of plans to demobilize Amer
ica's greatest citizen.soldier Army is
q professional soldier.
Brig. Gen. William F. Tompkins
was graduated from West Point in
1915 and served with Gen. Pershing
during the punitive expedition into
Mexico Q9l6-17) and with the First
French Army during the last war.
He received the Purple Heart dec
grafton with the AEF.
Gen. Tompkins is an engineer,
but in 20 years of service has had a
whack at about every job there is
in a military career. He has been
what the Army calls a 'farmed out"
of1icer all his Army life He is 81.
He wanted to be soldier from the
time he could hold up one end of
. toy gun.
Named by Chance.
He really became serious about 1t
at West Point, where II was very
proper cadet. I had made up
my mind I was going to graduate"
He recalls that it was by very
narrow squeak that he was there
anyhow. He went as alternate for
a propular cadet fired out for over
enthusiastic hazing.
The generals youthful imagina-
ton stirred to stories of his profess
sional soldier grandfather, Capt
Christopher @. Tompkins 1ater
Confederate coloneD who fought in
the Seminole War and sailed
around the Horn to fight Indians in
far off California.
Grandpa, by the way, objected TO
his own sons choosing military
career because the professional SOL
dier could have no close family life.
Gen. Tompkins' father, private in
the Confederate armies, settled
down as a physician in Richmond.
Soft Voiced Virginian.
The general is a long, lean, Ian
tern jawed Virginia - soft = voiced,
smiling-the sort of officer you
imagine the CT in his foxhole
calls Good joe" He is the deci-
sive rather than studiouS type. He
moves fast, nervous and energetic,
and puts hard executive push to
business when he's in a hurry. Still
he has a fine facility for getting
along with people even in hair
trigger situations, and there have
been plenty of them in planning
demobolization.
1t is unique job, in that there
never has been anything of similar
magnitude in United States Army
annals. Too, it was an unusual as
signment for an officer used to is
suing directive. signing his rank
and getting results.
Gen. Tompkins has had to con-
slider a maze of sometimes ponder
GUS opinions; coordinate military
and administrative policy, wishes of
Congress, industry, labor-wishes
of parents and soldiers themselves;
planning all the while to muster out
as many boys as could be returned
to civilian life and still keep the
Army strong enough to wind up the
war with Japan after defeat of Ger
many.
Discussions With Navy.
The general discussed Army de-
mobilization with Navy officers, cor
relating his decisions with their
policy-which can not take definite
form until after the battle of the
Pacific is won. He conferred with
officers of Allied countries similarly
engaged in planning how to muster
out great armies.
The rehabilitation problem is
about so per cent military and so
per cent industrial.
This was the generals first en-
counter with such tensely involved
matters of national policy and mill
tary eXpediency. The chief Of staff,
Gen. George C. Marshall, saw the
need of preparedness more than
year ago He selected Gen. Tomp-
kins for the hot spot on advice of
1t. Gen. Brehon Somervell, who
first set up the business in his Army
Service Forces command. 1t was
made a general staff job.