Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-22
By ROBERT MYERS
Associated Press STAFF Writer

PEARL HARBOR. The two
problems in Admiral Harry Dom
aid Felt's life are communism and
the name Harry.
He long ago gave up fighting
the second, but he bristles visibly
whenever acquaintance use his
given first name. Friends know
better. They call him Don.
Admiral Felt became Com
mander- in Chief of United States
forces in the Pacific to escape a
desk-bound career at the Penta-
gon.
His job covers lot of territory,
IS million square miles of water
and land from Pakistan to Peru
and the North to South Poles
nearly half the earth. His Pacific
command directs virtually all
United States military forces west
Of the Continental United States.
The forces include more than
100000 men drawn from all fight
ing services, half the fighting
ships of the Navy and a stable
slice Of Americas air power.
A military leader these days
deals with politics as well as war
strategy. The Communists begin
their territorial expansions by po-
litical subversion and infiltration.
Admiral Felt must be-and is
attuned TO strings of Red agi-
tators as they begin moving on
a country.
Communism is easier to stop in
these early phases, he emphasizes.
The military phase comes later.
SEATo and ANUS
The admiral wears a politicians
hat as adviser to the Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization
(SEATO) and the Australia, New
Zealand. United States defense
pact (ANZUS). He also helps de-
fine defense policies in Japan,
Korea, Okinawa, Formosa, the
Philippines and the MARSHALL
BONN Islands.
Don Felt is known throughout
the Navy as q thorough and seri-
Gus officer and a hard taskmaster
over himself and his subordinates.
He is intolerant of incompe-
tence.
This guy" said an aide, will
sit still for a lot of stuff. But if
a man can't do his job, Felt won't
waste any time getting rid of
him."
He has a temper which gets
out of hand occasionally, but the
anger never lasts long. Often he
has reprimanded an officer and
an hour later called him back to
his office to compliment some
good work.
A man Of boundless energy, the
admiral works seven days a week
and expects his staff to do the
same.
Phone on the Beach
You'd think he never heard of
Christmas or any other holiday,
the hours he puts in," a staff
assistant said.
His evenings he spends at home
when he usually working.
His idea Of relaxation is an oc-
casional afternoon at a lagoon
near Pearl Harbor. He takes with
him a briefcase and a Navy yoe-
man with plug-in telephone.
Hell no, the yeoman doesn't
swim with that phone" the ad-
miral said jokingly, but by the
time the phone rings a third time,
I'm there"
Don Felt is enough of an indi-
vidual not to be bound unswerv-
ingly by naval tradition. Excerpts
from some Of his messages help
reveal this.
Once he turned down an allot-
ment of a new type boot for Army
troops. His message to the Pen
tagon said:
THE pitch is that what was
good enough for grandpa is good
enough for sonny boy"
Stroin Doesn't Show
The pace doesn't show on the
Pacific boss. He looks closer to
so than the so years he just
passed. He has kept most of his
chestnut brown hair, although
the gray flecks have begun to
appear at the temples and at the
receded hair line. He uses glasses
only for reading fine print.
Born in Topeka, Kans., June 81,
1902, he had boyhood more out
of Tom Sawyer than Horatio
Alger. He was a scrappy kid and
he grew up to become a scrappy
admiral.
His family moved to Washing
ton when he was 10 and his youth
was distinguished by the sort of
'Peck's bad boy" troubles that
never become a part Of an Of
fetal biography. Nothing serious,
but full of mischief.