Lucian Truscott Lucian King Truscott , Jr . ( January 9 , 1895 – September 12 , 1965 ) was a U . S . Army General , who successively commanded the 3rd Infantry Division , VI Corps , Fifteenth United States Army and Fifth United States Army during World War II . Early life . Truscott was born in Chatfield , Texas , to an English father and Irish mother , and joined the Army in 1917 . After officer training , he was commissioned a second lieutenant of cavalry and served in various cavalry and staff assignments between World War I and World War II . He married Sarah " Chick " Nicholas Randolph , a descendent of Thomas Jefferson , on 27 March 1919 . World War II . In 1942 , then - Colonel Truscott was instrumental in developing an American commando unit patterned after the British Commando units . The American unit was activated by newly promoted Brigadier General Truscott on June 19 , 1942 as the 1st Ranger Battalion , and placed under the command of William Orlando Darby . On November 8 , 1942 , as a major general , he led the 9 , 000 men of the 60th Infantry Regiment and 66th Armored Regiment in the landings at Mehdia and Port Lyautey in Morocco , part of Operation Torch under General George S . Patton . 3rd Infantry Division . Truscott took command of the 3rd Infantry Division in April 1943 , and oversaw preparations for the invasion of Sicily , Operation Husky . He was known as a very tough trainer , bringing the 3rd Infantry Division up to a very high standard . He led the division in the assault on Sicily in July 1943 . Here his training paid off when the division covered great distances in the mountainous terrain at high speed . The famous ' Truscott Trot ' was a marching pace of five miles per hour over the first mile , thence four miles per hour , much faster than the usual standard of 2 . 5 miles per hour . The 3rd Infantry Division was considered by many the best - trained , best - led division in the Seventh Army . In mid - September 1943 , nine days after the initial Allied landings , he led the division ashore at Salerno on the Italian mainland , where it fought its way up the peninsula . VI Corps . In January 1944 , the division assaulted Anzio as part of the U . S . VI Corps . Allied forces soon became mired on the beachhead , and Truscott was given command of VI Corps , replacing the initial commander , Lieutenant General John P . Lucas , who had proved to be indecisive during the battle . Truscott was succeeded in command of 3rd Infantry Division by Major General John " Iron Mike " O ' Daniel . Following Anzio , Truscott continued to command VI Corps through the fighting up the Italian boot . However , his command was then withdrawn from the line to prepare for Operation Dragoon , the amphibious assault on southern France . On 15 August 1944 , the VI Corps landed in southern France and initially faced relatively little opposition . The rapid retreat of the German Nineteenth Army resulted in swift gains for the Allied forces and the " Dragoon " force met up with southern thrusts from Operation Overlord in mid - September , near Dijon . A planned benefit of " Dragoon " was the usefulness of the port of Marseille . The rapid Allied advance after Operation Cobra and " Dragoon " slowed almost to a halt in September 1944 due to a critical lack of supplies , as thousands of tons of supplies were shunted to northwest France to compensate for the inadequacies of port facilities and land transport in northern Europe . Marseille and the southern French railways were brought back into service despite heavy damage to the port of Marseille and its railroad trunk lines . They became a significant supply route for the Allied advance into Germany , providing about a third of the Allied needs . On 2 September 1944 , Truscott was promoted to lieutenant general ( 3 - stars ) and in October he was appointed commander of the newly formed Fifteenth United States Army , which was largely an administrative and training command . Fifth Army . Truscott ' s next command came in December 1944 . He was promoted to command of the U . S . Fifth Army in Italy when its commander Lieutenant General Mark Clark was made commander of 15th Army Group . Truscott led the Army through the hard winter of 1944 – 1945 , where many of its formations were in exposed positions in the mountains of Italy . He then led the army through the Allied Spring 1945 offensive in Italy culminating in the final destruction of the German forces in Italy . Truscott had a very soothing voice , said to be the result of an accidental ingestion of acid in childhood . He was superstitious about his clothing , and usually wore a leather jacket , ' pink ' ( light khaki ) pants and lucky boots in combat . He also wore a white scarf as a trademark , first during the Sicilian campaign . Truscott once said to his son , " Let me tell you something , and don ' t ever forget it . You play games to win , not lose . And you fight wars to win . That ' s spelled W - I - N ! And every good player in a game and every good commander in a war … has to have some son of a bitch in him . If he doesn ' t , he isn ' t a good player or commander . . . It ' s as simple as that . No son of a bitch , no commander . " Truscott was respected by those who served under him . A medical officer in the Seventh Army related stories he ' d heard from the men who served under Truscott earlier . Unlike some commanders , Truscott was not noted for self - aggrandisement , nor did he suffer such from his superiors . Others noted he was humbled by the sacrifices those under him had made . Bill Mauldin described the time Truscott gave the address on Memorial Day , May 31 , 1945 , in the military cemetery at Nettuno , outside Anzio : " He turned his back on the assembled windbags and sparklers and talked to the crosses in the cemetery , quietly , apologizing , and then walked away without looking around . " Post - war . Truscott took over command of the U . S . Third Army from General George S . Patton on 8 October 1945 , and led it until April 1946 . This command included the Eastern Military District of the U . S . occupation zone of Germany , which consisted primarily of the state of Bavaria . When the Seventh Army was deactivated in March 1946 , Truscott ' s Third Army took over the Western Military District ( the U . S . - occupied parts of Baden , Württemberg and Hesse - Darmstadt ) . Will Lang Jr . from magazine wrote a biography on Truscott that appeared in the October 2 , 1944 issue of LIFE . After leaving the army , General Truscott began work on his book " Command Missions " , which was published in 1954 ( ISBN 0 - 89141 - 364 - 2 ) , and " The Twilight of the U . S . Cavalry " ( ISBN 0 - 7006 - 0932 - 6 ) . The latter book was published after his death by his son , Lucian III , in 1989 . Seven months after the publication of " Command Missions " , Congress passed Public Law 88 - 508 , which gave Truscott an honorary promotion to four - star general . General Truscott helped evaluate officers as a member of the War Department Screening Board . Then in 1948 – 1949 , he spent a year as the Chairman of the Army Advisory Board for Amphibious Operations , at Fort Monroe , Virginia . It was between meetings of this board that he began assembling the material for his two books . Decorations . General Truscott received the Army ' s second - highest decoration , the Distinguished Service Cross , for valor in action in Sicily on July 11 , 1943 , the second day of the invasion . General Truscott ' s other decorations include the Army Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster , the Navy Distinguished Service Medal , the Legion of Merit and the Purple Heart . Central Intelligence Agency . In 1951 , Walter Bedell Smith , Director of the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) , appointed Truscott as " Special Consultant to the United States Commissioner " in Frankfurt , Germany . However , this was simply a cover for his real assignment as senior Central Intelligence Agency representative in Germany . Truscott had been placed in charge of cloak - and - dagger operations in a vital part of Europe . This only came to light after declassification of a secret memorandum in 1994 . In 1953 , President Eisenhower approved CIA Director Allen Dulles ' recommendation that General Truscott be appointed the CIA ' s Deputy Director for Coordination . This appointment meant that Truscott was now controlling the agency ' s rapidly expanding network of agents world - wide . His responsibilities included facilitating the overthrow of governments in Iran and Guatemala . Truscott was involved in planning Operation PBSUCCESS , the CIA mission to overthrow Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz . According to Harry Jeffers ' biography , Truscott was instrumental in convincing Eisenhower to support PBSUCCESS with air power . However , another biography by William Heefner suggests that specifics of Truscott ' s involvement cannot be substantiated . Truscott left the CIA in 1958 . He wrote nothing about his service in the CIA in " Command Missions " , and there is nothing about his CIA activities in his papers at the George C . Marshall Library . Death and legacy . General Truscott died 12 September 1965 , in Alexandria , Virginia . On 29 April 1966 , Truscott Hall , a bachelor officers ' quarters at the Army War College , was named after him . On 17 August 1974 , Sarah Truscott , his wife , died and was buried next to him at Arlington Cemetery . In 2012 , he was honored at his birthplace hometown of Chatfield . In popular culture . Truscott was portrayed by actor John Doucette in the 1970 film " Patton " .