Inspired Choice

After V-J day, one of the biggest, hardest, touchiest jobs in the U.S. will be boss of the Veterans Administration. What V.A. does, and how it does it, will directly concern one out of every three U.S. families.

To fill the spot, President Truman last week made a happy choice: a calm, commonsensical, tiptop soldier, General Omar Nelson Bradley. Once again the

President had gone to Missouri for his man. All sections of the country approved. "The doughboy's general'' seemed as eminently fitted for the job as General Marshall was for his. Cheered the New York Times: "A stroke of inspiration."

The appointment called for the dismissal of 66-year-old Brigadier General Frank Thomas Hines, who had administered veterans' affairs for 22 years. In the last year he had run afoul of mounting complaints from hospitalized veterans, medical men and the press (TIME, May 7).

The Commander in Chief thus took out of the war one of his best field commanders. Many U.S. and Allied observers rated 52-year-old Omar Bradley the top tactician in the European Theater. But the Army has a plethora of good generals now, and General Bradley had done his job in the field.

Harry Truman felt that World War II veterans should have a World War II veteran to run their show. In Bradley he got one of the Army's ablest administrators (he has served long in Army schools, put in three years on the General Staff, is no stranger to a desk).

Admitting he knew little about his new job, modest Omar Bradley went off to Missouri, got a rousing reception at his native Moberly (pop. 13,000), was photographed with a cheering veteran of the War with Spain (see cut).

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