To India & Return

An arrival and a departure made airmen in India nod and grin last week. To India, without previous announcement, went able, soldierly Major General George E. Stratemeyer, fresh from his post as Chief of Staff for General H. H. Arnold in Washington. His new job: chief air officer in the India-Burma-China theater (comprising the Tenth and Fourteenth Air Forces).

From the Tenth Air Force (India) departed Major General Clayton L. Bissell, a year and a day after taking command. His successor: Brigadier General Howard C. Davidson, a West Pointer in Army aviation in World War I.

Austere, autocratic General Bissell had run his outfit "by the book." Inevitably his bookkeeping efficiency clashed with the shirtsleeves efficiency of Major General Claire Lee Chennault, whose informal flyers rated dead Japs more important than polished buttons.

Last week General Stratemeyer pinned the D.F.C. and Air Medal on General Bissell. The unbuttoned Jap-killers who had long resented Pentagon polish on active duty grinned. Decorations or no decorations, the "book General" was bound for the home office.

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