War hero gets his due

COMMAND OF HONOR: General Lucian Truscott's Path to Victory in World War II. By H. Paul Jeffers. New American Library. 326 pages. $24.95.

In a time when it is commonplace to memorialize the fleeting tenures and scant contributions of politicians by attaching their names to public edifices such as bridges, highways and buildings, it is truly startling to realize, by contrast, that some of the truly worthy heroes of the age have become so easily forgotten.

Author H. Paul Jeffers has brought out of the shadows the remarkable military career of Lucian Truscott, a man who many have claimed was the finest American combat commander to come out of World War II. Truscott enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1917 and graduated from Officer's Training School. During his career he commanded in battle at every echelon from regiment to field army.

He was the first U.S. Army general to see combat in Europe and was still fighting German troops in the Po River Valley just before the Axis surrender. Truscott was directly instrumental in organizing the first Army Ranger unit and in choosing William O. Darby as its leader.

This biography gives its subject his just due and depicts him as a natural leader with a keen strategic and tactical mind, fully the equal, if not superior in many ways, to his more flamboyant colleagues.