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Show A, SAL ¥ C/ BOS” CONSIDINE Incredibly Durable MacArthur A great deal of this writer’s | % experience has centered - around conditioned athletes, and if Gen. Douglas MacAr- thur is not one of the physical marvels as blind of our time than I am as a mole.’ The last time I saw him was in August when I was in Tokyo. The amount of work he was carrying would have been an almost intolerable burden for most much- younger men. Pass the : Dai Ichi build- ing in the late hours of the night and you would find lights blazing in MacArthur’s sixth floor headquarters | fice. And he was two occasions dur- aftermorn- ing. On of- there ing the morning and noon. And back in the in World War One MacArthur stopped a German bullet or shrapnel but never fell back to a field - hospital. He has not taken one day’s leave of absence since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His weight has not varied two pounds. for the — past talety years. CHANGELESS PHYSIQUE Lt. Col. Charles C. Canada, his medico, reports that the general’s blood pressure is 120 over 80, and army records show that it "has been the same - since 1920. Reporters him who accompanied on his visits to the Ko-— rean front, and his flight to | Formosa to assay at first hand the. scope of.our military pledges to Chiang. Kai-shek’s government, returned. either to Tokyo or to their/\ press camps a state of in near ex- haustion, because of the pace ' MacArthur set. Yet after MacArthur ‘down the each experience paced up and aisle of his plane, presenting his own impressions of the situations and—as ever—drawing on the impressions of the responsible men around him. It should be pointed out too that the general’s plane is not pressurized and, for protection as well as for efficiency’s sake, is flown at altitudes where the air is quite thin. But this never stops the restless pacing of this incredibly fit man. KNACK It has say OF RELAXING become medical a officers that cliche of in Tokyo MacArthur to has the strength, vitality, reflexes and keenness of a 50-year-old ‘man. To my mind that’s sorely conservative. I don’t know any 50-year- old men who can stand the gaff as well as MacArthur, and in that statement I in‘ elude my 50-year-old friends, Jack Dempsey and Gene. Tunney. Like a fine athlete MacArthur has the knack of relaxing and husbanding his - strength between bursts of effort. his When mind he had he less on could do-it by participating in or watching sports events, or by around pany him gathering a pleasant com- of close friends. One of the first} persons he sees in the morning, when he gets up to put on the worn old bathrobe he has kept from his cadet days, is the fresh countenance of his 12-year-old boy, Arthur. He gets a terrific lift out of his son’s devouring curiosity and con- suming liveliness, _ QUIET MEALS The general lunches alone usually with Mrs. MacArthur _—a vivacious, intelligent and' understanding woman. But _if there are guests, as I was recently, during they the are met luncheon only period, He and .Mrs. MacArthur have their dinner about 9:30 o’clock or 10:00 at night, and if there is no more work to do at the office or home he will sometimes watch a movie, then hit the hay. The MacArthurs and do not serve alcoholic drinks in their home. He does not take half ' a dozen drinks a year, and then only on such occasions when it would be diplomatically rude not to do so. His food tastes are simple, and if . the conversation is interesting enough—especially if it con- cerns the Army football team —he the forgets spartan ‘his training The world the life, and food. for His that is- is nature. first person in the who will know that Douglas MacArthur can: no longer outgame and outfox an enemy of the American people, either in the field or from behind a desk, will be Douglas MacArthur himself. And that time just ain’t here. (Released by International News Service) |
