Good Servant

Perhaps the busiest official in Washington last week was James Vincent Forrestal, 52, a slight, slender man with a broken nose, a man who once told an interviewer that his hobby was "obscurity."

With the death of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox (TIME, May 8), pipe-smoking Jimmy Forrestal had taken over as acting boss of the biggest navy in history. As the brisk and efficient Under Secretary of the Navy in charge of procurement, he had had a major share in bringing that navy to its awesome strength.

Jimmy Forrestal plunged into...

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