(4 of 4)
He snared Coach Earl ("Red") Blaik, who had left the Army, won fame as head coach at Dartmouth. Blaik became West Point's first civilian head coach. Eichelberger's faith in him was justified ; the pay off came last winter, when far out in the Pacific, an urgent radiogram told him Army had finished a season in which it easily beat all opponents.
Superintendent Eichelberger says less about other contributions to West Point. But the cadets he commissioned recall him as the ideal head man, full of discipline with good humor, given to stopping cadets for chats on the walks, endowed with the name-memory of a hotel clerk. Behind his back they (like his staff today) called him "Uncle Bob."
As General Eichelberger takes up residence within sight of Tokyo, he presumably still has the medals which were pinned on him by the Japanese 25 years ago. After Pearl Harbor, when it became the fashion for Americans to send Jap decorations to the Air Forces to "return to sender" along with bombs, Eichelberger was asked if he would contribute his.
"Hell, no," he said, "I'm going to take them back myself."
* "Eye Corps" to Pacific soldiers, who abhor the Roman numeral.