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291 Afterword In the introduction to this book I make numerous references to the high ranking his contemporary superior officers and succeeding military historians have accorded Lucian K. Truscott as a combat commander. However, little has been written about his effectiveness as a combat leader. As Gen. Eric K. Shinseki , U.S.A., Ret., said in his farewell address in 2003 as he stepped down from his position as chief of staff of the U.S. Army after thirty-eight years of service, there is an“important distinction between command and effective leadership. . . . [C]ommand is about authority, about an appointment to position—a set of orders granting title.” Shinseki went on to point out that “those, who are privileged to be selected for command, [should] approach their duties with a sense of reverence, trust, and the willingness to sacrifice all, if necessary, for those they lead. You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader. You can certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it; and without leadership, command is a hollow experience—a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance.”1 One of the first tasks Truscott accomplished after assuming command of his regimental combat team, division, corps, or field army was to visit as many of his frontline units as possible, wearing a lacquered helmet bearing the shining emblems of his rank and his trademark silk scarf, faded russet leather jacket, jodhpurs, and well-worn cavalry boots, often arriving in his jeep that sported his command’s guidon mounted on the hood, with a siren on one fender and a flashing red light on the other.2 By so doing he was able not only to gain a better understanding of the tactical situation facing that subordinate commander but also to display to his officers and men that he was willing to share the risks that they faced. His forward command posts were always located near the front lines, often in buildings exposed to enemy fire, rather than in wine cellars or sheltered locations far from the scene of fighting. That Truscott loved those whom he led into combat, particularly the infantrymen who served as the tip of his spear, is attested by the terms of endearment that he used in describing their accomplishments to Sarah in his wartime letters, referring often to his men as “my lads,”“my brave lads,”“my lads, the 292 Dogface Soldier best there are,” and “these brave lads of mine.” His love for the “dogfaces” was graphically demonstrated when, just before the assault at Anzio, he ordered the leaders of the 3d Infantry Division Band to set the catchy tune “Dogface Soldier ” to march tempo to honor the men of his division.3 It remains the official march of the 3d Infantry Division to this day. However, probably the most moving example of his love and affection for the men he commanded and led into combat occurred at the dedication ceremony for the Sicily-Rome American cemetery on Memorial Day, 1945. There, instead of addressing the dignitaries and other attendees, he turned to the thousands of graves stretching before him and addressed the corpses in those graves, apologizing for any personal mistakes he had made as their leader that had consigned them to their premature deaths and asking them for their forgiveness , realizing “that was asking a hell of a lot under the circumstances.”4 Generals Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton held Lucian Truscott in high esteem, which undoubtedly played a great role in his meteoric rise to high command in 1943 and 1944. As early as October 1943, Patton, who had been told by Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Walter B. Smith, that he would command a field army in the Normandy invasion, stated that he would like to have Truscott as a corps commander in that army.5 On June 29, 1943, Eisenhower, then commander of Allied Forces Headquarters in North Africa, visited Truscott’s 3d Infantry Division in Tunisia and later cabled Marshall that “from every indication it is the best unit we have brought over here. . . . Truscott is the quiet, forceful, enthusiastic type that subordinates instinctively follow. If his command does not give a splendid account of itself, then all signs by which I know how to judge an organization are completely false.”6 Eisenhower closely followed the Sicily and southern Italy campaigns and the early days of the Anzio operation and was so impressed with...

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