European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A amps Rad Grandy prize winning stripes photo shows Eisenhower then supreme Allied commander Europe reacting to report from International news service correspondent Bob Considine far left that president Truman had dismissed Gen. Douglas Macarthur from All his far East commands on april 11, 1951, during the korean War for making unauthorized policy statements. Rum Roll to greatness continued from Page 13 naturally to the name Ike than to any of the exalted titles that were bestowed upon him. For All of his acclaimed later brilliance observers might be forgiven for missing some of the dazzle in Ike a earlier years. He spent the first half Century of his life growing up in Abilene Kansas attending West Point and serving in routine assignments As a career army officer stuck in staff work. Biographers have shown this rugged raw boned self reliant boy and his five Brothers coming of age in a hardworking Home where Money was often scarce his father earned $380 a year in a Creamery and the kids wore hand me Down clothes. The Eisenhower lived on the poor Side of town. Pledging him not to let the doctor Cut it off. His family got on their Knees and prayed repeatedly for 10 Days before the Poison receded. Soon Ike was Back boxing playing football baseball and doing his before Dawn chores looking As Strong As the winds off the Plains that sent tumbleweeds rolling Down the streets of Abilene. Not Long before Ike s time Abilene had been the town of wild Bill Hickok and the old Chisholm Trail that 1,000-mile cattle funnel from Texas through indians rustlers drought and storms. As Reiman Morin wrote in his biography of Eisenhower Young Ike strongly influenced by his remarkable Mother Quot All steel beneath a delicate exterior Quot also absorbed Quot the standards of conduct of the old  Ike tended chickens milked cows and sold vegetables from the family Garden to sometimes snooty people on the other Side of the Abilene tracks. If folks looked Down their nose at him Ike did t seem to mind much. He did mind if they wasted his time. Quot we were very poor Quot he said later Quot but the glory of America is that we did t know it  what was not poor was an atmosphere of spirit sweat and Basic values steeped in religion. Once As a boy when a delirious Ike seemed about to lose a leg to blood poisoning he stationed his brother Edgar at the door according to those ideals Quot a Man was honest and aboveboard. He was physically Tough. He was always prepared to defend himself. He met his enemy in a stand up fight As a boy Ike was in a fistfight that went on for an hour. He was chivalrous toward women. It was a simple masculine code born of the dangers and hardships of life on the great  the code of the Chisholm Trail said Eisenhower in a speech in 1953, was that you Quot could not sneak up Quot on a Man from behind. You met him Quot face to face and took the same risks he did. I was raised to prize that  one of the stars of the 1909 High school baseball lean the team was Eisenhower a brother Edgar far left a if he did indeed prize that code a recent Book called other losses by Canadian journalist James Bacque purporting to show Eisenhower ordering starvation deaths of up to 1 million German pos As a deliberate policy of revenge seems wildly out of character. That Ike himself of German descent had a warm even boiling temper behind the smiling face is not news but the dark vengeful Side suggested by Bacque runs counter to the Strong sense of Basic decency americans attribute to this hero from Abilene. Any allegations of wrongdoing demand a lot of proving. A a a ironically fat fully the youth who would become a heroic key player in history a most terrible War became a Soldier almost by Accident. If it had t been for a technicality instead of general his nameplate might have read Admiral Eisenhower. Originally he had applied for Entrance in the . Naval Academy but he was a few months Over the age limit. He was accepted by the . Military Academy at West Point instead and very slowly hardly audible at first the drum Roll to greatness began. At West Point he was described As a popular fellow an athlete a prankster and no one accused him of being a wind up tin Soldier. As the months passed wrote Morin Quot demerits dotted his record. Late to target formation. Late to Chapel. Brass buttons badly polished he Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes sunday Dayi 1