I was looking forward to reading about Leslie McNair. There has not been a lot published about this significant figure who gets credit for the transforming of the Army ground forces in WWII into the powerhouse they became by the end of the war. He was one of few WWI generals that became a general in WWII. As a matter of fact, he was the youngest WWI general in the US Army. He was a strong organizer, analyzer and implementer. Quiet by nature, he was a lot like his immediate boss, Marshall, at the end of his career (and life).

I have read other sources discussing how McNair died while observing Omar Bradley's carpet bombing in North France in 1944. This book included one of the better background discussions on this.

While the book included much detail about McNair, I felt it was written based totally on his officer evaluations and technical summaries of his assignments. There was not much of a personal nature or about his family or his impressions of military assignments.

There was generous reading of background of McNair's assignments and contributing history and impacts of his decisions. But, overall the book lacked a personal feel. His wife was barely mentioned. The only significant mention of her was in the Epilogue after McNair had passed away. Interestingly his son was killed in the Pacific, but until this was mentioned at the very end of the book, I did not even know he had a son.

I really appreciated getting to know McNair's contributions to the WWI and WWII war efforts and in the years in between. The book was alright, but somewhat dry reading. I finished reading wishing I could know more about the person (not just his assignments and writings). ( )