TOKYO, Feb. 12 — General James A. Van Fleet, father of the modern ROK army, bids farewell to the Far East late this afternoon when he wings toward the United States for retirement, extremely sorry "I can't come home a victor."

The 60-year-old former Eighth Army chief, in one of his last press statements, reaffirmed his belief that a general offensive in Korea would "certainly" be successful, however.

"BUT IT WOULD REQUIRE the necessary men, materiel, and the normal time it would take to launch such an offensive," he stated. "It wouldn't be successful today or tomorrow. Nor would it. be successful in a general frontal assault."

He made the statement to clarify a wire service report that a general offensive would smash the Communists.

Van Fleet will depart in General Mark W. Clark's Constellation, loaded with gifts from South Koreans, for Honolulu late this afternoon. He will meet his wife there and rest a few days before sailing to San Francisco aboard the U.S.S. President Jackson next Thursday.

ALTHOUGH HE has "no plans for the future" besides a "good place down in Florida where I can hang my hat," General Van Fleet will stop in Washington for a round of conferences with top-level military officials theme, he indicated.

(Reports from Washington today indicated that the Senate armed forces committee would question Van Fleet on his statement that United Nations forces could mount an offensive to break the Korean stalemate.)

This morning Van Fleet reviewed a bristling honor guard ceremony at General Mark Clark's United Nations Command headquarters at Pershing Heights. It was his last formal appearance in the Far East and his first visit to U.N. headquarters after 22 months here as head of the Eighth Army.

The brief 10-minute ceremony this morning rang down the curtain on what the Army officially terms Van Fleet's 38 years of "exceptionally meritorious" service. He will retire Mar. 31.

AT THE CEREMONY Van Fleet was awarded the Air Medal and the first Oak Leaf Cluster to the medal for directing U.N. troops from an unarmed liaison-type plane while exposed to enemy fire. The action took place near Wongdong-ni on May 18, 1951, and at Kwandae-ri on May 25, 1951.

On hand were the chiefs of the Far East Command — General Mark W. Clark, commander, General O. P. Weyland, Air Force commander, and Vice. Admiral Robert P. Briscoe, commander of Naval Forces Far East. A host of other top-ranking American and foreign leaders were also present for the ceremony.

Yesterday afternoon. the retiring soldier arrived at Haneda airport from Pusan in the same plane that will carry him to Hawaii, praising the hard-hitting team he had left in Korea under Lt. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, new Eighth Army commander.

Van Fleet's honor guard ceremony today and his arrival in Tokyo were sober and subdued occasions compared to his emotion-packed departure from Korea yesterday morning.

EARLIER YESTERDAY Van Fleet flew front Seoul to Pusan where he completed his "last official act" in Korea. He motored to the U.N. cemetery in Pusan where he laid wreaths on the graves of the war dead. "These men have made the supreme sacrifice for us," he said.

Van Fleet paused to salute all the Korea war dead and placed wreaths on the graves of ROK, French, Greek, and American soldiers. "This is a very sacred duty," he said, placing a wreath at the foot of the U.N. flagpole.

At the Pusan airport he was met by diplornats, ranking off1cers, and an honor guard of American troops and ROK marines.

A few minutes before noon Van Fleet hoarded his plane, raised his fingers in a V for victory salute, and left the soil and the people he obviously had learned to love.

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