“He was an Olympic competitor in the modern pentathlon, after all.”
I did not know that.
No wonder the Commies most likely offed him!
Yes. The pentathlon was intended to test the skills used by a military staff officer of the 19th century, like Prince Andrei Volkonsky in “War and Peace”: riding, fencing, swimming, pistol shooting, and running.
By World War II, an American officer would have needed to drive a jeep without wrecking it, rather than ride a horse, and the utility of fencing was kaput, except for building agility and quick reflexes.