Brotherhood Of War: The Lieutenants Part 26

That was all very nice, but it wasn't much help to Sharon.

She wasn't asking much. She had been perfectly content in their room, in Columbus, Georgia, outside Fort Benning, and in the little apartment in Fayetteville, North Carolina, outside Fort Bragg. As it said in the Bible, "Whither thou goest, I will go." If Sandy had wanted her to go with him to the North Pole, she would have -gone and been happy, but that wasn't this.

This was a whole year, maybe more, with her working in the bakery and Sandy doing G.o.d alone knows what in Greece.

Greece!

Everybody in the car was tom between being mad at Sandy and feeling sorry for Sharon, and feeling sorry for the both of them.

When they got to McGuire Air Force Base, Sandy directed her to park the Buick Super in an area designated DEPARTING PERSONNEL PARKING.

He picked up his two heavy Valv-Paks and walked into the pa.s.senger terminal with his wife and his parents and his wife's parents trailing reluctantly behind him., "Well, look who's here," he said, softly, as much to himself as to Sharon when he stepped inside the door.

"Who's here, Sandy?" Sharon asked.

"Some of my cla.s.smates," he said. "I heard about that. They report in early, and then take another two weeks in Germany when they get there." She didn't know what he was talking about, but she could see who he was talking about. There were twenty second lieutenants in the waiting room wearing Cla.s.s "A" tropical worsted summer uniforms-shirt, tunic, trousers, and brimmed cap and twenty young women, all dressed up with flowers pinned to their dresses and suits, looking like brides.

Sharon deeply loved her husband, and wouldn't have swapped him for any man in the world, but being honest about it, when you looked at him in his khakis, Sandy looked like somebody delivering from the delicatessen.

"Honey, why didn't you wear your TWs?" Sharon asked.

"If you're going to have to spend eighteen hours in an airplane seat in a uniform," he said, just, a trifle smugly, "you wear khakis." He picked up the two Valv-Paks and walked across to the desk. Sharon trailed after him.

"Lieutenant," the sergeant said, scornfully, looking at the heavy Valv-Paks, "you're going to be way over weight."

"Take a look at my orders, Sergeant," Sandy said, unpleasantly.

The sergeant read the orders Sandy handed him.

"OK, Lieutenant," he said. "My mistake." Sharon became aware that several of the second lieutenants were looking at them. She thought it was because Sandy was wearing khakis.

"It'll be just a couple of minutes, Lieutenant," the sergeant said. "Stick around the waiting room."

"Thank you," Sandy said. Then he took Sharon's arm and marched her over to the second lieutenants and their wives.

"h.e.l.lo, Nesbit," Sandy said. "Pierce. O'Connor."

"I'll be d.a.m.ned, Felter," one of them said. It is you."

"You'll be d.a.m.ned, sir," one of the others said. "Note the silver bar." He put out his hand.

The third one smiled broadly, and said, "Sir Mouse, sir:, may I present my wife?"

"How do you do?" Sandy said. "And may I present mine?" One of them, as they were all shaking hands, told his wife that "Lieutenant Felter was with us at the Academy for a while." Sharon saw the explanation confused the wife. And she didn't like it when people called Sandy "Mouse," even though he told her he didn't mind.

"Deutschland bound, are you, Mouse?" one of them asked.

"Greece," Sandy said.

"Greece?" he responded, incredulously.

"There's a Military Advisory Group there," Sandy said.

"I didn't know that," he said.

Despite the fact that she knew Sandy was right that there was no sense in mussing a tropical worsted uniform on an airplane, Sharon wished that Sandy had worn his anyway. Or at least put on his other insignia. All he was wearing was his silver lieutenant's bar on one collar and the infantry rifles on the other. He was wearing regular shoes, even though he was ent.i.tled to wear paratrooper boots. He wasn't even wearing his parachutists' wings and boots or his Ranger patch.

Sharon could tell from the way the others talked to him, the way they looked at him, that they didn't think very much of him, either. Sad Sack Felter is what he looked like, two pastrami on rye and a side order of cuc.u.mber salad, double cream in the coffee. And meeting the young West Pointers and their wives confirmed what Sharon had suspected. Sandy said going to Greece was a great opportunity for him. The others didn't think it was such a great opportunity; they didn't even know the United States had soldiers in Greece. They were going to the 1st Division and the Constabulary in Germany.

And they were taking their wives with them. Right on the same plane.

When she and Sandy walked over to their parents, Sharon sensed that the West Pointers were whispering about them.

Then the plane was announced.

Sharon's mother and Mama Felter started to cry out loud when Sandy kissed them. Sharon kept her tears back until Sandy climbed the stairs and disappeared inside the plane. Then she cried on her mother's bosom.

In the car on the way home, Papa said something terrible.

He didn't know he said it. He was just thinking aloud. Papa said, "I suppose if you have to send somebody to get shot, it's better to send a Jew." Sharon told herself that Sandy was the smartest boy she had ever met. If she believed that, she would have to believe that he would come to realize that what he was doing was the wrong thing for him, for them; and then he would come home and they could build a life together. When he missed her, Sharon decided, that's when he would decide he was wrong.

(Five) Bad Nauheim, Germany 11 July 1946 Colonel Charles A. Webster, the Constabulary's adjutant general, entered the office of the commanding general, Brigadier General Richard M. Walls, to bring certain personnel actions to the general's attention. General Walls had received no word regarding his future. He did not know if he would be given command of the Constab permanently or whether a- major general would be sent in to take General Waterford's place.

He had therefore been commanding the Constab from the same office from which he had commanded the Constab artillery, rather than moving into Waterford's office at Constabulary headquarters. "I'm afraid I've let this slip, sir," Webster ~confessed, handing General Walls a teletype message. "I sort of hoped they would just forget us."

"What is it?"

"USFET laid a requirement on us for two combat-qualified officers to send to Greece. They also have to speak Greek."

"And?"

"I found people with those qualifications, but their commanders don't want to give them up."

"What the h.e.l.l is going on in Greece?"

"I really don't know, sir. As I said, I thought if 1 just let it slip, they'd forget us."

"And what's the problem?" Walls asked. He read the TWX from USFET: PRIORITY!.

FROM USFET 1 0 JULY 1946 COMMANDING GENERAL U.S. CONSTABULARY A'ITN: ADJUTANT GENERAL.

(1.) REFERENCE TWX 55098.27 MAY 1946:.

(2.) YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY FURNISH NAMES OF TWO OFFICERS.

SELECTED FOR TRANSFER TO US ARMY MILITARY ADVISORY GROUP, GREECE, REQUESTED IN REFERENCED TWX. " (3.) YOUR ATTENTION IS INVITED TO REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIED IN REFERENCED TWX. SELECTED OFFICERS SHOULD BE OF COMBAT :ARMS, GREEK SPEAKING, AND AVAILABLE FOR HARDSHIP TOUR OF NOT LESS THAN ONE YEAR. VOLUNTEERS ARE PREFERRED.

"Pity he doesn't speak Greek, but two out of three isn't bad, is it, Colonel?"

"Not bad at all, sir."

"'Who else can you think of, offhand, Colonel, who also meets these requirements?"

"I heard from the CID, General, that there's a captain in the 19th they think isn't entirely all man, if you follow me."

"Anybody else?"

"There's a lieutenant in Combat Command A who's been writing some rubber checks."

"Send the fairy," the general said. "Anything else, Colonel Webster?"

"Not a thing, sir. That takes care of all the loose ends I can think of."

"Get both of them out of the Constabulary this afternoon, Colonel, General Walls said.

BY COMMAND OF GENERAL CLAY.

After General Walls read the TWX, he pushed it back to Colonel Webster. "Let me think about it a minute, Charley," he said. "I really hate to give up officers with combat experience. If the balloon should go up with the G.o.dd.a.m.ned Russians, how the h.e.l.l am I expected to fight with an officer corps that never heard a shot fired in anger?"

"That brings us to Lieutenant Lowell, sir," Webster said.

"Does the general intend to bring him before a board of officers for dismissal from the service?"

"That fancy-pantsed sonofab.i.t.c.h hasn't been an officer long enough for us to make that judgment," General Walls said.

"Not to speak ill of the dead, that was really going too far, even for Waterford. Where's MacMillan? Did he find a new home?"

"Yes, sir. We got a TWX yesterday. He's a.s.signed to Knox. He won't even be coming back."

"I would like to be able to send that sonofab.i.t.c.h to Greece," General Walls said. He looked up at Colonel Webster. An idea had been born. He reread the TWX. "As I read this thing, Colonel," he said, "it says volunteers are preferred. 'Preferred' is not the same thing as 'required,' is it? And it also says that officers 'should be' of combat arms, Greek speaking, and available for a hardship tour. I would say that Lieutenant Lowell is available for a hardship tour, wouldn't you, Colonel?"

"Yes, sir, I would, " Webster replied. "If the general decides not to board him out of the service."

"And "he is presently detailed to a combat arm, isn't he?" General Walls asked. There was a pleased tone in his voice.

"Yes, sir, he is."

(Six) The military police duty officer came into Fat Charley's office in the provost marshal's building that Craig Lowell thought looked like a gas station."

"1 thought I should bring this to the colonel's attention, sir," he said.

"What is it?"

"Colonel Webster just called, and said he was speaking for the general, and I was to send every available man to locate and arrest Lieutenant Lowell and bring him to his office." Fat Charley thought a moment, and then he dialed Colonel Webster's number.

"Charley, what is this business about an arrest order on Lieutenant Lowell?"

"The general wants him out of the Constabulary this afternoon, Colonel."

"Where's he going?"

"He has been selected for a.s.signment to Greece," Webster said, somewhat triumphantly.

"For Christ's sake, Charley, I saw that TWX. It says combat-experienced officers who speak Greek. It's not that boy's fault Waterford handed him a "commission."

"Would you care to discuss it with the general, Colonel?"

"No," Fat Charley said. "I'll have him at your office in an hour, Colonel."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Colonel," Colonel Webster said.

Fat Charley hung up the telephone. He reached for his hat.

"Is your driver outside?"

"Yes, sir. You know where to find Lowell?"

"I think so," Fat Charley said. "Have you issued an arrest order?"

"The duty sergeant put one out before I got this," he said.

"Should I cancel it, sir?"

"No, you. better let it stand," Fat Charley said. "I'm on Walls's s.h.i.t list enough as it is without making things worse."

(Seven) Forty-five minutes later Lieutenant Craig W. Lowell marched into Colonel Webster's office.

"Sir," he said, saluting. "Lieutenant Lowell reporting to Colonel Webster as ordered."

"You may stand at ease, lieutenant," Colonel Webster said.

"Lieutenant, this interview will const.i.tute official notice to you of inter-theater movement orders. Regulations state that personnel notified of such orders be further informed that failure to comply with such orders const.i.tutes desertion. Do you understand the implication of what I have just told you?"

"Yes, sir."

"By command of General Clay, Lieutenant, you are relieved of your a.s.signment to the U. S. Constabulary, and are transferred to Headquarters, United States Army Military Advisory Group, Greece, effective this date. You will take with you such fatigue uniforms, field gear, and shade 33 uniforms as are necessary for an extended period of duty in the field. Shade 51 uniforms, and any household goods you may have, to include any personal vehicles, will be turned into the quartermaster. Such items will be stored for you at no expense to you at the U.S. Army Terminal, Brooklyn, New York, until such time as you complete your a.s.signment, or request other disposition of them. You will proceed from here to Rhine-Main Air Corps Base so as to arrive there for shipment by military air no later than 1800 hours this date."

"Yes, sir."

"Have you any questions?"

"Sir, I'm a little short of cash. May I have time to stop by American Express?"

"As part of your out-processing, Lieutenant, a partial payment of $100 will be made."

"Sir, I don't believe that will be enough money."

"You won't need money where you're going, Lieutenant," Colonel Webster said. "Any other questions?"