Lowell was pretty sore that Paul Jiggs's name would never be on the list. Now that he had thrown in his lot with aviation, it was highly unlikely that Jiggs would ever be given command of Knox. He would get more stars, maybe as many as four; but he would never command the Armored Center, and Lowell wondered if that bothered Jiggs.
The door chimes sounded.
"That must be Colonel Warner," General Henderson said. A moment later, the aide confirmed his guess.
"Colonel Warner, General," he anounced.
"Come on in, Tom," General Henderson said.
A tall, good-looking lieutenant colonel in fatigues and tanker's boots came into the living room. He was wearing aviator's wings, but there was no Expert Combat Infantry Badge. It was possible that he had the CIB and wasn't wearing it, Lowell thought, but it was unlikely. He was also wearing a West Point ring.
"Hello, Tom," General Jiggs said. "How are you?."
"Very well, thank you, General," Colonel Warner said.
"You shake hands with Major Lowell, Tom," General Henderson said. "And then relax."
"How are you, Major?" Warner said, giving Lowell his hand. His grip was firm. Lowell made an instant judgment that he liked this man.
"Colonel Warner was concerned, Lowell," General Henderson said, "that the expert who's going to help him would turn out to be some wide-eyed dreamer who didn't really understand tanks. You can take it from me, Tom, that won't be a problem with Major Lowell. He served with General Jiggs in Korea."
"I'm envious," Colonel Warner said, smiling. "I sat out that war in Berlin, and then they had me on the staff here."
"We had more tank officers than we needed for Korea," General Jiggs said.
"When did you go to flight school?" Lowell asked. Warner looked vaguely familiar, and he thought he might have encountered him before, somewhere in aviation.
"Last year," Warner said. "The general somehow got wind of what you people were up to, and "suggested' to me that I should apply. Looks like I made it just in time."
"I don't quite understand," Lowell said.
"I wasn't back here a month before they established the 3087th," Warner said. "If I hadn't been here, they'd have had to give it to someone else."
"You're commanding the 3087th?" Lowell asked. He looked at Jiggs and had his answer from Jiggs's eyes before he got Colonel Warner's reply.
"Uh huh," he said. "And I've got the company on standby for this afternoon. We're hoping you can give us a couple of hours. The list of questions is endless."
Lowell fixed a smile on his face. He wanted to swear, to break something. He felt lightheaded or maybe as if he wanted to throw up.
You naive sonofabitch, you should have known they wouldn't give you a command.
"I'm at your service, Colonel," he said, smoothly.
He glanced at Jiggs. Jiggs, reading in Lowell's eyes what was in his mind You should have told me, goddamn it made a slight shrugging movement of his shoulders.
"I will spare Major Lowell the embarrassing recitation of his distinguished service," General Henderson said. "You can get it from him this afternoon. General Jiggs believes, and I agree, that Major Lowell should say a few words at the dining-in, and I think it would be appropriate for you to introduce him, Tom."
"Yes, sir."
"Now, let's get something to eat," General Henderson said.
XII
(One) 227 Melody Lane Ozark, Alabama 1930 Hours, 2S January 1959
When they were about to take off from Fort Knox, Major General Paul T.
Jiggs politely asked Major Craig W. Lowell if it would be all right if he sat in the left seat.
The left seat was the pilot's seat the captain's seat. Lowell was amused and a little touched. The glamour of flying had gotten even to Paul T. Jiggs. He wasn't qualified to fly the L-23, but he was not above giving Major General David Henderson the impression that he was.
"It's a good idea, sir," Lowell said, straight-faced. "Might as well take the opportunity to learn about the aircraft."
Later, on the runway, he went further. Making sure General Henderson would hear him, Lowell asked, "If you're going to fly, General, would it be all right if I slept in the back?"
"I would prefer that you work the radios, Lowell," General Jiggs said.
"Yes, sir," Lowell said, disappointment in his voice. He was convinced that General Henderson was now certain that General Jiggs was a fully qualified twin-engine pilot.
General iiggs saluted General Henderson through the cockpit window, and then said, "OK, get us out of here," to Lowell.
"You wanted to fly, so fly," Lowell said.
"I'm not qualified in this thing Jiggs protested.
"Just think of all the dummies who are," Lowell said. "U audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace, mon General."
"Screw you, Craig," Jiggs said; but he took the brakes off, put his hands on the throttle quadrant and taxied the L-23 away from Base Operations.
Lowell watched him carefully on the takeoff, but Jiggs did nothing wrong. Lowell was just about to tell him to lift it off when Jiggs did that himself.
When they were at altitude and on course, General Jiggs brought up the tank-killer chopper company that Lowell had not gotten.
"I understand you did a good job talking to Warner's troops," he said, "and I thought you handled yourself very well at the dining-in."
Lowell didn't reply.
"If General Black asks me, I will tell him that," Jiggs went on. "And if he doesn't ask, I'll work it into the conversation, somehow."
"Don't bother," Lowell said, but then realizing he had snapped, he added: "Thank you just the same, but don't bother."
"I understand your feelings, Craig."
"I'm angry but primarily with myself for letting wishful thinking get in the way of reason."
"And with me."
"I didn't say that," Lowell said.
"You think I should have told you; and don't tell me you don't."
"I think a little warning would have been in order," Lowell said.
"You're a clever fellow; if I had told you, you would have found out all about Tom Warner. When you'd learned that he's never heard a shot fired in anger and that he only just got through flight school, you would have hated him before you met him. Understandably."
"Unfortunately, he's both a nice guy, and from what I saw of his troops, a good commanding officer."
"Who should have had your job in Korea," Jiggs said. "Did that thought occur to you?"
"I don't think I follow that line of convoluted thought," Lowell said, bluntly.
"What do you think Warner a West Pointer and an honor graduate of the Armor Advanced Course would have thought as he sat in Berlin with the two companies of tanks that he got to run every two weeks in a parade, if he had learned that the tanks leading the breakout from Pusan were commanded by a twenty-four-year-old involuntary reservist who'd gotten his captain's bars in the Pennsylvania National Guard?"
"Touclin," Lowell said.
"Everybody knocks the West Point Protective Association, Craig, but in this case... and you'll notice I'm not pretending the WPPA wasn't hard at work here... I think it was remedying an injustice, for the greater benefit of the service. We had a fine young light colonel, who, through no fault of his own, had been denied the opportunity to command in combat. Because of that, and because of his grade, and because officers who had done well in war are available he was not about to be given command of a tank outfit. Command of an experimental tank killing chopper outfit was the next best thing."
"And since C. Lowell is not a member in good standing of the WPPA, just forget that I was a good commander in combat and that I am singularly well qualified to run rocket-armed choppers?" He waited -for an answer.
"Those are the arguments I tried to use in your behalf," Jiggs said.
"I never will get a command, will I?" Lowell said, bitterly.
"You're being damned unreasonable. A month ago, you were being thrown out of the army. The Vi
ce Chief of Staff has been severely criticized for keeping you. How the hell could you expect to be given command of the 3087th?"
"You're right, of course," Lowell said, after a moment. "Seeing that god damned M26 knocked me off my feet. I just couldn't handle not getting that company, too." "I told you, you handled it well," Jiggs said. "That must have been a jolt, the very damned tank." "I'm over it now," Lowell said. "Just now, I was thinking of my other distinction connected with that tank."
"What was that?"
"I was the only officer who got in trouble with a white woman in Korea," Lowell said. "In that very tank."
"In the tank?"
"In the tank," Lowell chuckled. "It's amazing, General, what you can do when you set your mind to something."
"Where'd you find the room?"
"We got very close," Lowell said. "You ever see her afterward?"
"I saw her once when I came home," Lowell said. "The magic, as they say, was gone." After a moment, he added: "And there's somebody else I haven't seen lately my son."
"How is he?"
"He's twelve, that's how he is. A regular little kraut. I want to go see him, Paul."
"Can you spare the time?"
"I can spare the time, but I'm not sure Bill Roberts will think I can."
Jiggs fell silent a moment.
"I'll speak to him," he said. "If you feel you can take the time, you can take the time."
"I'm going to send Bill Franldin over there to teach the pilots, and Dutch Cramer to talk to their ordnance people, and one of my sergeants to talk to their airframe mechanics. It'll be three weeks before we get the hardware, and another week, teft days, before they'll be able to get it installed. I'm really not needed at the Board. It works. Ed Greer and Mac saw to that. Now is a good time to go."
"I was sure you had thought it through," Jiggs said. "I'll call Bill in the morning, and tell him I think it's a good idea you take some leave." "Bottle fatigue," Lowell said, chuckling.
SFC Joe Mclnerney was waiting with Jiggs's staff car when Lowell parked the L-23F in front of Base Operations at Laird Army Airfield.
"Joe will run you home, Craig," Jiggs said. "After he drops us off." "Thank you," Lowell said. "I didn't think about getting home." "I hope that isn't a pointed remark," Jiggs said. "I had hoped that I had explained things to your understanding, if not your satisfaction."
"No, sir, Lowell quickly explained. "I sold my car to Jannier. I mean, he's got it, and I need a ride."
Jiggs looked at his face and saw that was the truth. "OK," he said.
They dropped Lieutenant Davis at his quarters, and then drove further in to the officers' housing area to Quarters No. 1.
"Not very fancy, by comparison, is it?" Jiggs said, as they started up the driveway.
"I wondered if you noticed," Lowell said.
"I did, but I think I'm more useful here than I would be at Knox," Jiggs said, as he opened the door. "But it would be nice, Craig, wouldn't it, if we were both at Knox?"
"How about Quarters 3 at Mcnair? You as Vice Chief, and me, say, as Director of Army Aviation?" His voice was light, joking.
"I wouldn't want to be E.Z. Black right now," Jiggs said. "And I don't think you'd want to be Bob Bellmon." He paused a moment, then said, "Good night, Craig," and shut the door.
There were lights on at 227 Melody Lane, and the Eldorado was in the carport, but there was no one in the kitchen or living room when Lowell walked in through the unlocked door. Jannier, Lowell decided, was probably visiting Melody. He went back to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, looking for a beer. He saw there was Tuborg, and thought it was pleasant living with a Frenchman who took his food and booze seriously.
He went into the living room with the beer and sat down in one of their new armchairs.
Jean-Philippe Jannier came into the living room. Somehow the short silk robe he was wearing seemed to shout that he was naked beneath it.
It was a sexy bathrobe; Jean-Philippe Jannier was a robustly sexual male.
"Welcome home," Jannier said. "Are congratulations in order?"
"Oh, was I wrong about that!" Lowell said. "Not only did I not get the company, but I was politely given to understand that now that I have made my little contribution to the rocket armed helicopter, the best and the brightest would take it from here."
"And you are disappointed?"
"Very, very disappointed, my friend," Lowell confessed. Then, so as not to appear a whiner, he changed the subject.
"How did you do with your first check ride?" Jannier shrugged his shoulders. It could have meant anything. "I'm going to go see my son," Lowell said. "Good," Jannier said. "I envy you a son. A man is not complete without a son."
It was, Lowell thought, an odd remark.
"You have a message," Jannier said. "Your secretary called." Jesus, I'd forgotten all about her! "What did she say?"
"Only that you call her at home," Jannier said. "The number is there."
He pointed to a notepad beside the telephone at Lowell's side. There was nothing Lowell could do but dial the number.
"Hello?" "Major Lowell, Jane," he said.
"Is someone with you?" Jane Cassidy asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Colonel Roberts's secretary called. You are to be in his office at 0800. She said you are to wear a good uniform."
That was an odd message. It carried with it a suggestion that otherwise he might appear in a shabby or soiled uniform. Lowell was one of those people who looked elegant in a baggy cotton flight suit. His "regular" uniforms were tailored by Brooks Brothers in New York; his "good" uniforms, and his shirts, shoes, and boots, came from London.
"With your ribbons," Jane added.
"I wonder what the hell that's about?" Lowell asked.
"I don't know," Jane said. And then: "Are you free?"
"Yes."
"Can you meet me at the Piggly-Wiggly parking lot in Enterprise in thirty minutes?"
"Yes." "Good," she said, and hung up.
Lowell turned to Jannier and told him that he had to go out to the post.
And then Melody Dutton Greer came into the living room.
She was dressed in a skirt and a sweater, and her hair was combed, but there was no makeup on her face, and Lowell had seen enough women fresh from bed to know that she had not been in Jean-Philippe Jannier's bedroom to examine the new furniture.
"We didn't think you were coming back tonight," she said.
"Obviously," Lowell said, without thinking.
Melody flushed, but she did not avert her eyes.
"That was thoughtless of me," Lowell said. "I'm sorry." "We will be married," Jannier said.
"You think I'm a whore," Melody said.
"You don't know what I think," Lowell said.
He was not, he realized, either surprised or outraged.
"What do you think?" Jannier said.
"I was thinking I hope you don't get caught at it," Lowell said. "It would be very awkward."
"And you were thinking Ed isn't dead a month," Melody said.
"I was thinking that Ed and I are probably the only people who would understand," Lowell said.
"Merci, mon vieux," Jean-Philippe Jannier said, emotionally.
"You really want to marry this frog, honey?" Lowell asked.
Melody, tears in her eyes, nodded her head.
"Your father wasn't exactly fond of Ed," Lowell said.
"Wait till he hears that you're going to many a frog and go live in wicked Paree."
Melody, wiping at her eyes with her knuckles, laughed bitterly.
I'm not outraged. I'm jealous. No one has looked at me like she's looking at him since Ilse.
Lowell mockingly blessed them with a sign of the cross.
"Bless you, my children," he said. "Go and sin some more." "That's terrible," Melody said, but she had to giggle.
"I am hungry," Jannier said.
"I wonder why?" Lowell asked dryly.
"And what we will do," Ja
nnier went on, "is open a bottle of champagne, and I will make an omelet."
"So that's it," Lowell said. "The mystery explained." He looked at Melody. "There is absolutely nothing the American female won't do to get out of the kitchen. Even marry a frog."
W E B Griffin - BoW 04 - The Colonels Page 29