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.And that put Howard Dutton into her mind.(Four) Bachelor Officer's Quarters, Bldg.T-2204 The U.S.Army Special WarfareSchool Fort Bragg, North Carolina 1200 Hours, 9 July 1959Second Lieutenant Thomas J.Ellis pinned gold second lieutenant's bars to theepaulets of a tropical worsted blouse, reflecting angrily that the bars weregold and not silver.Regulations authorized the promotion of second lieutenants to first lieutenantafter completion of six months' satisfactory service.Satisfactory service was usually defined as service during which the secondlieutenant did not desert; steal the inventories he had been assigned toverify; make a pass at the commanding officer's wife; or commit some otheroutrage against good military order and discipline.Second Lieutenant Ellis had been a commissioned officer since 15 December1958.He should have been promoted first lieutenant, therefore, on 16 June1959; and he had not been.On 16 June he had been sitting in a swamp on EglinAir Force Base, roasting pieces of a small and incredibly tough wild pig on afire built on the stump of a cypress tree.He finished pinning his insignia to his tropical worsted blouse, then put iton his bed.He put his trousers on, and carefully pulled them high on histhighs so as not to ruin the crease while he was putting on and lacing up hisglossy jump boots.Then he hitched the trousers down and bloused them withrolled and tied Sheik condoms.After he'd finished dressing, he left the BOQ and went to the barracks housingTraining "A" Team 59 23.They were all waiting for him.He felt a little sillywith only his jump wings and nothing else on his breasts.The others all worethe ribbons that anywhere from five to ten years of service had earned them.Most of them had been to Korea.Many also had Combat Infantry Badges and Silver Stars and Bronze Stars andPurple Hearts.If these guys wanted to call him the Boy Wonder, that seemedall too understandable.When it was time, he formed his troops into two ranks in front of thebarracks, called them to attention, and marched them to the open area in frontof headquarters.Seven training teams would be graduated today.Five of themwere already there, and the last was behind him.There was a band not the whole thing, Ellis noticed, but maybe half-strength.When the brass came out the front door of headquarters, Ellis saw that thelittle Jew light bird he'd seen around a couple of times was with ColonelHanrahan and It.Colonel Macmillan.He was curious about the little guy tobegin with, and now that he saw him in tropical worsteds, he was even morecurious.He was wearing a brass's hat with scrambled eggs on the leather brim,so he wasn't a Green Beret.But he was sure loaded down with medals and crap.He had a gold rope hanging from his epaulets that looked liked it weighed twoPage 281ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlpounds, and he had the CIB and jump wings, and at the shoulder seam was aRanger patch.And the Jew didn't stand with Colonel Hanrahan and the sergeant major and theother brass, but walked over to where the trainees were standing.The seniorofficer among them, a captain, was serving as company commander of the"company" made up of the seven training teams.It looked as if the Jew was taking over from him, and that's what happened.The captain went back to his team, and the little Jew with all the craphanging on his uniform stood where the company commander was supposed tostand.The band played, and they went through the first part of the graduationceremony.And then Colonel Hanrahan gave a speech."I always try to say a few words about our heritage," he said."Today thatseems especially appropriate.We trace our beginnings to the first SpecialService Force which was joint Canadians Anerican.during World War II.But wealso trace ourselves back to the Office of Strategic Services in its guerrillafunction.And to units of Americans training and leading the native forces ofour allies."Some of those people are still around in the service.And we had one hell ofa time, frankly, coming up with criteria by which past service could qualifyan individual as worthy of the green beret.It was finally decided that anindividual would be considered qualified if he had had experience operatingbehind enemy lines, or if he had served as an advisor to allied forces engagedin combat, and preferably both."I sort of jumped the gun when Colonel Macmillan joined us.I just decided onmy own that he was entitled to a beret.I thought that anyone who had won theMedal of Honor could be said to have sufficient on-the job training."There was laughter."But I want to say that Colonel Macmillan is fully qualified under the newcriteria.After he won the Medal, he led forty other escaped prisoners of waracross Poland to safety.jhat earned him the Distinguished Service Cross.InKorea, Colonel Macmillan operated behind enemy lines in an operation that'sstill classified.And on yet another mission, this one closely related to whatwe're doing, he found himself at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina shortly before itfell [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]