|
 B-D-U was inherited from J.
Dick, and he was not a modest man. But fortunately, he took care of his
own assignment. What he did, in a word, was the wrong thing. We had a
regimental sergeant major named Bull Garner. He is Vernon H. Garner. He
was passing by B-D-U and told him there would be a Sergeant Major’s Call
at 1800. “Blow it out your ass!” said B-D-U, who had previously been
very rude to Captain Padgett. Padgett did not report it to Jones, but I
did. Jones let it pass. Garner did not let it pass. Cpl Q-R-S* became
acting sgt-major, and he would keep the job, as a corporal, until months
later he would be sent to Officer Candidate School in Brisbane, then he
would be assigned to * Company. Q-R-S survived to retire as a
Superintendent of Schools or some such, in California. In 1988 I
suggested I would like to use his account of the Battle of Nadzab, but he
really got excited about it. He said he was sure some of the Headquarters
Company people would be put out with him if he did. I suggest that it was
foolish of me to ask about it. To survive in the California Education
System, one has to be the greatest of diplomats and take great care never
to do anything that might offend anyone in anyway whatever. One should
never allow a belief or ideal to figure when one’s whole career is
measured by survival. But in Barlett’s Familiar Quotations, repeated
fifty different ways, is the proposition that if all the good men kept
quiet for the sake of peace and harmony, the world would soon be taken
over by all the bad men. |
