Long
before the course had ended, Nat had become the platoon counselor, letter writer,
advisor and confidant. He even taught a couple of the recruits to read. He
didn’t choose to tell his mother what they had taught him in return. Halfway
through the course,
Quamo
made him squad leader.
“I
At
the end of the two-month stint, Nat came first in everything which involved
spelling. He also surprised his fellow rookies by beating them all around the
cross-country course and, although he had never fired a weapon before basic
training, he even out-shot the boys from Queens when it came to mastering the
M60 machine gun and the M70 grenade launcher.
They
were more practiced in smaller weapons.
It
didn’t take eight weeks for
Quamo
to change his mind
about Nat’s chances of making Officer Cadet School. Unlike most of the other
“sad sacks” who were destined for ‘
nam
, he found that
Nat was a born leader.
“Mind
you,”
Quamo
warned Nat, “a butter bar second
lieutenant is just as likely to have his ass blown off as a private soldier,
because one thing’s for certain, the VC can’t tell the difference.”
Sergeant
Quamo
turned out to be right, because only two
soldiers were selected to go to Fort
Benning
. The
other was a college boy from Third Platoon named Dick Tyler.
For
the first three weeks at Fort
Benning
, the main
outdoor activity was alongside the black hats.
The
parachute instructors took their new recruits through their landing falls,
first from a thirty-five-foot wall, and later from the dreaded
three-hundred-foot tower. Of the two hundred soldiers who began the course,
less than a hundred made it through to the next stage. Nat was among the final
ten chosen to wear a white helmet during jump week. Fifteen jumps later, and it
was his turn to have silver jump wings pinned to his chest.
When
Nat returned home for a week’s furlough, his mother hardly recognized the child
who had left her three months earlier. He had been replaced by a man, an inch
taller and seven pounds lighter, with a crew cut that made his father reminisce
about his days in Italy.
After
the short break, Nat returned to Fort
Benning
, pulled
back on his glistening Corcoran jump boots, threw his barrack bag over his
shoulder, and took the short walk from airborne to the other side of the road.
Here
he began his training as an infantry officer. Although he rose just as early each
morning, he now spent far more of his time in the classroom, studying military
history, map reading, tactics and command strategy, along with seventy other
would-be officers who were also preparing to be sent to Vietnam.
The
one statistic no one would talk about was that more than fifty percent of them
could expect to return in a body bag.
“Joanna’s
going to have to face a disciplinary inquiry,” said Jimmy as he sat on the end
of Fletcher’s bed. “Whereas it’s me who should be suffering the wrath of the ethics
committee,” he added.
Fletcher
tried to calm his friend, but he had never seen him so incensed. “Why can’t
they understand that it’s not a crime to fall in love?”
“I
think you’ll find that they are more worried about the consequences of it
happening the other way around,” said Fletcher.
“What
do you mean?” asked Jimmy, looking up.
“Simply
that the administration is genuinely concerned about male teachers taking
advantage of young, impressionable female undergraduates.”
“But
can’t they tell when it’s genuine?” asked Jimmy. “Anyone can see that I adore
Joanna, and she feels the same way about me.”
“And
they might even have turned a blind eye in your case if you both hadn’t made it
so public.”
“I
would have thought you of all people would have respected Joanna for her
refusal to be disingenuous on the subject,” said Jimmy.
“I
do,” said Fletcher, “but she’s left the authorities with no option but to
respond to that honesty, given the university regulations.”
“Then
it’s the regulations that need changing,” said Jimmy. “Joanna believes as a
teacher, you shouldn’t have to hide your true feelings.
She
wants to make sure that the next
generation never have
to face the same predicament.”
“Jimmy,
I’m not disagreeing with you, and knowing Joanna, she will have thought about
those regulations carefully and also have a strong view on the relevance of
rule 17b.
”,
“Of
course she does, but Joanna isn’t going to become engaged I just to let the
board off the hook.”
“That’s
some woman you asked if you could carry her books,” said Fletcher.
“Don’t
remind me,” Jimmy replied. “You know that they’re now cheering her at the
beginning and end of every lecture she gives.”
“So
when does the ethics
committee convene
to make its
decision?”
“Next Wednesday at ten o’clock.
It’s going to be a media field day. I just wish my father wasn’t coming up for
reelection in the fall.”
“I
wouldn’t worry about your father,” said Fletcher.
“My
bet is that he’ll have already found a way of turning the problem to his
advantage.”
Nat
had never expected to come into contact with his commanding officer, and
wouldn’t have done so if his mother hadn’t parked her car in the colonel’s
reserved space. When Nat’s father spotted the sign commandant, he suggested she
should quickly reverse.
Susan
reversed a little too quickly, and collided with Colonel
Tremlett’s
jeep just as he swung in.
“Oh,
God,” said Nat as he leaped out of the car. “I wouldn’t go that far,” said
Tremlett
.
“Colonel
will do just fine.” Nat leaped to attention and saluted as his father
surreptitiously checked the commandant’s medals. “We must have served
together,” he said, staring at a red and green ribbon among the cluster on his
chest. The colonel looked up from studying the dent in his fender. “I was with
the Eightieth in Italy,” Nat’s father explained.
“I
hope you maneuvered those
Shermans
a damn sight
better than you drive a car,” said the colonel as the two men shook hands.
Michael didn’t mention that it was his wife who was driving.
Tremlett
looked at Nat. “
Cartwright,
isn’t it?”
“Yes,
sir,” said Nat, surprised that the commanding officer knew his name.
“Your
son looks as though he’s going to be top of his class when he graduates next
week,”
Tremlett
said, turning his attention back to
Nat’s father. He paused, “I may have an assignment in mind for him,” he added
without explanation. “Report to my office at eight tomorrow morning,
Cartwright.” The colonel smiled at Nat’s mother, and shook hands once again
with his father, before turning back to Nat. “And if I can see a dent in that
fender when I leave tonight, Cartwright, you can forget your next furlough.”
The colonel winked at Nat’s mother as the boy sprang to attention and saluted
again.
Nat
spent the afternoon on his knees with a hammer and a pot of khaki paint.
The
following morning, Nat arrived at the colonel’s office at seven forty-five, and
was surprised to be ushered straight through to see the commandant.
Tremlett
pointed to a chair on the other side of his desk.
“So
you’ve stood up and been counted, Nat,” were the colonel’s first words as he
glanced down at his file. “What do you want to do next?”
Nat
looked across at Colonel
Tremlett
, a man with five
rows of ribbons on his chest.
He’d
seen action in Italy and Korea and had recently returned from a tour of duty in
Vietnam. His nickname was “the terrier,” because he enjoyed getting so close to
the enemy that he could bite their ankles. Nat responded to his question
immediately.
“I
expect to be among those posted to Vietnam, sir.”
“It’s
not necessary for you to serve in the Asian sector,” said his CO. “You’ve
proved your point, and there are several other postings I can recommend,
ranging from Berlin to Washington,
D.c.
, so that once
you’ve completed your two years, you can return to university.”
“That
rather defeats the object, doesn’t it, sir?”
“But
it’s almost unknown to send an enlisted officer to ‘
nam
,”
said the CO, “especially one of your caliber.”
“Then
perhaps the time has come for someone to break the mold. After all, that’s what
you keep reminding us leadership is all about.”
“What
if I asked you to complete your service as my staff officer, then you could
assist me here at the academy with the next intake of recruits?”
“So
that they can all go off to Vietnam and get themselves killed?” Nat stared
across the table at his CO. He immediately regretted overstepping the mark.
“Do
you know who the last person was who sat there and told me he was determined to
go to ‘
nam
,
and nothing I could say would change his mind?”
“No, sir.”
“My
son, Daniel,” replied
Tremlett
, “and on that occasion
I had no choice but to accept his decision.” The colonel paused, glancing at a
photo on his desk that Nat couldn’t see. “He survived for eleven days.” woman
lecturer seduces senator’s son, screamed the banner headline in the New Haven Register.
“That’s
a bloody insult,” said Jimmy.
“What
do you mean?” asked Fletcher.
“I
seduced her.”
When
Fletcher stopped laughing, he continued to read the front page article Joanna
Palmer, a lecturer in European history at Yale, has had her contract terminated
by the University Ethics Committee, after admitting that she was having an
affair with James Gates, a freshman she has been teaching for the past six
months. Mr. Gates is the son of Senator Harry Gates.
Last
night, from their home in East Hartford.
.
Fletcher
looked up. “How has your father taken it?”
“Tells
me he’ll win by a landslide,” said Jimmy. “All the women’s rights groups are
backing Joanna, and all the men think I’m the coolest thing since Dustin
Hoffman’s Graduate.
Dad
also believes that the committee will be left with no choice but to reverse
their decision long before the term ends.”
“And
if they don’t?” asked Fletcher.
“What chance is there of
Joanna being offered another job?”
“That’s
the least of her problems,” Jimmy replied, “because the phone hasn’t stopped
ringing since the committee announced their decision. Both Radcliffe, where she
did her undergraduate degree, and Columbia, where she completed her
Ph.d.
, have offered her jobs, and that was before the
opinion poll on the Today Show reported that eighty-two percent of their
viewers thought she should be reinstated.”
“So
what does she plan to do next?”
“
Appeal,
and my bet is that the committee won’t be able to
ignore public opinion.”
“But
where does that leave you?”
“I
still want to marry Joanna, but she won’t hear of it until she
know
the result of her arbitration. She refuses to become
engaged in case it influences the committee in her favor. She’s determined to
win the case on its merits, not on public sentiment.”
“That’s
a remarkable woman you’ve got yourself involved with,” said Fletcher.
“I
agree,” said Jimmy. “And you only know the half of it.” lt. Nat cartwright had
been stenciled on the door of his little office at MACV headquarters even
before he’d arrived in Saigon. It quickly became clear to Nat that he was to be
desk-bound for his entire watch, not even allowed to discover where the front
line was. On arrival, he did not join his regiment in the field, but was
assigned to Combat Service Support. Colonel
Tremlett’s
dispatches had obviously landed in Saigon long before he had.
Nat
was described on the daily manifest as a quartermaster, which allowed those
above him to pile up the paperwork, and those below him to take their time
carrying out his orders. They all seemed to be involved in the plot, a plot
that resulted in Nat I spending every working hour filling in regulation forms
for items as varied as baked beans and Chinook helicopters. Seven hundred and
twenty-two tons of supplies were flown into the capital every week, and it was
Nat’s duty to see they reached the front line. In any one month, he handled
over nine thousand items. Everything managed to get there except him. He even
resorted to sleeping with the commanding officer’s secretary, but quickly
discovered that Mollie had no real influence over her boss, although he did
find out about her considerable expertise in unarmed combat.