‘Colonel, I’m not going to stand for it any more,’ he declared with vehement determination, and watched in dismay as Colonel Korn went trotting by up the steps without even noticing him.
‘Colonel Korn!’
The tubby, loose figure of his superior officer stopped, turned and came trotting back down slowly.
‘What is it, Chaplain?’
‘Colonel Korn, I want to talk to you about the crash this morning.
It was a terrible thing to happen, terrible!’
Colonel Korn was silent a moment, regarding the chaplain with a glint of cynical amusement.
‘Yes, Chaplain, it certainly was terrible,’ he said finally.
‘I don’t know how we’re going to write this one up without making ourselves look bad.’
‘That isn’t what I meant,’ the chaplain scolded firmly without any fear at all.
‘Some of those twelve men had already finished their seventy missions.’
Colonel Korn laughed.
‘Would it be any less terrible if they had all been new men?’ he inquired caustically.
Once again the chaplain was stumped.
Immoral logic seemed to be confounding him at every turn.
He was less sure of himself than before when he continued, and his voice wavered.
‘Sir, it just isn’t right to make the men in this group fly eighty missions when the men in other groups are being sent home with fifty and fifty-five.’
‘We’ll take the matter under consideration,’ Colonel Korn said with bored disinterest, and started away.
‘Adios, Padre.’
‘What does that mean, sir?’ the chaplain persisted in a voice turning shrill.
Colonel Korn stopped with an unpleasant expression and took a step back down.
‘It means we’ll think about it, Padre,’ he answered with sarcasm and contempt.
‘You wouldn’t want us to do anything without thinking about it, would you?’
‘No, sir, I suppose not.
But you have been thinking about it, haven’t you?’
‘Yes, Padre, we have been thinking about it.
But to make you happy, we’ll think about it some more, and you’ll be the first person we’ll tell if we reach a new decision.
And now, adios.’
Colonel Korn whirled away again and hurried up the stairs.
‘Colonel Korn!’
The chaplain’s cry made Colonel Korn stop once more.
His head swung slowly around toward the chaplain with a look of morose impatience.
Words gushed from the chaplain in a nervous torrent. ‘Sir, I would like your permission to take the matter to General Dreedle.
I want to bring my protests to Wing Headquarters.’
Colonel Korn’s thick, dark jowls inflated unexpectedly with a suppressed guffaw, and it took him a moment to reply.
‘That’s all right, Padre,’ he answered with mischievous merriment, trying hard to keep a straight face.
‘You have my permission to speak to General Dreedle.’
‘Thank you, sir.
I believe it only fair to warn you that I think I have some influence with General Dreedle.’
‘It’s good of you to warn me, Padre.
And I believe it only fair to warn you that you won’t find General Dreedle at Wing.’
Colonel Korn grinned wickedly and then broke into triumphant laughter.
‘General Dreedle is out, Padre.
And General Peckem is in.
We have a new wing commander.’
The chaplain was stunned. ‘General Peckem!’
‘That’s right, Chaplain.
Have you got any influence with him?’
‘Why, I don’t even know General Peckem,’ the chaplain protested wretchedly.
Colonel Korn laughed again.