29. Peckem
There was no word about Orr the next day, and Sergeant Whitcomb,
with commendable dispatch and considerable hope, dropped a
reminder in his tickler file to send a form letter over Colonel Cathcart's
signature to Orr's next of kin when nine more days had elapsed. There
was word from General Peckem's headquarters, though, and Yossarian
was drawn to the crowd of officers and enlisted men in shorts and
bathing trunks buzzing in grumpy confusion around the bulletin board
just outside the orderly room.
"What's so different about this Sunday, I want to know?" Hungry Joe
was demanding vociferously of Chief White Halfoat. "Why won't we
have a parade this Sunday when we don't have a parade every Sunday?
Huh?"
Yossarian worked his way through to the front and let out a long,
agonized groan when he read the terse announcement there:
Due to circumstances beyond my control, there
will be no big parade this Sunday afternoon.
COLONEL SCHEISSKOPF
Dobbs was right. They were indeed sending everyone overseas, even
Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who had resisted the move with all the vigor
and wisdom at his command and who reported for duty at General
Peckem's office in a mood of grave discontent.
General Peckem welcomed Colonel Scheisskopf with effusive
charm and said he was delighted to have him. An additional colonel on
his staff meant that he could now begin agitating for two additional
majors, four additional captains, sixteen additional lieutenants and
untold quantities of additional enlisted men, typewriters, desks, filing
cabinets, automobiles and other substantial equipment and supplies
that would contribute to the prestige of his position and increase his
striking power in the war he had declared against General Dreedle. He
now had two full colonels; General Dreedle had only five, and four of
those were combat commanders. With almost no intriguing at all,
General Peckem had executed a maneuver that would eventually double
his strength. And General Dreedle was getting drunk more often.
The future looked wonderful, and General Peckem contemplated his
bright new colonel enchantedly with an effulgent smile.
In all matters of consequence, General P. P. Peckem was, as he always
remarked when he was about to criticize the work of some close associate
publicly, a realist. He was a handsome, pink-skinned man of fifty-three.
His manner was always casual and relaxed, and his uniforms were
custom-made. He had silver-gray hair, slightly myopic eyes and thin,
overhanging, sensual lips. He was a perceptive, graceful, sophisticated
man who was sensitive to everyone's weaknesses but his own and found
everyone absurd but himself. General Peckem laid great, fastidious
stress on small matters of taste and style. He was always augmenting
things. Approaching events were never coming, but always upcoming. It
was not true that he wrote memorandums praising himself and recommending
that his authority be enhanced to include all combat operations;
he wrote memoranda. And the prose in the memoranda of other officers
was always turgid, stilted, or ambiguous. The errors of others were
inevitably deplorable. Regulations were stringent, and his data never was
obtained from a reliable source, but always were obtained. General
Peckem was frequently constrained. Things were often incumbent upon
him, and he frequently acted with greatest reluctance. It never escaped his
memory that neither black nor white was a color, and he never used verbal
when he meant oral. He could quote glibly from Plato, Nietzsche,
Montaigne, Theodore Roosevelt, the Marquis de Sade and Warren G.
Harding. A virgin audience like Colonel Scheisskopf was grist for
General Peckem's mill, a stimulating opportunity to throw open his
whole dazzling erudite treasure house of puns, wisecracks, slanders,
homilies, anecdotes, proverbs, epigrams, apothegms, bon mots and
other pungent sayings. He beamed urbanely as he began orienting
Colonel Scheisskopf to his new surroundings.
"My only fault," he observed with practiced good humor, watching
for the effect of his words, "is that I have no faults."
Colonel Scheisskopf didn't laugh, and General Peckem was
stunned. A heavy doubt crushed his enthusiasm. He had just opened
with one of his most trusted paradoxes, and he was positively alarmed
that not the slightest flicker of acknowledgment had moved across that
impervious face, which began to remind him suddenly, in hue and texture,
of an unused soap eraser. Perhaps Colonel Scheisskopf was tired,
General Peckem granted to himself charitably; he had come a long
way, and everything was unfamiliar. General Peckem's attitude toward
all the personnel in his command, officers and enlisted men, was
marked by the same easy spirit of tolerance and permissiveness. He
mentioned often that if the people who worked for him met him
halfway, he would meet them more than halfway, with the result, as he
always added with an astute chuckle, that there was never any meeting
of the minds at all. General Peckem thought of himself as aesthetic and
intellectual. When people disagreed with him, he urged them to be
objective.
And it was indeed an objective Peckem who gazed at Colonel
Scheisskopf encouragingly and resumed his indoctrination with an
attitude of magnanimous forgiveness. "You've come to us just in time,
Scheisskopf. The summer offensive has petered out, thanks to the
incompetent leadership with which we supply our troops, and 1 have a
crying need for a tough, experienced, competent officer like you to
help produce the memoranda upon which we rely so heavily to let people
know how good we are and how much work we're turning out. I
hope you are a prolific writer."
"I don't know anything about writing," Colonel Scheisskopf retorted
sullenly.
"Well, don't let that trouble you," General Peckem continued with
a careless flick of his wrist. "Just pass the work I assign you along to
somebody else and trust to luck. We call that delegation of responsibility.
Somewhere down near the lowest level of this coordinated
organization I run are people who do get the work done when it
reaches them, and everything manages to run along smoothly without
too much effort on my part. I suppose that's because 1am a good executive.
Nothing we do in this large department of ours is really very
important, and there's never any rush. On the other hand, it is important
that we let people know we do a great deal of it. Let me know if
you find yourself shorthanded. I've already put in a requisition for two
majors, four captains and sixteen lieutenants to give you a hand. While
none of the work we do is very important, it is important that we do a
great deal of it. Don't you agree?"
"What about the parades?" Colonel Scheisskopf broke in.
"What parades?" inquired General Peckem with a feeling that his
polish just wasn't getting across.
"Won't 1 be able to conduct parades every Sunday afternoon?"
Colonel Scheisskopf demanded petulantly.
"No. Of course not. What ever gave you that idea?"
"But they said I could."
"Who said you could?"
"The officers who sent me overseas. They told me I'd be able to
march the men around in parades all I wanted to."
"They lied to you."
"That wasn't fair, sir.
"I'm sorry, Scheisskopf. I'm willing to do everything I can to make
you happy here, but parades are out of the question. We don't have
enough men in our own organization to make up much of a parade,
and the combat units would rise up in open rebellion if we tried to
make them march. I'm afraid you'll just have to hold back awhile until
we get control. Then you can do what you want with the men."
"What about my wife?" Colonel Scheisskopf demanded with disgruntled
suspicion. "I'll still be able to send for her, won't I?"
"Your wife? Why in the world should you want to?"
"A husband and wife should be together."
"That's out of the question also."
"But they said I could send for her!"
"They lied to you again."
"They had no right to lie to me!" Colonel Scheisskopf protested, his
eyes wetting with indignation.
"Of course they had a right," General Peckem snapped with cold
and calculated severity, resolving right then and there to test the mettle
of his new colonel under fire. "Don't be such an ass, Scheisskopf.
People have a right to do anything that's not forbidden by law, and
there's no law against lying to you. Now, don't ever waste my time with
such sentimental platitudes again. Do you hear?"
"Yes, sir," murmured Colonel Scheisskopf.
Colonel Scheisskopf wilted pathetically, and General Peckem
blessed the fates that had sent him a weakling for a subordinate. A man
of spunk would have been unthinkable. Having won, General Peckem
relented. He did not enjoy humiliating his men. "If your wife were a
Wac, I could probably have her transferred here. But that's the most I
can do."
"She has a friend who's a Wac," Colonel Scheisskopf offered hopefully.
"I'm afraid that isn't good enough. Have Mrs. Scheisskopf join the
Wacs if she wants to, and I'll bring her over here. But in the meantime,
my dear Colonel, let's get back to our little war, if we may. Here,
briefly, is the military situation that confronts us." General Peckem
rose and moved toward a rotary rack of enormous colored maps.
Colonel Scheisskopf blanched. "We're not going into combat, are
we?" he blurted out in horror.
"Oh, no, of course not," General Peckem assured him indulgently,
with a companionable laugh. "Please give me some credit, won't you?
That's why we're still down here in Rome. Certainly, I'd like to be up
in Florence, too, where I could keep in closer touch with ex-P.F.C.
Wintergreen. But Florence is still a bit too near the actual fighting to
suit me." General Peckem lifted a wooden pointer and swept the rubber
tip cheerfully across Italy from one coast to the other. "These,
Scheisskopf, are the Germans. They're dug into these mountains very
solidly in the Gothic Line and won't be pushed out till late next spring,
although that isn't going to stop those clods we have in charge from
trying. That gives us in Special Services almost nine months to achieve
our objective. And that objective is to capture every bomber group in
the U.S. Air Force. After all," said General Peckem with his low, well-modulated
chuckle, "if dropping bombs on the enemy isn't a special
service, I wonder what in the world is. Don't you agree?" Colonel
Scheisskopf gave no indication that he did agree, but General Peckem
was already too entranced with his own loquacity to notice. "Our position
right now is excellent. Reinforcements like yourself keep arriving,
and we have more than enough time to plan our entire strategy carefully.
Our immediate goal," he said, "is right here." And General
Peckem swung his pointer south to the island of Pianosa and tapped it
significantly upon a large word that had been lettered on there with
black grease pencil. The word was DREEDLE.
Colonel Scheisskopf, squinting, moved very close to the map, and
for the first time since he entered the room a light of comprehension
shed a dim glow over his stolid face. "I think I understand," he
exclaimed. "Yes, I know I understand. Our first job is to capture
Dreedle away from the enemy. Right?"
General Peckem laughed benignly, "No, Scheisskopf. Dreedle's on
our side, and Dreedle is the enemy. General Dreedle commands four
bomb groups that we simply must capture in order to continue our
offensive. Conquering General Dreedle will give us the aircraft and
vital bases we need to carry our operations into other areas. And that
battle, by the way, is just about won." General Peckem drifted toward
the window, laughing quietly again, and settled back against the sill
with his arms folded, greatly satisfied by his own wit and by his knowledgeable, blase impudence. The skilled choice of words he was exercising
was exquisitely titillating. General Peckem liked listening to
himself talk, liked most of all listening to himself talk about himself.
"General Dreedle simply doesn't know how to cope with me," he
gloated. "I keep invading his jurisdiction with comments and criticisms
that are really none of my business, and he doesn't know what to do
about it. When he accuses me of seeking to undermine him, 1 merely
answer that my only purpose in calling attention to his errors is to
strengthen our war effort by eliminating inefficiency. Then 1 ask him
innocently if he's opposed to improving our war effort. Oh, he grumbles
and he bristles and he bellows, but he's really quite helpless. He's
simply out of style. He's turning into quite a souse, you know. The
poor blockhead shouldn't even be a general. He has no tone, no tone
at all. Thank God he isn't going to last." General Peckem chuckled
with jaunty relish and sailed smoothly along toward a favorite learned
allusion. "I sometimes think of myself as Fortinbras -- ha, ha -- in the
play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, who just keeps circling and circling
around the action until everything else falls apart, and then strolls
in at the end to pick up all the pieces for himself. Shakespeare is-"
"I don't know anything about plays," Colonel Scheisskopf broke in
bluntly.
General Peckem looked at him with amazement. Never before had
a reference of his to Shakespeare's hallowed Hamlet been ignored and
trampled upon with such rude indifference. He began to wonder with
genuine concern just what sort of shithead the Pentagon had foisted on
him. "What do you know about?" he asked acidly.
"Parades," answered Colonel Scheisskopf eagerly. "Will 1 be able to
send out memos about parades?"
"A:, long as you don't schedule any." General Peckem returned to
his chair still wearing a frown. "And as long as they don't interfere with
your main assignment of recommending that the authority of Special
Services be expanded to include combat activities."
"Can I schedule parades and then call them off?"
General Peckem brightened instantly. "Why, that's a wonderful
ideal But just send out weekly announcements postponing the parades.
Don't even bother to schedule them. That would be infinitely more
disconcerting." General Peckem was blossoming spryly with cordiality
again. "Yes, Scheisskopf," he said, "I think you've really hit on
something. After all, what combat commander could possibly quarrel
with us for notifying his men that there won't be a parade that coming
Sunday? We'd be merely stating a widely known fact. But the implication
is beautiful. Yes, positively beautiful. We're implying that we could
schedule a parade if we chose to. I'm going to like you, Scheisskopf.
Stop in and introduce yourself to Colonel Cargill and tell him what
you're up to. 1 know you two will like each other."
Colonel Cargill came storming into General Peckem's office a
minute later in a furor of timid resentment. "I've been here longer than
Scheisskopf," he complained. "Why can't 1 be the one to call off the
parades?"
"Because Scheisskopf has experience with parades, and you haven't.
You can call off U.S.A. shows if you want to. In fact, why don't you?
Just think of all the places that won't be getting a U.S.A. show on any
given day. Think of all the places each big-name entertainer won't be
visiting. Yes, Cargill, 1 think you've hit on something. 1 think you've
just thrown open a whole new area of operation for us. Tell Colonel
Scheisskopf 1 want him to work along under your supervision on this.
And send him in to see me when you're through giving him instructions."
"Colonel Cargill says you told him you want me to work along
under his supervision on the U.S.A. project," Colonel Scheisskopf
complained.
"I told him no such thing," answered General Peckem. "Confidentially,
Scheisskopf, I'm not too happy with Colonel Cargill. He's bossy
and he's slow. I'd like you to keep a close eye on what he's doing and
see if you can't get a little more work out of him."
"He keeps butting in," Colonel Cargill protested. "He won't let me
get any work done."
"There's something very funny about Scheisskopf," General
Peckem agreed reflectively. "Keep a very close eye on him and see if
you can't find out what he's up to."
"Now he's butting into my business!" Colonel Scheisskopf cried.
"Don't let it worry you, Scheisskopf," said General Peckem, congratulating
himself on how adeptly he had fit Colonel Scheisskopf into
his standard method of operation. Already his two colonels were
barely on speaking terms. "Colonel Cargill envies you because of the
splendid job you're doing on parades. He's afraid I'm going to put you
in charge of bomb patterns."
Colonel Scheisskopf was all ears. "What are bomb patterns?"
"Bomb patterns?" General Peckem repeated, twinkling with self-satisfied
good humor. "A bomb pattern is a term 1 dreamed up just several weeks ago. It means nothing, but you'd" be surprised at how rapidly
it's caught on. Why, I've got all sorts of people convinced I think
it's important for the bombs to explode close together and make a neat
aerial photograph. There's one colonel in Pianosa who's hardly concerned
any more with whether he hits the target or not. Let's fly over
and have some fun with him today. It will make Colonel Cargill jealous,
and I learned from Wintergreen this morning that General
Dreedle will be off in Sardinia. It drives General Dreedle insane to find
out I've been inspecting one of his installations while he's been off
inspecting another. We may even get there in time for the briefing.
They'll be bombing a tiny undefended village, reducing the whole
community to rubble. I have it from Wintergreen -- Wintergreen's an
ex-sergeant now, by the way-that the mission is entirely unnecessary.
Its only purpose is to delay German reinforcements at a time when we
aren't even planning an offensive. But that's the way things go when
you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority." He gestured
languidly toward his gigantic map of Italy. "Why, this tiny mountain
village is so insignificant that it isn't even there."
They arrived at Colonel Cathcart's group too late to attend the preliminary
briefing and hear Major Danby insist, "But it is there, I tell
you. It's there, it's there."
"It's where?" Dunbar demanded defiantly, pretending not to see.
"It's right there on the map where this road makes this slight turn.
Can't you see this slight turn on your map?"
"No, I can't see it."
"I can see it," volunteered Havermeyer, and marked the spot on
Dunbar's map. "And here's a good picture of the village right on these
photographs. I understand the whole thing. The purpose of the mission
is to knock the whole village sliding down the side of the mountain
and create a roadblock that the Germans will have to clear. Is that
right?"
"That's right," said Major Danby, mopping his perspiring forehead
with his handkerchief. "I'm glad somebody here is beginning to understand.
These two armored divisions will be coming down from Austria
into Italy along this road. The village is built on such a steep incline
that all the rubble from the houses and other buildings you destroy will
certainly tumble right down and pile up on the road."
"What the hell difference will it make?" Dunbar wanted to know, as
Yossarian watched him excitedly with a mixture of awe and adulation.
"It will only take them a couple of days to clear it."
Major Danby was trying to avoid an argument. "Well, it apparently
makes some difference to Headquarters," he answered in a conciliatory
tone. "I suppose that's why they ordered the mission."
"Have the people in the village been warned?" asked McWatt.
Major Danby was dismayed that McWatt too was registering opposition.
"No, I don't think so."
"Haven't we dropped any leaflets telling them that this time we'll be
flying over to hit them?" asked Yossarian. "Can't we even tip them off
so they'll get out of the way?"
"No, I don't think so." Major Danby was sweating some more and
still shifting his eyes about uneasily. "The Germans might find out and
choose another road. I'm not sure about any of this. I'm just making
assumptions. "
"They won't even take shelter," Dunbar argued bitterly. "They'll
pour out into the streets to wave when they see our planes coming, all
the children and dogs and old people. Jesus Christ! Why can't we leave
them alone?"
"Why can't we create the roadblock somewhere else?" asked McWatt.
"Why must it be there?"
"I don't know," Major Danby answered unhappily. "I don't know.
Look, fellows, we've got to have some confidence in the people above
us who issue our orders. They know what they're doing."
"The hell they do," said Dunbar.
"What's the trouble?" inquired Colonel Korn, moving leisurely
across the briefing room with his hands in his pockets and his tan shirt
baggy.
"Oh, no trouble, Colonel," said Major Danby, trying nervously to
cover up. "We're just discussing the mission."
"They don't want to bomb the village," Havermeyer snickered, giving
Major Danby away.
"You prick!" Yossarian said to Havermeyer.
"You leave Havermeyer alone," Colonel Korn ordered Yossarian
curtly. He recognized Yossarian as the drunk who had accosted him
roughly at the officers' club one night before the first mission to
Bologna, and he swung his displeasure prudently to Dunbar. "Why
don't you want to bomb the village?"
"It's cruel, that's why."
"Cruel?" asked Colonel Korn with cold good humor, frightened
only momentarily by the uninhibited vehemence of Dunbar's hostility.
"Would it be any less cruel to let those two German divisions down to
fight with our troops? American lives are at stake, too, you know.
Would you rather see American blood spilled?"
"American blood is being spilled. But those people are living up
there in peace. Why can't we leave them the hell alone?"
"Yes, it's easy for you to talk," Colonel Korn jeered. "You're safe
here in Pianosa. It won't make any difference to you when these
German reinforcements arrive, will it?"
Dunbar turned crimson with embarrassment and replied in a voice
that was suddenly defensive. "Why can't we create the roadblock
somewhere else? Couldn't we bomb the slope of a mountain or the
road itself?"
"Would you rather go back to Bologna?" The question, asked quietly,
rang out like a shot and created a silence in the room that was
awkward and menacing. Yossarian prayed intensely, with shame, that
Dunbar would keep his mouth shut. Dunbar dropped his gaze, and
Colonel Korn knew he had won. "No, I thought not," he continued
with undisguised scorn. "You know, Colonel Cathcart and I have to go
to a lot of trouble to get you a milk run like this. If you'd sooner fly
missions to Bologna, Spezia and Ferrara, we can get those targets with
no trouble at all." His eyes gleamed dangerously behind his rimless
glasses, and his muddy jowls were square and hard. "Just let me know."
"I would," responded Havermeyer eagerly with another boastful
snicker. "I like to fly into Bologna straight and level with my head in
the bombsight and listen to all that flak pumping away all around me.
I get a big kick out of the way the men come charging over to me after
the mission and call me dirty names. Even the enlisted men get sore
enough to curse me and want to take socks at me."
Colonel Korn chucked Havermeyer under the chin jovially, ignoring
him, and then addressed himself to Dunbar and Yossarian in a dry
monotone. "You've got my sacred word for it. Nobody is more distressed
about those lousy wops up in the hills than Colonel Cathcart
and myself. Mais c'est la guerre. Try to remember that we didn't start
the war and Italy did. That we weren't the aggressors and Italy was.
And that we couldn't possibly inflict as much cruelty on the Italians,
Germans, Russians and Chinese as they're already inflicting on themselves."
Colonel Korn gave Major Danby's shoulder a friendly squeeze
without changing his unfriendly expression. "Carry on with the briefing,
Danby. And make sure they understand the importance of a tight
bomb pattern."
"Oh, no, Colonel," Major Danby blurted out, blinking upward.
"Not for this target. I've told them to space their bombs sixty feet apart
so that we'll have a roadblock the full length of the village instead of in
just one spot. It will be a much more effective roadblock with a loose
bomb pattern."
"We don't care about the roadblock," Colonel Korn informed him.
"Colonel Cathcart wants to come out of this mission with a good clean
aerial photograph he won't be ashamed to send through channels.
Don't forget that General Peckem will be here for the full briefing, and
you know how he feels about bomb patterns. Incidentally, Major, you'd
better hurry up with these details and clear out before he gets here.
General Peckem can't stand you."
"Oh, no, Colonel," Major Danby corrected obligingly. "It's General
Dreedle who can't stand me."
"General Peckem can't stand you either. In fact, no one can stand
you. Finish what you're doing, Danby, and disappear. I'll conduct the
briefing."
"Where's Major Danby?" Colonel Cathcart inquired, after he had
driven up for the full briefing with General Peckem and Colonel
Scheisskopf.
"He asked permission to leave as soon as he saw you driving up,"
answered Colonel Korn. "He's afraid General Peckem doesn't like
him. I was going to conduct the briefing anyway. I do a much better
job."
"Splendid!" said Colonel Cathcart. "No!" Colonel Cathcart countermanded
himself an instant later when he remembered how good
a job Colonel Korn had done before General Dreedle at the first
Avignon briefing. "I'll do it myself."
Colonel Cathcart braced himself with the knowledge that he was
one of General Peckem's favorites and took charge of the meeting,
snapping his words out crisply to the attentive audience of subordinate
officers with the bluff and dispassionate toughness he had picked up
from General Dreedle. He knew he cut a fine figure there on the platform
with his open shirt collar, his cigarette holder, and his close-cropped,
gray-tipped curly black hair. He breezed along beautifully,
even emulating certain characteristic mispronunciations of General
Dreedle's, and he was not the least bit intimidated by General Peckem's
new colonel until he suddenly recalled that General Peckem
detested General Dreedle. Then his voice cracked; and all confidence
left him. He stumbled ahead through instinct in burning humiliation.
He was suddenly in terror of Colonel Scheisskopf. Another colonel in
the area meant another rival, another enemy, another person who
hated him. And this one was tough! A horrifying thought occurred to
Colonel Cathcart: Suppose Colonel Scheisskopf had already bribed all
the men in the room to begin moaning, as they had done at the first
Avignon mission. How could he silence them? What a terrible black
eye that would be! Colonel Cathcart was seized with such fright that
he almost beckoned to Colonel Korn. Somehow he held himself
together and synchronized the watches. When he had done that, he
knew he had won, for he could end now at any time. He had come
through in a crisis. He wanted to laugh in Colonel Scheisskopf's face
with triumph and spite. He had proved himself brilliantly under pressure,
and he concluded the briefing with an inspiring peroration that
every instinct told him was a masterful exhibition of eloquent tact and
subtlety.
"Now, men," he exhorted. "We have with us today a very distinguished
guest, General Peckem from Special Services, the man who
gives us all our softball bats, comic books and U.S.A. shows. I want to
dedicate this mission to him. Go on out there and bomb--for me, for
your country, for God, and for that great American, General P. P.
Peckem. And let's see you put all those bombs on a dime!"