"Okay," Pickering said.
"Just before he died, Roosevelt appointed another three-star, Lucius D. Clay, a heavy hitter who had been in charge of Army procurement throughout the war, to be deputy military governor of Germany under Ike. When Ike went home to be chief of staff, Clay replaced him as Commander-in-Chief, Europe. Truman gave Clay a fourth star, and sent him a succession of three-stars to command Seventh Army."
"You've done your homework, obviously," Pickering thought aloud.
"I work hard at what I do for a living, sir. Like you, sir."
Pick chuckled.
"Walter Bedell Smith, known as `The Beetle' for rea-sons I can't imagine, went home with Ike. First, he was made DCSOPS... You know what that is, sir?"
Pickering shook his head, "no."
"Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations," Jeanette said. "Then Truman named him Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Now there's talk of naming him Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to replace Admiral Hillenkoetter."
"This is all very fascinating, Jeanette," Pickering said, smiling, "and I'm sure that somewhere down the road, you'll make your point."
"Yes, sir," she said, smiling back. "Now, at this end of the world, we had General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, and his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Richard Sutherland. General Sutherland went home for'reasons of health'-and I'd love to know what was behind that. He thereupon disappeared from sight. No job in the Pentagon, nothing."
"Maybe he was ill," Pickering said.
"Maybe," Jeanette went on. "Leaving one three-star here under MacArthur, Lieutenant General Walton H. `Johnny' Walker, who commands the Eighth Army. I don't suppose he was at dinner tonight?"
Pickering shook his head, "no."
"Not surprising. He is not a member of the elite, other-wise known as the `Bataan Gang.'"
"There is a point to all this, right?" Pickering said.
"One would logically assume, wouldn't one, that the five-star Supreme Commander in Japan would be entitled to the same sort of staff as the five-star commander-in-chief in Europe?"
"One might."
"A four-star, like Lucius Clay, would be appropriate, no?"
"One would think so."
"Failing a four-star, then a three-star, right?"
`That would seem logical."
"And failing a three-star, then a hotshot two-star with lots more stars clearly on his horizon. Max Taylor comes to mind. So does I. D. White."
"Who?" Pick asked.
"Max Taylor commanded the 101st Airborne Division; White commanded the 2nd `Hell on Wheels' Armored Di-vision. He would have liberated Paris if he hadn't had to let the French pass through his lines to get the glory, and he had his lead tanks across the Elbe River and was prepared to take Berlin when Dee told him to let the Russians do it. It's a sure thing that both of them will get a third star, a good chance that they'll both get four, and even money that one or the other will be chief of staff of the Army. And what better way to learn that trade than by being chief of staff to MacArthur?"
"That would seem to make sense," Pickering said.
"So who does the Army-which means Eisenhower, onetime aide to MacArthur-send to the Supreme Com-mander? Edward M. Almond, whose claim to fame was commanding one of the two Negro divisions in Italy. With-out much wild acclaim, by the way. He did his job, but he wasn't a hotshot. I don't think he's even a West Pointer. I think he's either VMI or the Citadel."
Mention of the Citadel made him think of Colonel Ed Banning, one of the finest officers he had ever known.
"And you've drawn some sort of a conclusion from this?" Pickering asked.
"If I were Douglas MacArthur, I'd think I was being in-sulted."
"If Douglas MacArthur thought having General Almond assigned to him was insulting, General Almond would not be his chief of staff," Pickering said.
I don't believe that; so why did I say it? MacArthur's re-action to insults is to ignore them. He knew damned well they called him "Dugout Doug," and pretended he didn't. It wasn't fair, anyway. He took stupid chances by staying in the line of fire-artillery and small arms-when he should have been in a dugout.
"Huh!" Jeanette snorted.
"And what's wrong with VMI and the Citadel?" Picker-ing challenged. "George Catlett Marshall went to VMI. And I personally know a number of fine officers who went to VMI and Norwich."
"Point granted," Jeanette said. "I. D. White went to Norwich. You don't see anything petty-not to mention sinis-ter-in Almond's assignment to MacArthur?"
"Nothing at all."
Why did I say that? I believe the story that MacArthur, when he was chief of staff, wrote an efficiency report on Marshall, then a colonel, saying he should not be given command of anything larger than a regiment. There was really bad blood between the two. One of Marshall's acolytes-maybe even Eisenhower himself-could have re-paid the Marshall insult by sending him a two-star non-West Pointer whose sole claim to fame was command-ing a colored division.
But I'm not going to admit that to this woman, this jour-nalist.
Why not?
Because it would air the dirty linen of the general offi-cers corps in public, and I don't want to do that.
Why?
Because, I suppose, I used to be called General Picker-ing. I guess that's like Once A Marine, Always A Marine.
But my fellow generals can be petty. Stupidly petty.
El Supremo refused to give the 4th Marines the Distin-guished Unit Citation for Corregidor, even though every-body else on the island got it. When I asked him why, he told me the Marines already had enough medals.
And Charley Willoughby is stupid enough, and petty enough, to ignore McCoy's report-have it destroyed-be-cause it disagrees with his assessment of the situation. Or admit that he didn't even have an assessment. Captains are not supposed to disagree with generals, much less point out that generals have done their jobs badly, or not at all.
What the hell am I going to do with that report?
And what the hell can I do to help McCoy?
"From what I've seen of General Almond, General," McCoy said, "he's as smart as they come."
Pickering was surprised that McCoy had volunteered anything, much less offered an opinion of a general officer.
Why did he do that?
To tell me something he thought I should know?
To challenge this female's theory that there was some-thing sinister in Almond's assignment?
And why, if he likes Almond, didn't he take his report to him, bypassing Willoughby?
Because that's known as going out of channels, and in the military that's like raping a nun in church.
Pickering looked at McCoy.
And had another thought:
Almond must have a hard time with Willoughby, even though the G-2 is under the chief of staff. Not only does Willoughby have MacArthur's ear, but he's the senior mem-ber of the Bataan Gang, who can do no wrong in El Supremo's eyes.
"Jeanette," Pick said. "Now that you've talked to Sir, are you going to live up to your end of the bargain?"
"What bargain was that?"
"Dinner. I'm starved. The last thing I had to eat was a stale sandwich on the airplane."