“Congratulations, Guido … sorry, I mean Sergeant Guido,” he sez. “There was one thing I wanted to say to you away from the other recruits.”
“What’s that, Sergeant?”
“I wanted to tell you that you were right all along … it does take more skill to handle a combat situation without killing … and I’m glad to see we’re getting men of your abilities enlisting on our side. Just remember, though, that we only have limited time to train the recruits … which is why we focus on getting them to think in terms of ‘kills.’ If they’re at all squeamish about killing, if they think they can get by by disarming the enemy, they’ll try to do that instead … and they don’t have the skill and we don’t have the time to teach it to them, so they end up dead themselves and we end up placing second in a two army fight. Try to keep that in mind the next time you’re working with a group of raw recruits. In the meantime, good luck! Maybe we’ll get a chance to serve together again sometime.”
I am so surprised by the sergeant turnin’ out to be a good Joe, not to mention givin’ careful consideration to the thoughts he laid on me, that I am nearly back to the unit before the full impact of my promotion sinks in.
Then, I feel depressed. My entire career has been geared toward avoidin’ bein’ an authority-type figure, and now I am saddled with what is at least a supervisory post … permanent this time instead of temporary. My only consolations are that a) I can potentially do more damage havin’ a higher rank, and b) Nunzio has to suffer the burden of extra stripes right along with me.