[Signed, with a grand flourish] Herbert M. Sobel, Capt., Commanding.
Winters confronted Sobel. “Captain,” he said after saluting and asking permission to speak, “my orders were to inspect the latrine at 1000 hours.”
“I changed that time to 0945.”
“No one told me.”
“I telephoned, and I sent a runner.” Winters bit his tongue. There was no telephone in his room, and no runner had come.
It was time for inspection. Strayer went down the ranks and through the barracks. Everything, including the latrine, was satisfactory. Winters, meanwhile, made up his mind on how to respond to Sobel. On the bottom of the typed sheet, he wrote by hand:
Subject: Punishment under 104 A.W. or Trial by Courts Martial.
To: Capt. H. M. Sobel
1. I request trial by Courts Martial for failure to inspect the latrine at 0945 this date.
Lt. R. D. Winters, XO, Co. E
Sobel replied the following day:
1. You will be denied a 48 hour pass until after December 15, 1943.
2. In accordance with the procedure outlined in the Courts-Martial Manual you will iniutate [initiate; Sergeant Evans evidently had trouble either typing or spelling] your own letter of appeal with your reasons for objection and also a request for trial by courts-martial.
Winters simmered for three days. So far as he could make out, Sobel was saying, “Look, don’t be silly, take the punishment and forget the courts-martial.” Sobel knew that the “punishment” was a matter of indifference to Winters, as Winters spent his weekends on the post, reading or playing sports. But Winters had had enough. He wanted to force the moment to a crisis. The competition he had never wanted, between himself and Sobel for leadership of E Company, had to be settled. The company was not big enough for both of them.
On November 4, Winters appealed his punishment under the 104th Article of War. Sobel made an “indorsement”
[Evans’ spelling] the next day:
1. Punishment for the above offense given by the undersigned will not be lifted by him.
2. When given another task to perform by a ranking officer to myself [Strayer’s order to censor the mail] you should have delegated your task to another officer to inspect the latrine and not let it go until such time that there was little time for corrective measures to be taken before the arrival of the General Officer about ten minutes later.
He signed with his usual flourish.
Winters’ request for a court-martial, meanwhile, was posing a problem that was not as funny as it sounded for the 2nd Battalion staff. The officers got out the court-martial manual and studied it intensively to try to figure out some way to get out from under this embarrassment. They finally did, and Strayer set aside the punishment and declared the case closed—no court-martial.
Sobel was not finished. The next day, November 12, Evans handed Winters another typed order: Subject: Failure to Instruct Latrine Orderly To: 1st Lt. R. D. Winters
1. You will reply by indorsement hereon your reason for failure to instruct Pvt. J. Melo in his duties as latrine orderly.
2. You will further reply why he was permitted to be on duty at 1030 Oct. 30 in need of a shave.
“I give up,” Winters decided. “Go ahead and shoot me.” In that mood he replied, by endorsement: 1. Reason for failure to instruct Pvt. J. Melo in his duties as latrine orderly: No excuse.
2. Reason why he was permitted to be on duty at 1030 hr in need of a shave: No excuse.
The next day Strayer decided, for the good of E Company (where, naturally, the long-anticipated showdown between Sobel and Winters was the talk of the barracks), to transfer Winters out of Easy. Strayer made him battalion mess officer.
That was an insult to Winters, in his view: “You only give a job like that to a guy that can’t do anything right.”
With Winters gone, Sobel still in charge, and combat coming, the N.C.O.s were in an uproar. Sergeants Ranney and Harris called a meeting. With the exception of Evans and one or two others, all the N.C.O.s in E Company attended.
Ranney and Harris proposed that they present Colonel Sink with an ultimatum: either Sobel be replaced, or they would turn in their stripes. They stressed that they would have to act together, with no dissenters land no identifiable leader.