The Bavarian Gate By John Dalmas

“Macurdy,” he said, “I’ve heard good things about you from Lieutenant Bosler and Sergeant Hogan-among other things that you’re an outstanding soldier, and someone the men in your platoon look up to. So I looked over your personnel papers. No high school, but your alpha score is hi; And you have experience in law enforcement; obviously you’re accustomed to exercising authority. In other words-” He paused, looking meaningfully at Macurdy. “You’d make a fine officer, the kind the army’s looking for. I want to recommend you go to Officer Candidate School when you’ve finished here.”

Macurdy’s response lag was about one second. “No disrespect, sir,” he said, “but I’m not at all sure I want to be an officer.”

The XO’s eyebrows rose. “Well, you don’t need to decide now. But being an officer is a lot more agreeable than being an enlisted man. Think about it. If you change your mind, let me know. But don’t take too long. Training here can be cut short any time, and you could be shipped off to a new division somewhere. At which point it may be too late.”

“Incidentally, you might like to know that Sergeant Samuels caught an error in your birthdate-someone had typed in 1904! The correction’s been passed up lines.”

He dismissed Macurdy then, and the once self-made warlord o£ Yuulith’s Rude Lands, now a buck private, left wondering why he’d declined to volunteer for OCS.

But over the next several weeks, he wasn’t even tempted to change his mind. He’d learned long ago to trust his intuitions. Someday they might lead him into something he’d regret, but so far … He paused to review a few of them: marrying Varia, following the old conjure woman up Injun Knob, beating up Zassfel and his bullies in the House of Heroes, invading the Ylvin marches…. He’d felt regret a few times-a time or two almost more than he could handle-but things had worked out. He wasn’t going to change the way he operated now.

In their tenth week, at the end of a training day, an unfamiliar officer addressed the company before they were dismissed. On his blouse he wore a stylized silver parachute with wings, and on his overseas cap, a large patch with a parachute symbol. Instead of an officers neat oxford shoes, or rough G.I. clodhoppers and lace-up canvas leggings, he wore boots that gleamed like polished teak.

The officer told them that parachute regiments were being formed. The requirements for joining were stringent, but if you were accepted, and if you made it through the training, you’d be in one of the toughest outfits in the world, outfits that would be given the most difficult assignments. And in addition to the regular pay for your rank you’d earn fifty dollars a month jump pay. “Any of you who are interested,” he concluded, “be at the orderly room at 2000 hours.” Macurdy’s guts had tightened like a fiddle string, and he felt a powerful, Inexplicable, even shocking desire to volunteer. My God! he told himself, this isn’t something for you! You’re a married man!

The announcement dominated conversation in the showers and mess line that evening. Mostly the talk was of the supposed near certainty of getting killed, and the fifty dollar a month bonus-a bonus twice the base pay of an ordinary buck private: “Talk about sitting ducks! The fucking krauts (or japs) will be shooting at you all the way down. Anyone who’d volunteer for that kind of bullshit is out of their fucking mind.” And “the extra money’s for your funeral.”

At 2000 hours, Macurdy and twelve others were at B Company’s orderly room. He was, he told himself, just there to hear more about it. From there they were marched to a nearby lecture shed, where some thirty-five candidates from the battalion’s other companies also were gathered. There the parachute officer described the training; it made infantry training sound leisurely. When he’d finished his description, he asked how many were still interested. Some thirty held up their hands.

“All right,” he said, “the men who raised their hands remain seated. The rest of you fall in outside and wait at ease.” When the others had left, the men who’d raised their hands were lined up in front and ordered to “drop down and prepare to do twenty-five pushups. GOOD pushups! Airborne pushups! None of that halfway crap! Your sergeants will be watching. Anyone who cheats will be on company punishment. Now! By the numbers!” And he began to count, pausing now and then to shout “Touch those chins to the floor! All the way! All the way! Straighten those arms! Get those butts in line! Sergeant, take that man’s name! The one with his ass in the air like a goddamn tent ridge!”