“Goddamn it, Korman, Bitter is a naval officer! His exploits should reflect on the Navy, not the god damed Army Air Corps! That Air Corps public relations officer played you like a goddamned violin!”
“Sir,” Commander Komman began.
“You just stand there, Commander,” the vice admiral said, shutting him off, “and keep your ears open while I try to salvage what I can from the mess you’ve created.” The admiral made several telephone calls, including one to General Walter Bedell Smith, whom he addressed as “Beetle,” and finally turned to Commander Korman.
“Now, here’s what you’re going to do, Commander,” he said. “And listen carefully, because I don’t want to repeat myself. You’re going to get in a car, and you’re going to drive to Fersfield, and you are quietly going to locate Commander Bieer. You are going to tell him that I personally sent you for him. And nothing else. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Korman said.
“In the Navy, Komman, when a subordinate wishes to signify that he understands an order and is prepared to carry it out, he says Aye, aye, sir. “‘ “Yes, sir. Aye, aye, sir.”
“You will bring Commander Biter to London. You will see that he is in a blue uniform and wearing all of his decorations, including in particular his Flying Tiger wings..
” sssir? n “What?”
“What kind of wings, sir?”
“Flying Tiger,” Admiral Foster said impatiently. “You did know, Commander, did you not, that Commander Bitter was a Flying Tiger?”
“No, sir, I did not,” Commander Korman confessed.
“Well, I can’t say that surprises me,” the admiral said, coldly sarcastic.
“But from a layman’s point of view, Commander, correct me if I’m wrong, it would seem to me that would be just the sort of thing they callihuman interest. Something that would suggest that a naval aviator is really something special. That a naval aviator who has nine Japanese kills as a Flying Tiger can easily shift gears and take over the controls of a badly damaged Army Air Corps B-17.”
“I take the admiral’s point, sir,” Commander Korman replied. He wondered how the admiral knew that Commander Bitter had nine kills.
The Air Corps PIO guy hadn’t mentioned that. Had he known? Had he planned somehow to use that fascinating piece of infommation to sandbag the Navy?
“General Smith is going to try to see if he can fit Commander Bitter’s award of the DFC into General Eisenhower’s schedule tomorrow.
If he can’t, he’ll arrange for Biter to get it from General Eaker, or give it to him himself. I will be there, of course. Now, can you handle this, Commander, or would you like me to send one of my aides with you?”
“I’ll check in with you just as soon as I have Commander Bieer in London, Admiral.” [SEVEX] Lordon Statios Officroistrat-gicservicon 0800 Hours 11 January1943 “I’m almost afraid to ask why you’re dressed like that, Dick,” Chief of Station David Bruce said to Richard Canidy.
Bruce was a tall and handsome man, silver-haired, expensively tailored.
Whitaker had told Canidy of a remark Chesley Haywood Whittaker had once made about Bruce, “I always feel like backing out of his presence.” The remark had stuck in Canidy’s mind because Bruce was indeed more than a liale regal.
It. Colonel Edmund T. Stevens chuckled.
Canidy looked like a page from the Army Regulations dealing with prescribed attire for commissioned officers. He wore a green blouse and pink trousers. The shoes were regulation brown oxfords, suitably polished. The cap he had placed on the conference table in the chief of station’s office was a regulation overseas cap. And the proper insignia of rank and qualification were affixed to the blouse in the proper places.
At the last division chiefs’ conference he had shown up wearing a khaki shirt, a sheepskin flight jacket, olive-drab pants, sheepskin flight boots, and a leather-brimmed felt cap that, according to Colonel Stevens, looked to have just been rescued from five hours of being run over by traffic in Picadilly Circus.
“I have been shamed by Captain Fine,” Canidy said, “who is psychologically unable to deviate by so much as an un shined button from’ What the Properly Dressed officer Should Look Like.” He paused, then went on, “Actually, we have a liale publicity problem, and I thought I should try to blend into the woodwork at SHAEF when I go over there.”