He is absolutely, totally, out of uniform. Fine mused. And then he corrected himself. No, that is the uniform prescribed by fighter pilots for themselves.
And there is no question that Doug is one hell of a fighter pilot. There were Japanese meatballs and German swastikas painted in three neat rows on the cockpit nose, plus a submarine.
And something brand new. Douglass had named his airplane “Charity.”
“Where the hell is my brass band?” Douglass asked, wrapping his arm around Commander Bitter’s shoulders and (because he knew it annoyed Bitter immensely) kissing him wetly on the temple.
Fine and Kennedy smiled.
“Who’s Charity?” Kennedy asked.
“As in “Faith, Hope and,”” Douglass said. “if I don’t get a band, how about lunch? I’m starved.”
“You’re going flying with Lieutenant Kennedy,” Fine said.
“You can have lunch when you come back.”
“Where am I going flying with you, Kennedy?” Douglass asked.
“Up and down, up and down,” Kennedy smiled.
“Fine wants me to teach you to line an airplane up with the runway while you’re still in the air.”
“Only bomber pilots have to do that,” Douglass said.
“It’s because their reflexes are so slow. You’re serious about this, aren’t you? Before I have lunch?”
“If you’re a good boy, I’ll have a surprise for you when you get back,” Pine said.
“I already talked to her,” Douglass said, “which raises the question of Rank Hath Its Privileges.”
“How?” Fine asked.
“A senior officer such as myself,” Douglass said, “cannot be expected to share a room with low-grade underlings such as you guys. Do I make my point?”
“Oh, I think Commander Bitter will be happy to accommodate you, Colonel, Sir,” Kennedy said, chuckling.
“He already has had the troops spiffing up the transient female quarters. You’ll notice the smile of anticipation on his face.”
“Doug,” Bitter said very seriously, changing the subject, “if you really want something to eat, I’ll have some sandwiches prepared and get them to the aircraft.”
“Shame on you, Lieutenant Kennedy,” Douglass said, “you are embarrassing the commander.”
For a moment, looking at Bitter, Fine was afraid the situation was going to get out of hand, but with a visible effort, Bitter finally managed a smile.
Douglass looked at his watch.
“The girls are due here at two-fifteen,” he said.
“That gives you just about two hours to teach me all you know, Kennedy. That shouldn’t be a problem.”
Douglass and Kennedy flew for nearly two hours before landing a final time and taxiing the B-17F back to the 402nd Composite Squadron area. As they stood by the aircraft with the crew chief, giving him a list of things to check to prepare the plane for flight, a small convoy rolled past the B-17 graveyard and stopped before the Quonset hut.
The convoy consisted of an Austin Princess limousine, a Packard limousine, and a three-quarter-ton Dodge weapons-carrier. The Packard and the
Austin Princess were driven by sergeants of the WRAC, and the canvas-bodied Dodge by a U.S. Army sergeant.
It. Colonel Ed Stevens and It. Charity Hoche got out of the Princess, and five men in olive-drab U.S. Army uniforms got out of the Packard.
“Let that be a lesson to you. Lieutenant Kennedy,” Douglass said, “”Virtue is its own reward.” If you had allowed me to land this aerial barge when I wanted to, I wouldn’t have had to stand around panting until just now.”
“One gathers that the Colonel would be panting over the blond lieutenant?”
Kennedy asked.
“Who the hell is she, anyway?”
“A senior officer such as myself,” Douglass said, “does not of course discuss either ladies or his personal affairs with a junior officer. But I will say this, Kennedy. If it were to come to my attention that anyone–say, a lowly reserve swabby officer–paid any but official attention to a certain WAC officer while I am off saving the world for democracy, I would feed him his balls.”
“That’s Charity,” Kennedy said.
“That’s Charity,” Douglass confirmed possessively.
“I hate to tell you this, Colonel,” Kennedy said.
“But the lady doesn’t seem prone to throw herself in your arms.”
“That’s because she doesn’t want to make you feel jealous,” Douglass said.
They smiled at each other.