The Generals by W.E.B. Griffin Page A

we should be the pathfinders for the parachute drop. We are also prepared to harass the enemy’s rear lines, sir. What we can do is proportional to the airlift capability that can be made available to us.”
    “XVIII Airborne Corps feels that the airlift capability we can give them is marginal, and they have informed me they are perfectly capable of using their own pathfinders.”
    Hanrahan said nothing, afraid to sound argumentative.
    “Presumably, you left someone in command when you went off hunting?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “But you did not instruct him regarding what you regarded the duty of the Special Forces commander to be? Vis-à-vis coming here, I mean?”
    “I apparently failed to make it sufficiently clear, sir.”
    “Or was it possibly a case, General, of your deputy deciding his greater loyalty lay with the commanding general of XVIII Airborne Corps?” Boone asked.
    “I have not had the opportunity as yet, General, to discuss the matter with him at any length,” Hanrahan said.
    “Good man, is he?” Boone asked.
    “I have found him to be more than satisfactory so far, sir.”
    “Excluding this? This failure to comprehend your desires?”
    “Excluding this, sir. As I say, I have not had the chance to discuss this with him at any length.”
    “I feel sorry for him,” General Boone said.
    “Sir?”
    “From what I know about you, General,” General Boone said, “as I said, your reputation preceded you, I would not like to be an officer whom you felt had betrayed you.”
    “I don’t know that to be the case, sir,” Hanrahan said.
    General Boone pushed a button on his intercom.
    “Would you ask General Delahanty to step in here, please, Sergeant?”
    There almost immediately came a knock at the door. Boone called “Come in,” and an Air Force major general stepped into the room.
    “General, this is General Hanrahan,” Boone said. “General, this is General Delahanty, the base commander.”
    “General,” General Delahanty said, stiffly.
    “Sir,” Hanrahan said.
    “General, I have heard General Hanrahan’s version of the incident that’s bothering you,” General Boone said. “General Hanrahan deeply regrets the inconvenience to your people, and so do I. Is that going to be sufficient?”
    “Sir?”
    “General Hanrahan has apologized. I apologize. Is that sufficient, or do you desire any additional action be taken?”
    General Delahanty obviously desired additional action be taken. Even more obviously, he was not prepared to demand it from the man looking at him with cold bloodshot eyes.
    “So long as General Hanrahan deals with the pilot, to preclude a reoccurrence of such an irresponsible act, as I’m sure he will, I can see no value in making anything official of this, sir.”
    “Thank you, General,” General Boone said. “That will be all.”
    (Two)
    The two officers walked into the commanding general’s somewhat spartan office and saluted simultaneously.
    “General Boone, this is Colonel Lowell,” Major General Paul T. Jiggs said.
    “Oh, yes,” General Boone said, coldly eyeing Lowell. He returned their salute.
    “How do you do, sir?” Lowell asked.
    “I’m fascinated to meet you, Colonel,” Boone said. “I have heard a good deal about you, most recently from our Air Force hosts.”
    Lowell did not reply.
    “I am pleased to learn that your emergency ended without disaster,” General Boone said.
    “There was no emergency, sir,” Lowell said.
    “But you declared an emergency?”
    “I wanted to land, sir,” Lowell said. “I believed that they would bring us under fire if I just came in, after being denied permission to land.”
    “Colonel, I presume you are aware of your rights as expressed in the Thirty-first Article of War against self-incrimination?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “And certainly an officer of your service must understand that falsely declaring an emergency constitutes some sort of violation of the Code of Military Justice, so the question therefore