Command Decision by Haines William Wister

Author:Haines, William Wister [Haines, William Wister]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780822202332
Google: vAEffc2pwyYC
Amazon: B00J5Q4HOU
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 1947-04-15T20:56:00+00:00

2

Goldberg had crashed through the door with the velocity of flight. He was fleeing from himself. For on the way upstairs from the laboratory in the hole he had paused briefly to think for the first time since his eyes had seen the target folder in his hands superimpose, line for line, over the photos on the light table and his feet had started instantly for the General’s office.

His brief pause en route he now saw as the darkest of moral compromises. It had occurred to him that there was some comfort in what he had learned. At least the thing wasn’t a hospital.

Goldberg was a boy who understood the cost of the advantages that had been given him. His mother and father kept a delicatessen just off Santa Monica Boulevard. From their cash till Goldberg had been sent through all of high school and two years of college. His brain had been as immediately and happily at home with trig and calculus as the others around him were with jockies’ records and dance tunes. Goldberg’s parents had seen for the boy a chance beyond their own horizons.

War changed the chance; he was graduated number one in a class of six hundred bombardiers to become an officer in the Army of the United States. He had learned. He had been ready, equipped, and useful when his country wanted him.

Then, in one day, he had not only mistaken a target which was important enough to take the Division beyond fighters, he had found himself on the verge of trying to ameliorate his failure in the eyes of General Dennis and Colonel Martin by misrepresenting, with considered words, the importance of what he had hit.

This afternoon, as soon as the photos had come in, General Dennis had come down to the light table instead of sending for them. Before looking at them he had cleared his throat and said: “Goldberg, Colonel Martin has told me this is not your fault. He still thinks you’re the best bombardier in the army and he’s the best judge I know. Now find out what you did hit and bring it to me at once.”

***

The officers in the conference looked up at his intrusion with astonishment. They saw an unshaven lieutenant, face still grimy from powder smoke, eyes red from strain and tears. His proximity to acute hysteria was apparent in everything but the inflexible steadiness of purpose with which he now thrust his maps and photos straight at General Dennis, oblivious of everyone else in the room.

“I’ve found the damned thing, sir,” he said.

Only then did he look around to see a Major General, another Brigadier, and two strangers gaping at his appearance.

“Excuse me, sir… You said…”

“That’s right,” said Dennis quickly. “General Kane, this is today’s lead bombardier, Lieutenant Goldberg.”

Kane had had time to study the boy’s condition. He stepped forward now and extended his hand with benign paternalism.

“Good evening, Lieutenant. That was a wonderful mission you boys ran today. I couldn’t wait to see

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