The Majors Read online

  “I’m sure that once I got my feet on the ground, I could handle this,” she said, and flashed him a dazzling smile. “But I have to tell you that I’ve never had the chance to be around senior army officers before.”

  “Do you know what a Multilith is?” Major MacMillan asked.

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “We have one at the church.”

  All she knew about a Multilith machine was that it was a dirty machine that sat in the preacher’s office.

  “And you can run it?” he asked. “Or supervise the people that do?”

  “Oh, yes, sir.”

  “I have to tell you, Mrs. Hyde, that this isn’t an eight-to-five job,” Major MacMillan said. “We would expect you to be available to come into work sometimes very early in the morning, and to work at night, and over weekends. If you’re looking for an eight-to-five job, this isn’t it.”

  “My time is my own,” Rhonda said.

  “What about your husband? And your children?”

  “My mother takes care of the children when the housekeeper isn’t there,” Rhonda said.

  “Now, don’t tell me that now, and then come in two months and tell me you can’t handle the hours.”

  “I wouldn’t do that, Major MacMillan.”

  “Can you come to work tomorrow morning?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “About seven o’clock,” he said. “We start early sometimes.” He wasn’t that hard to figure out. He just wanted to see if she meant what she said about being willing to come in early.

  “Yes, sir,” Rhonda said. That was going to cause trouble. Doc would be furious if she wasn’t there to make his breakfast. Too bad. She had a job, and the prospects looked simply fascinating. Doc would just have to get used to making his own breakfast. Hell, they could hire a cook at what she was going to make out here.

  (Three)

  Camp Rucker, Alabama

  16 August 1955

  Warrant Officer Junior Grade Edward C. Greer’s gray U.S. Air Force issue flight suit was sweat-soaked and showed white lines where the salt tablets, ingested as protection against the heat, had passed out of his body. He carried a white plastic crash helmet loosely under his left arm as he knocked at the sill of the open door of the director, Aviation Combat Developments Agency.

  “Come on in, Greer,” Colonel Robert F. Bellmon said. The kid looked exhausted. Bellmon really hated to do what he had to do, eat the kid’s ass out.

  Greer saluted, not especially crisply, but, Bellmon thought, with a flair that represented what a salute was really supposed to be all about, a greeting between practitioners of the profession of arms, not, as most people believed, a symbolic gesture of servitude by the junior to the senior.

  “You wanted to see me, Colonel?” Greer asked, but it was more of a statement than a question.

  “Little warm outside, is it?” Colonel Bellmon asked.

  “I mounted a thermometer on the instrument panel,” Greer said. “It went to 125 degrees.” Bellmon noticed that that, too, was a statement of fact and not a complaint.

  Good lad, he thought. Then, fuck it. I’ll eat his ass out later.

  “I thought you would be interested in this,” Colonel Bellmon said, and handed him the stapled together stack of correspondence:

  HEADQUARTERS

  U.S. ARMY AVIATION COMBAT

  DEVELOPMENTS AGENCY

  CAMP RUCKER, ALABAMA

  20 July 1955

  SUBJECT: Request for Flight Training in, and 250 hours

  of, YH-40 aircraft flight.

  TO : President

  U.S. Army Aviation Board

  Camp Rucker, Alabama

  1. Inasmuch as the USAACDA is charged with determining the future role, if any, of YH-40 aircraft presently undergoing flight testing by the USAAB in the field forces, it is considered absolutely essential that the USAACDA have access to YH-40 aircraft at the earliest possible time.

  2. Request is made herewith that the following personnel of the USAACDA be given, as soon as possible, flight training in YH-40 aircraft assigned to the USAAB. While training by USAAB personnel of all USAACDA personnel listed would be most desirable, should this pose an unusual burden upon the mission of the USAAB, the USAACDA requests the training of Major R. G. MacMillan to a level qualifying him as an instructor pilot, in order that he might accomplish training of the other USAACDA personnel who will be involved with the YH-40, WOJG Edward C. Greer and the undersigned.

  3. The USAACDA will arrange to schedule training to meet any USAAB requirements.

  Robert F. Bellmon

  Colonel, Armor

  Director, USAACDA

  1st Ind

  Hq USAAB, Cp Rucker Ala 23 July 1955

  To: Director, USAACDA Cp Rucker, Ala

  1. The USAAB board has been assigned three (3) YH-40 helicopter aircraft. No additional YH-40 aircraft will be made available in the forseeable future.

  2. In order to insure that available aircraft will meet the testing requirements placed upon the USAAB by DCSOPS, it is the policy of the USAAB that only helicopter pilots of great experience will be assigned to fly YH-40 aircraft. Criteria established include seven (7) years experience as a rated aviator; 2,500 hours total flight time; 1,000 hours rotary wing flight time.

  3. Further, the flight testing mission placed upon the USAAB by the DCSOPS is such that available flight time for the available aircraft is fully scheduled through 31 Dec 1955.

  4. Consequently, the request of the basic communication must be denied.

  5. Should the USAACDA wish to furnish the USAAB with any specific flight tests it wishes to have accomplished, the USAAB will make every reasonable effort to have such tests conducted by USAAB personnel already qualified in YH-40 aircraft. The USAAB feels this would be the most economical use of available assets in any case.

  William R. Roberts

  Colonel, Artillery

  President

  2nd Ind

  Hq USAACDA Cp Rucker Ala 24 July 1955

  To: Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Hq Dept of the Army Wash 25 DC

  VIA: Chief Avn Br DCSOPS Hq DA Wash 25 DC

  1. Attention is invited to basic communication and 1st indorsement thereto.

  2. Unless USAACDA personnel are trained in YH-40 aircraft and YH-40 aircraft are made available for a minimum of 250 flight hours, the USAACDA will not be able to generate performance and other data on which to base its recommendations for the utilization of the YH-40 in the field force.

  3. Request guidance.

  Robert F. Bellmon

  Colonel, Armor

  Director

  3rd Ind

  Avn Branch DCSOPS Hq DA Wash DC 5 Aug 1955

  TO: DCSOPS Hq DA Wash 25 DC

  1. The situation described in 1st and 2nd Ind hereto has been investigated by the undersigned, and the following determined:

  a. The three YH-40 aircraft assigned to USAAB for USAAB testing are barely adequate for that purpose, and production of additional aircraft in the foreseeable future will be assigned to the USAF for airframe stress and other testing, and to the Transportation Corps for the determination of maintenance and spare parts requirements.

  b. The USAAB testing program would be severely hampered by the loss of any YH-40 flight hours, either by the loss of YH-40 aircraft to another agency, or in the event of an aircraft accident.

  c. Prudence requires that the available YH-40 aircraft, which, because of their size and power, and because their flight characteristics are not now known, should be flown only by experienced aviators in order to reduce the possibility of their loss due to pilot error or inexperience to an absolute minimum.

  d. With the exception of Major MacMillan, the USAACDA aviators for whom flight instruction in the YH-40 has been requested are recent graduates of flight school. Specifically, the provisions of AR 1–670 requiring a one (1) year initialization tour had to be waived in the case of both Col. Bellmon and WOJG Greer in order to permit their present assignment.

&
nbsp; e. A review of USAACDA test programs (proposed) by the undersigned indicates that the great majority of such testing could be integrated into present USAAB test programs.

  2. It is therefore recommended that the USAACDA be directed to effect such liaison with the USAAB as necessary in order to incorporate those test programs they feel are necessary into present USAAB test programs. This would insure a more efficient use of available assets, and simultaneously reduce, through the use of aviators of long experience, the risk permitting USAACDA aviators to pilot the experimental aircraft would entail.

  Arthur D. Gregory

  Colonel, Artillery

  Chief, Aviation Branch

  4th Ind

  Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington 25, DC, 11 August 1955

  To: Commanding General, USA Aviation School & Camp Rucker, Ala.

  Chief, Aviation Branch, DCSOPS, Hq DA Wash 25 DC

  President, US Army Aviation Board, Camp Rucker, Ala.

  Director, US Army Aviation Combat Developments Agency, Camp Rucker, Ala.

  1. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations wishes to remind all concerned that the USAACDA was established at Camp Rucker for several reasons:

  a. In order to provide the DCSOPS with an independent agency capable of basing its recommendations concerning the future of army aviation in the field forces on its own independent judgment.

  b. In order that it would be in a physical position to receive what logistic and training support it required from both the US Army Aviation Board and the US Army Aviation School and Center.

  2. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations believes that very little meaningful data concerning operation of YH-40 aircraft by personnel with little flight experience, as would be encountered in a mobilization situation, can be obtained from test programs in which all of the aviators have seven (7) years flight experience, including 2,500 hours total flight time, and 1,000 hours helicopter experience.

  3. The Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations has received permission from the Vice Chief of Staff to have twenty (20) graduates from the next two (2) Warrant Officer Candidate Rotary Wing Flight Classes assigned for a period of six months to the USAAB for utilization as pilots of YH-40 aircraft undergoing test. Aviators of great experience presently assigned to the USAAB will be assigned to monitor such flight testing, but will not participate in flight testing under normal circumstances. It is believed that the pool of aviators possessing seven (7) years and many thousands of hours of flight experience will not be large enough to man the field force envisioned for the future, and that therefore large numbers of inexperienced aviators must be trained.

  4. The President of the USAAB is directed to train the officers listed in the basic communication as YH-40 pilots as soon as possible, and to make available to the USAACDA YH-40 aircraft for a minimum flight test program of 250 hours.

  5. The Deputy Chief of Staff wishes to state that while he has found this correspondence interesting, he is sure that he will not again be required to devote his time to solving problems that should not have arisen.

  BY ORDER OF THE DCSOPS:

  Howard G. Kellogg

  Brigadier General, USA

  Asst DCSOPS

  “Jesus H. Christ!” WOJG Greer said. “You sure as hell won that one, Colonel.”

  “Colonel Roberts went a little too far,” Bellmon said. “It was both too obviously chickenshit, and too obviously a grab for power. He lost that fight, but he’s smart and he won’t make the same mistakes the next time we get into it. Even this, if you think it through, Greer, is not all peaches and cream. I’m really on the Flying Club’s—” he caught himself just in time, deleted “shit,” and concluded—“list, now.”

  “Fuck ’em,” WOJG Greer said, cheerfully.

  “Close your sewer of a mouth, Mr. Greer,” Colonel Bellmon said, very sharply, and when Greer looked at him in surprise, added: “And stand at attention, too, please.”

  Greer came to attention, a look of bafflement vanishing as he froze his facial features.

  Colonel Bellmon pushed a lever on his intercom.

  “Major MacMillan!”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Please report to me immediately,” Colonel Bellmon said.

  “On my way,” MacMillan replied cheerfully.

  MacMillan came into the office a moment later, walking like Groucho Marx, grinning broadly, and tipping off his fiber tropical helmet.

  “Look what I found in the clothing store,” he cried, happily.

  It was too much for Colonel Bellmon. In the Frank Buck hat, and khaki short pants, MacMillan looked like a burlesque comedian.

  “I asked you to report to me, Major,” Bellmon said, icily.

  MacMillan looked at him in surprise, and then saw he was serious. He sailed the Frank Buck tropical helmet out the door, came to attention, and saluted.

  “Major MacMillan reporting as ordered, sir,” he said.

  MacMillan, Bellmon thought, didn’t look much older than he had ten years before, when, as Technical Sergeant MacMillan, he had been with Bellmon in the stalag.

  “The reason I have asked you gentlemen in to see me,” Bellmon said, “is that it has come to my attention that you are guilty of conduct unbecoming to officers and gentlemen.”

  MacMillan and Greer stole quick, confused looks at one another.

  “And the reason I have you standing here at attention is to convince you that I consider this whole matter quite serious.”

  “May I inquire what the colonel makes reference to, sir?” MacMillan asked, still at rigid attention.

  “Your filthy mouth, Mac,” Bellmon said. “And yours, Mr. Greer.”

  They both looked confused. Bellmon let them sweat a minute, and then went on.

  “Mrs. Heatter was in here,” Bellmon said. “In tears. Crying. She said she had to have a transfer.”

  “I’m not sure I follow you, sir,” MacMillan said. “What was she crying about?”

  “She said she liked her job, but that she was a Christian woman, and she could not continue to work under such conditions.”

  “What conditions, Colonel?” Greer asked. Bellmon thought he looked about sixteen years old.

  “Your filthy goddamned mouth is what I’m talking about, Mr. Greer,” Colonel Bellmon said. “Your constant blasphemy and obscenity.”

  “Yes, sir,” Greer said.

  “Just Greer’s filthy goddamned mouth, Colonel?” MacMillan asked, too innocently. “Or my goddamned filthy mouth, too?”

  Bellmon stared at MacMillan in disbelief. Was MacMillan actually daring to mock him?

  And then he recalled his own words.

  “Shit!” he said. They all laughed.

  He got control of himself in a moment.

  “Oh, stand at ease,” he said. “But listen to me, you two. I’m serious about this. Mrs. Heatter was really in here. She was really crying, and she was really upset. I’ve got enough trouble without her filing a complaint with civilian personnel about you two.”

  “I don’t know what the hell she’s talking about,” Greer said, seriously. “I know what she’s like. She carries Bible study lessons in her purse and reads them when she eats lunch. You don’t think I was making a pass at her, or anything like that, do you?”

  That thought hadn’t even occurred to Bellmon.

  “She’s the kind who thinks that ‘hell’ is a dirty word, Greer,” Bellmon said. “So don’t use it.”

  “I thought I was watching it,” Greer said. “But yes, sir, I’ll watch it even more closely.”

  “We’re all guilty, I’m sure,” Bellmon said. “But she especially complained about you, Greer.”

  “Not about me?” MacMillan said.

  “She said you don’t seem to care what kind of filthy language he uses,” Bellmon said. “So you watch Greer, and I’ll be watching you. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Take a look at this, Mac,” Bellmon
said, and handed him the YH40 correspondence.

  “Jesus Christ,” MacMillan said. “When Gregory and Roberts saw this, the shit must have really hit the fan.”

  Colonel Bellmon did not correct him, Greer noticed. Because it would have been necessary to eat his ass out if he had? Or because he had agreed with MacMillan’s assessment and really didn’t notice the language?

  “So we’re going to get a YH-40 to play with, are we?” MacMillan said.

  It was another of MacMillan’s classic examples of saying the right thing the wrong way. They weren’t going to “play” with the YH-40. MacMillan knew as well as he did what they were going to do with it.

  The YH-40 was a nine-passenger helicopter, powered by an 1,100 horsepower turbine engine. It was intended to replace the Sikorsky H-19 and H-34, which had a reciprocating gasoline engine—neither efficient nor entirely safe in helicopter operations. It was faster, smaller, and carried as many passengers (nine, without equipment) as the H-34. It was obviously going to be the helicopter with which the army would be equipped in the 1960s.

  The “Y” in the designation stood for prototype, an acknowledgement that the production helicopters (the H-40s) would be different from the prototype YH-40s in detail. They would be changed to reflect what would be learned about them when they were tested.

  It was Bellmon’s job as director of the Aviation Combat Developments Agency to test the machine to see what it was capable of and to adapt this capability to what had become known as the “Flying Army.” He would then request that changes be made to the machine so that it could better accomplish its duty.

  Both looking after the changes and testing to see if the modified aircraft did what it was supposed to do was the function of the Aviation Board. They had tried and failed—by painting themselves as the only experts—to usurp Bellmon’s responsibility and authority. The fight had gone as high as DCSOPS, and DCSOPS had cut the Cincinnati Flying Club off at the knees.

  But getting a YH-40 for 250 hours was only the beginning of the fight. Bellmon could count on the Cincinnati Flying Club finding fault with any conclusion he reached which did not entirely agree with one of their own. He would have to be able to prove every point he made about the YH-40.