“But soldiers of our time.”
“You use the word our with facility. I like it though.”
“But didn’t many modern soldiers write?”
“Many. But did you ever read them?”
“No. I have read mostly the classics and I read the illustrated papers for the scandals. Also, I read your letters.”
“Burn them,” the Colonel said. “They are worthless.”
“Please. Don’t be rough.”
“I won’t. What can I tell you that won’t bore you?”
“Tell me about when you were a General.”
“Oh, that,” he said and motioned to the Gran Maestro to bring Champagne. It was Roederer Brut ’42 and he loved it.
“When you are a general you live in a trailer and your Chief of Staff lives in a trailer, and you have bourbon whisky when other people do not have it. Your G’s live in the C.P. I’d tell you what G’s are, but it would bore you. I’d tell you about G1, G2, G3, G4, G5 and on the other side there is always Kraut-6. But it would bore you. On the other hand, you have a map covered with plastic material, and on this you have three regiments composed of three battalions each. It is all marked in colored pencil.
“You have boundary lines so that when the battalions cross their boundaries they will not then fight each other. Each battalion is composed of five companies. All should be good, but some are good, and some are not so good. Also you have divisional artillery and a battalion of tanks and many spare parts. You live by co-ordinates.”
