“I’ll be right there.”
Jesus Christ, I never woke up!
V
[ ONE ]
U.S. Army Airfield H-7
Eschborn, Hesse
American Zone of Occupation, Germany
0825 31 October 1945
As the olive drab 1942 Ford staff car drove Cronley up to Base Operations, he saw that the Storch had been moved off the tarmac in front of Base Operations. It was now on the grass across from it—and the subject of attention of a group of officers, the senior of them a full bull colonel wearing Air Force insignia.
As Cronley got out of the car, he saw a lieutenant writing something in a notebook.
Probably the tail numbers and XXIIIrd CIC.
Colonel Wilson warned me the Air Force doesn’t want the Army to have Storches. He wouldn’t have given me his if there was any way he could have kept them. And he’s much higher on the totem pole than I am.
So what the hell am I going to do if that colonel tries to grab my Storch?
The only thing I can try—hide behind the secrecy that covers the CIC.
And maybe be a little deceptive.
Cronley went into Base Operations and checked the weather map. The front had passed through the Munich area. Then he checked the local map, saw there was a small airstrip in Fulda, and filed a Visual Flight Rules flight plan giving that as his destination.
Then he walked out to the airplane and the officers examining it.
He did not salute, as he was wearing his civilian triangles, and civilians don’t salute.
“Good morning,” he said cheerfully.
“This your aircraft?” the Air Force colonel said.
“Well, actually it belongs to the Army,” Cronley said, as he opened the rear window and tossed his overnight bag through it.
“It’s my understanding,” the colonel announced, “that all of these former German aircraft have been ordered taken out of service.”
“I hadn’t heard that.”
“Well, that’s my understanding. Who are you?”
“Why are you asking?”
“Because I’m the commanding officer of this airbase and want to know.”
How come this Air Force colonel is commanding an Army airfield?
Because they’re operating C-47s out of here to train parachutists to guard the Farben Building, that’s why.
Cronley produced his CIC credentials.
The colonel examined them, and then Cronley, carefully.