Cletus Frade followed Jim Cronley into the Weather/Flight Planning room at Base Operations and watched as a sergeant gave Cronley a weather briefing.
Then he followed Cronley to a row of what looked like lecterns, or headwaiter’s tables, where pilots, standing up, prepared their flight plans.
“What do you think of the weather, Jimmy?”
“It’s a little dicey. And since I will be transporting a senior officer, I thought I’d file IFR.”
“Could you make it to Kloster Grünau VFR?”
“In this kind of weather, the only way to get into Kloster Grünau International is by following CC Flight Rules. But, yeah, I could. I will, after I drop you off in Frankfurt, if that’s what you’re asking. Not a problem.”
“CC for Chasing Cows?” Clete asked, smiling.
Jimmy smiled back and nodded.
“What would happen if you took off from here on a Local VFR, closed it out in the air, and then went CC to Kloster Grünau?”
“You want to go to Kloster Grünau? What about Frankfurt?”
“Answer the question.”
“Why are we going to sneak into Kloster Grünau?”
“Because General Gehlen called last night and said he would really like a word with me before I go to Argentina. And I don’t want Mattingly to know I had a final word with General Gehlen before I went to Argentina. Which means that after I have a final word with General Gehlen, before you fly me to Frankfurt so that I can go to Argentina you should avoid telling Colonel Mattingly—”
“That you had a final word with General Gehlen before you went to Argentina?”
“My, you are clever for a young Army officer.”
They were smiling at each other.
“Don’t let this go to your head, Colonel, sir, but after you go to Argentina, I will miss you.”
“Yeah. Me, too, Jimmy.”
Jimmy folded the aerial chart on which he had been about to prepare his flight plan and stuffed it in his jacket.
Then the two of them walked out of the Weather/Flight Planning room and the Base Operations building and started looking for the Storch.
[ TWO ]
Kloster Grünau
Schollbrunn, Bavaria
American Zone of Occupation, Germany
0740 3 November 1945
As the Storch made the final approach to Kloster Grünau, Clete saw an ambulance parked just off the end of the runway and of course felt compelled to comment: “Oh, an ambulance is on station. I guess they’ve seen you try to land here before.”
Jimmy didn’t reply.
When he touched down, the ambulance followed the Storch down the runway to the tarpaulins beside what had been the chapel. Frade could now see that First Sergeant Dunwiddie was behind the wheel of the ambulance and General Reinhard Gehlen in the passenger seat beside him.
Frade and Cronley got out of the Storch, and General Gehlen got out of the ambulance.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I thought it was important.”