This was the end of the first phase of training. Unless they were already qualified, the graduates would next be trained in a specific MOS and then cross-trained in a second MOS. Every member of an "A" Team had to have two MOSs. During the period between this graduation and the final graduation (which was most often unmarked by ceremony), when they had become fully qualified, the trainees could wear the green beret, but not the flash sewn to it by fully qualified Green Berets.

This graduation, however, marked the end of the chickenshit. Once they had graduated from John Wayne High, as Camp McCall was somewhat irreverently called, they were considered to have proven themselves extraordinarily well qualified in basic soldierly skills. In further training, from now on, they would be treated as responsible noncommissioned officers.

The ceremony went less smoothly today than it usually did. The strange light bird who was passing out the diplomas instead of Colonel Mac (the light bird had been identified by somebody as "one of the real old-timer Green Berets," some guy who had been in Greece with Warrant Officer Wojinski and the general even before there was such a thing as the Berets) did not have the simultaneous right-hand shake, left-hand here'syour-diploma routine down pat. He kept dropping the rolled up diplomas, or in one case jabbing a master Sergeant accidently in the crotch with one.

Finally, Geoffrey Craig faced the clumsy colonel.

"Congratulations, Sergeant," the clumsy colonel said.

Thank you, sir," Sergeant Craig said.

"Stick around afterward, I want a word with you." "Yes, sir."

Sergeant Craig wondered again why he had never seen Cousin Craig wear a beret before, or for that matter jump wings; but he had more important things on his mind. When he came off the little platform, Ursula was no standing where she had been.

They caught up with her in Geoff's Volkswagen on the road from Smoke Bomb Hill to the main post and Pope Air Force Base.

"Honey, get in the car," Geoff said.

Ursula shook her head and refused even to look at the car. "Frinlein," Lieutenant Colonel Lowell said in impeccable German, "if you don't come get in the car, I am going to get out, boot you in the ass, and throw you in the car."

She looked at him in shock and anger and a little fear. But he was smiling at her, and she threw her hands up in resignation and got in the car.

(Five) The Tn-Delta House Duke University Durham, North Carolina 1320 Hours, 3 March 1962 Dianne Eaglebury had not felt very hungry, so instead of eating lunch, she had made a quick swoop through the kitchen and returned with two pears and an apple.

When the army staff car had pulled to the curb outside, she had been sitting on her window sill, watching the wind move the limbs of the trees in front of the house. She hadn't paid much attention to the staff car after the driver got out. He was a capain who wore regular shoes (what Tom would have called a "straight-leg") and a hat with a leather brim and carried a heavy briefcase. There were no parachute wings on his tunic. He was, she concluded, one of the ROTC officers who wanted something from the Tri-Delts. As long as they didn't try to get her involved, she didn't give a damn who he was or what he wanted.

The housemother knocked on her door a minute later.

"There's an officer to see you, Dianne." "Who is he?"

agg," the housemother said. weni aown me stairs. The captain was a bookish type, she thought.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Miss Dianne Eaglebury?" he asked. She nodded. "I'm Captain LeMoyne from the Office of the Judge Advocate General at Fort Bragg. Is there somewhere we can talk?"

She didn't want to take him into the sitting room because she thought she might start crying. She didn't even trust herself to speak now. She made a waving motion with her hand, signaling him to follow her, and went back up the stairs and to her room.

She sat on her bed and waved him into the chair by her desk. Then she stood up and went to her dresser and picked up the doll in the short skirt, black panties, and green beret and carried it back to the bed.

"Miss Eaglebury, I am an army lawyer," Captain LeMoyne said, "and I have been assigned the job of settling the affairs of the late First Lieutenant Thomas G. Ellis, with whom I believe you were acquainted?"

"Yes," Dianne said, surprised at how natural her voice sounded, "we were acquainted."

"Shortly before entering upon a Temporary Duty assignment, Miss Eaglebury, the late Lieutenant Ellis prepared a last will and testament, and left it in the custody of the adjutant of the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg. It was ultimately placed in my hands for action. Here is a copy of Lieutenant Ellis's last will and testament."

"Put it on the desk," Dianne said. "I'll look at it later."

"In his last will and testament, Miss Eaglebury, Lieutenant Ellis identified you as his very good friend' "

"Very good friend?" " and left you his entire estate," Captain LeMoyne concluded. "The estate has now been probated. There is not much, it consists in the main of his personal effects, a stereo and a television, his uniforms, that sort of thing... his pay to the day of his death. But there is a Jaguar automobile. In addition, Lieutenant Ellis named you as beneficiary of his National Service Life Insurance, and I have that check with me, and a check representing his final pay and allowances."

Captain LeMoyne did not like Miss Dianne Eaglebury. She obviously did not give much of a damn for the late Lieutenant Ellis. She'd probably given him a little pussy, and now she was going to get about fourteen grand and a Jaguar.

If she had cared about the late Lieutenant Ellis, Captain LeMoyne decided, she would have shown some emotion, not just sat there on the bed, playing with a vulgar doll and not even looking at him.

(Six) The Oak Room The Plaza Hotel New York City. New York 1330 Hours, 3 March 1962 Porter Craig went from his apartment to the Plaza by taxi. He disliked taxis and for that reason if they stayed in the city over the weekend, he seldom left the apartment to go any farther than the Gristede's on the corner. There was no help in the apartment over weekends, neither maid, cook, nor chauffeur. It would have taken a half hour or more to get the car from the garage, and then he would have the problem of parking it himself. So he had taken a cab, and it had been just as dirty and battered inside as it had looked when it pulled up in front of the apartment.

He entered the Oak Room.

Craig Lowell was staying at the Plaza, possessed of a "lady" he wished Porter to meet and a report on Geoff. If it wasn't for the report on Geoff, Porter told himself, he would have told Craig Lowell to piss off. If he had something to say to him, he could come to the apartment and say it. But Craig had said that what he had to tell him about Geoff he would rather tell Porter privately and have Porter decide when, how, or if Geoff's mother should be told.

So he had come to the Oak Room and was standing by the end of the bar, and Craig Lowell was nowhere in sight.

Porter decided that patience was the best course. He walked almost all the way across the room to a table by the window in the corner. One of the waiters (he looked German but was doubtless Puerto Rican) came for his order, and Porter decided he would rather not have a Bloody Mary. He suspected what he was going to hear from Craig, coupled with the acid in a Bloody Mary, would give him heartburn.

Craig Lowell arrived as the Scotch was delivered. He was in civilian clothes, a tweed jacket, and a turtleneck sweater, and if you weren't supposed to come into the Oak Room tieless, that rule had been waived by anyone in a position to throw him out.

He was holding the hand of a blonde. The blonde was hatless but wearing a mink jacket. As they got closer Porter saw that the blonde was a young blonde, much too young for Craig Lowell. The blonde was spectacular, however, giving credit where credit was dun. Craig knew how to pick them. He wondered, unkindly, if the blonde had gotten the mink the way the minks got theirs. Then he realized that was unkind and unfair. Craig Lowell had never had to purchase a woman's favors with mink coats or jewels.

Porter Craig stood up as tfiey got to the table. "Ursula, this is my Cousin Porter," Lowell said. "How are you, Chubby?"

"Hello," said Ursula, smiling shyly at Porter Craig. She gave him her hand. There was a diamond ring on it, emerald cut, maybe three carats, and on the third finger, left hand. An engagement ring.

"I'm happy to meet you," Porter said, "lovely ring."

"Isn't it?" Craig Lowell said. "It's new. Bought this morning."

"This morning? How did you do that? It's Sunday."

There was a little card in the window of Van Cleef's," Lowell said, matter-of-factly, "giving a number to call in case of emergency. This was an emergency, so I called and gave them your name."

"And they opened the store for you?"

"No, but they did send a charming little pansy to the hotel with a briefcase full of rings. This one doesn't quite fit, but they said they'd shrink it for Ursula on Monday."

"Congratulations are in order, I gather?" Porter Craig said.

"I would say so, yes," Craig said. "I didn't know how you I were going to feel about this."

The waiter appeared.

"Scotch for me," Lowell said to the waiter. "Ursula?"

"Nothing for me, thank you," she said in a German accent, confirming Poster's suspicion that she was a foreigner. That wasn't surpuising, he realized. Craig's wife had been German. While it lasted, Craig had been happy, and now he'd found himself another German girl. It was really about time, and if there was a considerable difference in their ages, that was their business "Nonsense," Lowell said. "We have a family nile that no one ever has to face Poster completely sober. You're soon going to be a member of the family, so you might as well take advantage of it. At least have a glass of wine? Or a beer?"

"If you insist," Ursula said.

He browbeat her imo that, Porter thought angrily. He should not treat a nice young womtmn like this one that way.

"What about Geoff r Porter asked.

"What about him?" Lowell asked.

"You said you had something to tell me about him," Poster said. yes, I did say that, didn't I?" Lowell said. "I saw him yesterday, as a matter of fact."

him running in the woods and sleeping on the ground that's supposed to be good for you."

"What do they have him doing?"

"He's on his way to Fort Belvoir."

"What's at Fort Belvoir?"

The Engineers."

"He's in the Engineers?"

"Actually, he's a Green Beret," Lowell said.

"Is that some sort of a joke?" Porter asked.

"Not at all," Lowell said. "He has a green beret and shiny jump boots and everything. He looks quite good in a uniform, actually. He's a sergeant now, you know."

"What the hell is this?" Porter said. Forgi me,... "Ursula," Lowell corrected him. "Now that she's going to be in the family, you're just going to have to learn her name."

"Craig!" the girl said, embarrassed "What the hell is what, Porter?" Craig asked. be a Green Beret and a sergeant? You know where he was three months ago.

"I don't think it was easy," Lowell said. "But blood tells, I suppose. There is a strain of wamor in the clan, you know."

"Why is he going to... where did you say?" "Fort Belvoir." "Why is he going to Fort Belvoir?" They are, I suppose, going to teach him to blow things Lowell said. "We Green Berets do a lot of that sort of "Where is this place?" Porter Craig demanded.

Virginia," Lowell said, "not far from Washington. You could go see him, I suppose, if you wanted, instead of spending your weekends in a smelly apartment."

"Why couldn't he come home?" Porter demanded. "Is he on some kind of restriction or something?"

"The thing is, he's got himself a girl," Craig said. "Actually, she's a bit more than just a pretty face. He says he's going to marry her."

"Jesus Christ! Is he out of his mind?" "I don't think so. I've met her, and I rather like her." "If she wears a skirt, you'd like her."

"You will be delighted to learn, I'm sure, that she didn't know Geoff is 'comfortable' until the romance was in high gear. He could, in my judgment, have done a hell of a lot worse."

Porter Craig was not entirely a fool. His head snapped toward Ursula.

"It's you, isn't it?" he challenged. Ursula flushed but did not avert her eyes. She nodded. "And you love my son?" Porter Craig asked gently. She nodded again. "You're German?" he asked. "The accent?" "I'm German," Ursula said.

"We had another German girl in the family," Porter said. "Unfortunately we lost her." She nodded. "Geoff told me," she said. "Geoff's mother is not entirely the fire-breathing dragon Craig has obviously painted her to be," Porter Craig said. "I'm sure she will be as happy to know you as I am. I suggest we get in a cab, go to the apartment, introduce you two, and then see if we can't get Geoff on the telephone. Can we do that, Craig? Can we at least get him on the telephone?"

Lieutenant Colonel Craig W. Lowell raised his right hand in the air above his shoulder, made a fist, and then a pumping motion.

"What the hell are you doing?" Porter Craig asked.

That is a military signal," Lowell said, "given by a commander to order his subordinates to form on him." "Geoff's here?" "Uh-huh," Lowell said.

But it was a female, a good-looking one, who came to the table.

"Porter, this is Captain Dr. Gillis," Lowell said. "She has a dual role in this. She is the chaperone, for appearances' sake, and she is a shrink, which I thought was a good safety precaution to take."

"I never know when to believe him," Porter Craig said.

"I'm here as a friend," Barbara Gillis said, "but I am an army doctor."

"This is her coat," Ursula said. "You didn't have to tell him that," Lowell said.

And then, across the room, Porter Craig saw a soldier walking toward them. There were sergeant's chevrons on his sleeves, silver parachutist's wings on his breast, and a green beret on his head.

Porter Craig's eyes blurred with tears.

Sergeant Geoffrey Craig reached the table and put out his hand to his father.

"Father," he said. "You're actually a sergeant," his father said.

"He missed being best in his class by only two," Ursula said, with quiet pride.

Porter Craig saw that his son's hand had dropped protectively to the girl's shoulder. He reflected that he was glad that he had followed his urge to approve of the girl. To do otherwise, to judge by the look in Geoff's eyes, would have been futile.

"Don't order anything," he said. "We're going home."

"Don't look so distressed," Lowell said. "Oddly enough, your father can handle your mother. And never forget the Green Beret psalm." Geoff chuckled. Ursula looked uncomfortable. "I'm afraid to ask what that is," Porter Craig said, "but curiosity overwhelms me."

"For yea," Colonel Lowell quoted, "tho I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." for I,"" Sergeant Craig joined in, "am the meanest sonofabitch in the valley." "That's terrible," Barbara Gilhis and Ursula Wagner said, almost in chorus. Sergeant Craig and Colonel Lowell, very pleased with themselves, laughed happily.

"What we're going to do now," Porter Craig said, "is go over to the apartment." "You all go ahead," Barbara Gillis said. "I don't want to intrude."

"Don't be silly," Geoff said.

"Craig and I will be over in a while," Barbara said. "For one thing, we have to check out of here, and really, I don't think "

"We have fourteen rooms," Porter Craig said. "There is absolutely no reason for you to be in a hotel in the first place."

"I'm not even sure Craig and I will be staying over," Barbara Gills said firmly. "The only thing I am sure about is that I don't belong there when you spring this on Geoff's mother."

"Neither do I," Craig said. "You go ahead. We'll have a drink, check out, and take a cab over there in an hour or so."

"If you insist," Porter Craig said.

"I leave the coat," Ursula said.