The Hunting Trip by III William E. Butterworth Read Free Book Online Page B

unexpected ramifications that can occur when there is a bureaucratic misstep. This took place immediately after he failed the Morse Test for the third time.
    Captain Barson Michaels, who looked kindly on Phil as a result of their time together on the skeet and trap ranges, turned to him and said, not unkindly, “What the hell are we going to do with you now, Phil?”
    â€œMake him take the EXPLETIVE DELETED!! Morse Test once an hour until he passes the EXPLETIVE DELETED!! thing,” another officer in the room suggested.
    â€œThere has to be another option,” Captain Michaels said. “I know this young soldier, Lieutenant. He’s given the test his best shot, so to speak.”
    He winked at Phil, which suggested to Phil that Captain Michaels understood and sympathized with Phil’s reluctance to become an ASA Intercept Operator.
    â€œThe regulation is clear,” the lieutenant argued. “Complete background investigations, which cost a EXPLETIVE DELETED!! arm and a leg, are not to be initiated until all testing has been satisfactorily completed. It’s the same with the CIC. No background investigation until the soldier passes the tests. Do you want to tell the Inspector General who EXPLETIVE DELETED!! that up here?”
    Phil had never heard of the CIC.
    â€œWhat are the tests required for the CIC?” Captain Michaels inquired.
    â€œTwo years of college. PFC Williams has two years and two months of high school. I thought of the CIC, Captain,” the lieutenant said.
    â€œThe U.S. Army moves on a trail of paper, Lieutenant,” CaptainMichaels said. “You may wish to write that down. That suggests to me that the CIC may have clerk-typists to care for its special agents.”
    â€œThey call them CIC administrators.”
    â€œAnd what does the CIC demand, education wise, of potential CIC administrators?”
    The appropriate regulations were consulted. Nothing was mentioned at all about minimum educational standards for potential CIC administrators.
    â€œPermit me, PFC Williams, to wish you all the best in your CIC career,” Captain Michaels said.
    â€œYes, sir. Thank you, sir. Sir, what’s the CIC?”
    [ SEVEN ]
    The CIC Center and School
    Fort Holabird
    1019 Dundalk Avenue
    Baltimore, Maryland
    0845 Monday, February 3, 1947
    P FC Williams stood at the position known as Parade Rest—feet spread, hands locked behind his back—before the desk of the company commander of Company B.
    The company commander, a captain who had been sitting behind the desk when Phil had first been taken into the office by Company B’s first sergeant, was now standing against the wall next to the first sergeant.
    The captain had given up his chair to the major who, after the first sergeant had brought the problem at hand to the captain’s attention, had brought it to the major’s attention, whereupon the major had announced, “I’ll be right there.”
    The problem was that there was indeed a minimum educational requirement for CIC administrators, although it had not reached Fort Dix. It clearly stated that high school graduation was a prerequisite. And, as first the first sergeant and then the captain had learned—and the major was now learning—from the classified
SECRET Final Report, Williams, Philip Wallingford III, Complete Background Investigation of
—Phil’s formal education had ended after two years and some months of secondary school.
    â€œThat’s as far as you got in school, son, is it?” the major asked. “Got kicked out again, did you? And ran off and joined the Army? With a forged birth certificate?”
    â€œYes, sir,” Phil confessed.
    He had visions of himself blindfolded and tied to a stake, as he waited for the firing squad to do its duty.
    â€œWe’ll have to send him back, of course, sir,” the captain said to the major. “But I thought I’d better check with you first,