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.To solve Craig's time-in-transit problem, the Graf turned over to hisson-in-law an enormous Mercedes sedan, equipped with the special licenseplates issued to general officers of theBundeswehr.That kept the German police at a respectful distance, and the U.S.Army Military Police no.longer had authority to control speeding Germanvehicles on the autobahn.Lowell rented a garage in Augsburg, leaving the Mercedes in it when he was onduty and the Jaguar there when he drove toMarburg.His personal life in the military society at Augsburg was unsatisfactory, buthe had expected that, and it didn't particularly bother him.He had decidedagainst taking an apartment"on the economy," although the Generalmajor offered to help him find one.Hedidn't intend to stay in Augsburg when he had time off anyway, and he didn'twant to call attention to himself.He lived in the BOQ.Despite the notion that "initial utilization tour"aviators were assigned without regard to rank and branch of service, and thathe was nothing more than a commissioned jeep driver, he was, de facto and dejure, a major, a field-grade officer.Nonaviators disliked aviators, as a general rule.Not only were they regarded,once again, as nothing more than jeep drivers with commissions, but salt wasrubbed into that wound by flight pay.Aviator lieutenants made as much moneyas nonflying captains.The old-time aviators, the ones who ran the Seventh ArmyFlight Detachment and told Major Lowell when and where he was to fly, wererequired to pay to him the military courtesy captains and lieutenants areobliged to show to majors.They lived in company-grade, single-room BOQs,while "young MajorLowell" (how the hell did he get to be a major?) was assigned a field-gradeofficer's two-room suite.They might be flight examiners and his instructorsin the finer points of helicopter flight, but they were the ones who pulledofficer of the day and conducted inventories of the unit supply room.Majors are not expected to do that sort of thing.Lowell made some friends among them, of course.They weren't all eithercommissioned cretins or fools.He understood a good deal of the resentment theold-timers felt toward the newcomers.As it became increasingly evident thatarmy aviation was going to grow, it had become just as evident to theold-timers that after having taken all the crap they had all those years, thePage 88ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlnewcomers were about to take all the gravy.A letter from MacMillan, eight lines long, and with six misspelled words,reported that a Combat Developments Office had been set up under the DCSOPS atCamp Rucker.Lowell felt more than a little uneasy about that, for BillRoberts had written shortly afterward, bitterly reporting the same thing andsaying it was the first step in the establishment's attempt to take over armyaviation.It would be very embarrassing if BillRoberts found out that Lowell had put MacMillan's thoughts into a presentableform.He had done it for MacMillan primarily because Mac was just back fromthe escapade in Indo-China, and somehow felt he was paying him back for takingcare ofSandy.Mac would have really looked like the dumb ass he was if he had submitted hisproposals to the brass in the form they had been in when he had showed them toLowell.But Mac had been right: the Army simply couldn't afford to turn avastly expanded army aviation program over to the Cincinnati FlyingClub.Not because the members of the Club weren't competent, for they wereabout the only people around aviation who were, but because there was notenough of them to go around.When they ran out of Cincinnati Flying Clubmembers for responsible jobs, they would have to get people outside ofaviation altogether, for the vast bulk of the other army aviators simply wereunqualified.The subject of the low quality of aviation officers as a personnel problem forthe future had been the subject of several of Lowell's long letters to BillRoberts.Roberts was now a full colonel at Camp Rucker and president of theArmy AviationBoard.Lowell had suggested solutions, including the periodic reassignment ofofficers to their basic branch, so officers would know something besidesflying.Roberts argued that what the army needed was a separate branch foraviation, Army AirCorps II [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]