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Chapter 19 and 20
Chapter 19 - Colonel Cathcart
Colonel Cathcart is a truly despicable character. Deceitful, lying, self-aggrandizing, ambitious, and callous, he is sycophantic to his superiors and brutal to his underlings. His attitude towards his assistant, Colonel Korn alternates between hating him for giving him bad advice and loving him for giving him good advice.
In this chapter, the Colonel meets with the Chaplain. Cathcart wants the Chaplain to lead the squadron in prayer before each bombing mission, because a similar practice was recently written up in the Saturday Evening Post and Cathcart is jealous of their exposure. When Cathcart learns that the enlisted men would have to be included, and that the prayers would probably be somber affairs mentioning death, he decides against it. He then excoriates the Chaplain for suggesting it, which of course he never did.
Chapter 20 - Corporal Whitcomb
On the way out, the Chaplain runs into Colonel Korn, who thanks him for talking the Colonel out of the foolish plan. The Saturday Evening Post, argues Korn, would hardly write the same article twice.
The shy and sensitive Chaplain returns to his tent in the woods, where he lives with his assistant Corporal Whitcomb, who hates him with a passion. Whitcomb hates the Chaplain because he believes in God and doesn't like Whitcomb's schemes for increasing attendance at services. As a result, Whitcomb tortures his superior in every way he possibly can.
In this instance, Whitcomb tells the Chaplain that a C.I.D. man is investigating him for censoring letters as "Washington Irving." When the Chaplain protests that he hasn't done any such thing, Whitcomb answers that it was himself, Whitcomb, who did it, but that of course they all suspect the Chaplain.
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11 and 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14, 15, and 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19 and 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26 and 27
Chapter 28 and 29
Chapter 30 and 31
Chapter 32 and 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35 and 36
Chapter 37 and 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40 and 41
Chapter 42
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