"Where did you learn to speak German?" MacMillan asked.
He did not like Lowell"s type. He was generally suspicious of handsome young men, and this handsome young man was also charming, had a hoity-toity manner of speaking, and was a draftee to boot.
"A lady who took care of me when I was a kid was German," Craig replied.
"What do you want out of the army, Lowell?" Mac asked.
"I don"t quite understand you, sir."
"Military government is always looking for people who speak German," he said. "You could make buck sergeant in six months, probably staff before your time is over."
"Well, if I have a choice, sir, I"d rather stay right here."
"That"s right, you don"t need the money, do you?" MacMillan said.
"No, sir, I don"t." Lowell wondered how MacMillan had found out about that; but he was not surprised-that he had.
"My wife thinks you"re a very nice young man," MacMillan said. "If you change your mind, let me know."
"Thank you, sir."
"!"was a jock myself before the war," MacMillan offered.
"I was Hawaiian Department light-heavyweight champ." He opened the beer bottle, drained it, and finished dressing. Lowell couldn"t think of anything to say.
"I don"t think you"re a nice young man," MacMillan said to him, finally. "I think you"re a G.o.dd.a.m.n feather merchant." When he saw that this had sort of stunned Lowell, he went on. "A word of advice, feather merchant: Don"t try to take advantage of being the general"s lady"s golf pro and instructor in kraut." Lowell flushed, but said nothing.
"I know, of course, that that had never entered your-mind, Private Lowell," MacMillan said. Then he walked out of the locker room.
A little after that, MacMillan sought him out again.
"I"ve got a question for you, feather merchant," he said. "What do you know about polo?"
"What would you like to know?"
"What would I like to know, sir," MacMillan corrected him.
"Yes, sir," Lowell said. He had just noticed that MacMillan"s lieutenant"s bar had been replaced with the railroad tracks of a captain. "I wasn"t trying to be disrespectful."
"I don"t suppose you were," MacMillan said, after looking at him for a moment. "But I"ll tell you something, Lowell. That"s the way you come across. As if you think everybody in the army is a horse"s a.s.s."
"I don"t mean to do that," Lowell said, sincerely.
"But you do think that we"re a bunch of horse"s a.s.ses, don"t you?"
"I don"t think YOU" are," Lowell replied, without thinking.
MacMillan"s eyes tightened, and his eyebrows went up. Lowell remembered only a moment later to add, "Captain."
"I"m flattered," MacMillan said, sarcastically. But it was evident to Lowell that the sarcasm, was pro forma. MacMillan had recognized the truth when he heard it, and he was flattered.
"Speaking of horse"s a.s.ses," MacMillan said, "tell me about polo."
"What would you like to know?"
"Everything. All I know is that you play it riding on horses."
"Sir, it would help if I knew why you want to know."
"The general has decided to play polo," MacMillan said.
"What the h.e.l.l is a seven-goal player?"
"One h.e.l.l of a polo player," Lowell said. "Sir."
"The general is a seven-goal polo player," MacMillan said.
"What does it mean?"
"It"s a handicap," Lowell explained. He explained the handicap system and the game of polo. MacMillan asked several questions, but Lowell never had to explain something twice.
"Between now and 0600 tomorrow morning, Lowell, I want you to make up a list of all the equipment we"re going to need to field a polo team. Everything, from boots to horseshoes.
I"ve found horses in Austria. There"s a warehouse full of equipment at Fort Riley, and I"ve got an old buddy there who"ll ship us what we need. But I"ll need to know what. Decide exactly what you"ll need. And then triple the quant.i.ties."
"Sir, I"m charge of quarters tonight."
"No, you"re not. As of an hour ago, you"re working for me.
I"ve already fixed it with headquarters company. The general wants a polo team, Lowell, and you and I are going to see that he gets one."
Two days after that, Craig Lowell found himself a pa.s.senger in one of the Constabulary"s Stinson L-5s, flown by the Constabulary aviation officer himself, Major Robert Robbins. Robbins flew him to the Alps near Salzburg, Austria, where military government held nearly five hundred horses captured from the Germans. There had originally been thousands, but the draft animals had been quickly released to the German and Austrian economies to till the land.
The horses still held were obviously not livestock but thoroughbred animals. They were kept as valuable property, which the Germans had presumably obtained illegally and which the authorities intended to return to their rightful owners.
A week after that, a ten-truck convoy of open flatbed trailers appeared at the~ horse farm and loaded the seventy animals Craig Lowell had chosen for the trip back to Germany. There wasn"t a polo pony among them. But there were some fine saddle horses (a German groom told Craig they had come from Hungrary in the last days of the war) which could, with work, be trained for polo.
It was a five-day trip to Bad Nauheim. The horses survived the journey. The German grooms had had a good deal of experience in moving animals under worse conditions. Whey they arrived in Bad Nauheim, Captain Macmillan had everything waiting, from stables and food to a polo filed in the munic.i.p.al park and accommodations for the grooms. In the stables were two dozen wooden crates shipped from Fort Riley, Kansas, by air. Each crate was stenciled: PRIORITY AIR SHIPMENT, VETERMARY SUPPLIES,PERISHABLE DO NOT DELAY.
The crates were full of saddles, horseshoes, tack, polo mallets, riding breeches, everything Craig Lowell had asked for and more. The day after the horses arrived, players began to arrive from all over the Constabulary. And two days after that, Private Craig Lowell met Major General Peterson K. Waterford and informed his that their mutual acquaintance, Bryce Taylor, was ill of terminal cancer.
(Six) The problem of how to get Pvt. Lowell onto the polo field as a commissioned officer remained. MacMillan went through his service record. Lowell had been thrown out of college.
College graduates, under certain circ.u.mstances, could be directly commissioned. MacMillan toyed with the idea of making certain "corrections" to Lowell"s service record but decided against it; he was only nineteen years old, and there was no way he could correct that, too. Two "corrections" of that magnitude would be too noticeable.
Next, MacMillan went and had a talk with Major William C. Emmons, the Constab"s finance officer. They were friends in the sense that they both had been stationed at Fort Riley before the war. MacMillan could not honestly remember ever having seen Specialist Six Emmons at Riley, but they had talked, and they remembered other people together. Sergeant MacMillan had had little to do with the pencil-pushers in the old days, and the pencil-pushers had had little to do with the troops. On Pearl Harbor Day, Major Emmons had been a Specialist Six, a PFC with three three-year hash marks, drawing the same pay as a first sergeant (Pay Grade Six) because of his specialist"s skill in the intricacies of army finance. A month later, he had been directly commissioned as a first lieutenant of the Finance Corps, and had spent the entire war in the Prudential Insurance Company Building in Newark, N.J., in command of an army of civilian clerks who made up and mailed out allotment checks and insurance checks to dependents and the deceased"s next of kin. He had ultimately risen to major doing that.
Major Emmons not only knew the army game and understood MacMillan"s problem, but offered a solution to it. It was understood between them that MacMillan owed Emmons a Big One. There was no swap, no t.i.t for tat, just an understanding between them that when Major Emmons wanted something, Captain MacMillan, senior aide to the commanding general, would make a genuine effort to see that he got it.
Pvt. Craig Lowell, who was either playing polo or training the polo ponies from sunup to sundown, had no idea that the wheels of army administration were grinding in his behalf.
BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL WATERFORD Charles A. Webster Colonel, AGC Adjutant General HEADQUARTERS OFFICE OF THE FINANCE OFFICER UNITED STATES CONSTABULARY APO 109 US FORCES.
19 May 1946 SUBJECT:.
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CONSTABULARY APO 109 NEW YORK NY.
Critical Shortage of Commissioned Finance Officers~ Commanding General U. S. Constabulary AP0109, US Forces Commanding General US Forces, European Theater APO 757, US Forces 1. Reference is made to Letter, Subject as Above, Hq USFET, dated 3 April 1946.
2. The Finance Section, this Hq, is three (3) officers, MOS 1444 (Fiscal Accounting Officer) below authorized Table of Organization and Equipment strength, and has been advised that no replacement officers will be a.s.signed from the Zone of the Interior for a minimum of six (6) months. 3. . The Finance Section, this Hq, had been authorized to directly commission two (2) suitably qualified enlisted , men as 2ND LT. FIN C USAR, to fill this critical shortage of personnel.
4. Reference Para 2 above: Request authority to directly commission one (1) additional qualified enlisted man as 2 LT FIN C USAR for a total of three (3).
William C. Emmons Major, Finance Corps.
Division Finance Officer THRU:.
TO:.
SPECIAL ORDERS NUMBER 134.
19 May 1946 EXTRACT.
35. PVT LOWELL, Craig W. US32667099 MOS 7745 Hq & Hq Co U.S. Constab APO 109 relvd,. trfd in gr WPSvc Co Hq U.S. Constab APO 109 for dy with U.S. Constab Finance Office. No tyl involved. PCS.
AUTH: Ltr, Hq U.S. Constab, 7 Ian 46, Subj: ""Critical Shortage Enl Finance Personnel."
Charles A. Webster Colonel, AGC Adjutant General HQ U.S. CONSTAB APO 109 19 MAY 46.
TO: COMMANDING GENERAL USFET APO 757 US FORCES.
1. The Commanding General United States Constabulary is personally aware of the critical shortage of qualified commissioned financial officers, and of the serious threat this shortage poses to the operational status of this division.
2. The Commanding General strongly recommends approval.
HEADQUARTERS, UNITED STATES CONSTABULARY APO 109 NEW YORK NY.
SPECIAL ORDERS NUMBER 137.
24 May 1946 BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL WATERFORD Charles A. Webster Colonel, AGC Adjutant General EXTRACT.
2nd Ind HQ USFET APO 75722 MAY 1946.
TO: COMMANDING GENERAL U.S. CONSTABULARY APO 109.
l6.PVT LOWELL, CRAIG W. US32667099 Svc Co U.S. Constabulary, APO 109, is relvd prs asgmt and HON DISCH the mil service UP AR 615-365 (Convenience of the Govt) for purp of accept comm as officer.
EM auth transp at govt expense from New York NY to home of record (Broadlawns, Glencove, LI NY) PCS.
S-99-999-999.
17. 2ND LT LOWELL, CRAIG W. FinC, 0-495302, having reported on active duty Svc Co U.S. Constabulary is asgd dy with Service Company, Finance Section. Off auth transport at Govt Expense from home of record (Broadlawns, Glencove, LI NY) to New York NY. PCS.
S-99-999-999.
18. 2ND LT LOWELL, CRAIG W. FinC, 0-495302, Finance Sec Hq U. S. Constab, is detailed to Armor Branch for pd of one yr for dy w/troops. (Auth: Letter, Hq War Dept, Subj: "Asgmt of newly comm off of tech services to combat arms for dy w/trps.) No tvl included.
19. 2nd LT LOWELL, CRAIG W. 0-495302 FinC (Det! ARM) Finance Sec Hq U. S. Constab, trfd in gr WP Hq Sq 17th Armd Cay Squadron APO 117 for dy wi troops. In Compl with Msg, Hq U.S. Constab, Subj: "Asgmt of Armorl Armored Cay Off to Provisional Horse Platoon." Off is further placed on TDY, WP Hq 40th Horse Platoon (Prov) for dy. TDN. TCS. S-99-999-999.
Authority granted herewith to directly commission as 2nd Lt, Finance Corps, U.S. Army Reserve, one (1) additional highly qualified enlisted man. - - BY COMMAND OF GENERAL CLAY Edward K. MacNeel Colonel, AGC Adjutant General 3rd Ind HQ US CONS TAB APO 10923 MAY 1946 TO: FINANCE OFFICER, US CONST AB For compliance.
BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL WATERFORD.
BY COMMAND OF MAJOR GENERAL WATERFORD Charles A. Webster Colonel, AGC Adjutant General (Seven) 40th Horse Platoon (Prov) U.S. Constabulary Bad Nauheim, Germany Private Craig W. Lowell drove up to the stables of the 40th Horse Platoon in his black, privately owned jeep and blew the horn. In a moment, the left of the huge matching doors, large enough to pa.s.s the jeep, was opened by one of the German grooms, and Lowell drove through it.
After Lowell had pa.s.sed through the door, the groom closed it again and walked to where Lowell had stopped next to the stairwell leading to the second floor of the stables. He then helped Private Lowell unload what he had beneath a sc.r.a.p of tent canvas in the back seat.
There was a Zenith Transoceanic portable radio still in its carton. There were two jumbo-sized boxes of Rinso; a half dozen bars of Ivory soap; three cartons of Camel cigarettes; two boxes of Dutch Masters cigars; a case of Coca-Cola; a case of Schlitz beer, in cans; a carton of Hershey chocolate bars (plain) and a carton of Hershey chocolate bars (with almonds); and six large cans of Nescafe instant coffee.
Private Lowell had been shopping at the PX.
"Put the radio, the beer, and the cigars in my room," Private Lowell directed the groom, in German. "You know what to do with the rest of it."
"Jawohl, Herr Rittmeister," the groom said. Literally translated, "Rittmeister" meant "Riding Master." If had also been a rank in the German cavalry, corresponding to captain, as well as a rank in the minor German n.o.bility. All the grooms had taken to referring to him as the "Herr Rittmeister" and Lowell thought it rather amusing.
Before he went to his apartment, he inspected both wings of the stable, all the horses in their stalls, the tack room, and the dressing room where the polo players kept their riding equipment. He had had a little trouble at the very beginning with the grooms, but that had quickly pa.s.sed when they learned that not only did the young soldier speak fluent German, but he knew horses. Lowell found nothing to complain about in the condition of the animals, the cleanliness of the stables, or the saddle-soaping of the tack and saddles, and he saw that the open lockers in the dressing room each contained two complete, freshly laundered and pressed riding costumes.
Then he went up the stairs to his apartment. He had known about the rooms over the stables from the very beginning and had immediately concluded that they offered much nicer accommodations than his tiny room over the pro shop at the golf course.
The morning after the first time he had played polo with General Waterford, he had made his move.
"Captain," he had said to MacMillan. "There"s a place I can sleep over the stables. Could I move over there?"
"Where are you sleeping now?"
"Over the pro shop."
"Go ahead." All the grooms were supposed to be equal. They were hired by the army as laborers for a minimum wage, given one hot meal a day, and provided with died-black army fatigues as work clothes. One of them, Ludwig, was more equal than the others, sort of a straw boss.
Ludwig arranged for the furnishing of the two rooms and bath over the stables. Overnight, a bed (as opposed to a GI steel cot) appeared. As did two upholstered chairs, a desk, a table, an insulated box full of ice, two floor lamps, a desk lamp, a lamp that clipped onto the headboard of the bed, and a carpet for the floor. The next night, there was an extension telephone sitting on a small table between one of the upholstered armchairs and the bed. Private Lowell could now lake calls without having to rush downstairs to the telephone in the stable office.