The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer [64]
A few of the men snickered. "All right, keep it down," the officer said. "Let's have the platoon noncoms forward."
Croft and a sergeant from the pioneer and demolition platoon stepped up. "Most of my men are in the next truck," the noncom said, and the officer told him to move his men together. Croft talked in a low voice to the officer for a minute and then gathered recon around him. "We got to wait," he said. "Let's stick around that tree." There was just enough light for them to notice it, and they walked over slowly. "Where are we now?" Ridges asked.
"Second Battalion headquarters," Croft said. "What've you been working on the road for all this time if you don't even know where you are?"
"Shoot, Ah just work, Ah don' spend mah time lookin' around," Ridges said. He guffawed nervously, and Croft told him to be quiet. They sat down around the tree and waited silently. A battery fired in a grove about five hundred yards away and it lit up the area for a moment. "What's the artillery doin' up this close?" Wilson asked.
"It's cannon company," someone told him.
Wilson sighed. "All a man does is sit around an' get his tail wet."
"It seems to me," Goldstein said formally, "that they're managing this thing very poorly." His voice was eager as if he were hoping for a discussion.
"You bitching again, Goldstein?" Croft asked.
The anti-Semite, Goldstein thought. "I'm just expressing my opinion," he said.
"Opinion!" Croft spat. "A bunch of goddam women have opinions."
Gallagher laughed quietly and mockingly. "Hey, Goldstein, you want a soapbox?"
"You don't like the Army any more than I do," Goldstein said mildly.
Gallagher paused, then sneered. "Balls," he said. "What's the matter, you want some gefiillte fish?" He stopped, and then as if delighted with what he had said, he added, "That's right, what Goldstein needs is some of that fuggin fish." A machine gun began to fire again; because of the night it sounded very close.
"I don't like the way you express yourself," Goldstein said.
"You know what you can do," Gallagher said. He was partially ashamed, and to drown it he added fiercely, "You can go blow it. . ."
"You can't talk to me that way," Goldstein said. His voice trembled. He was in a turmoil, revolted by the idea of fighting, yet recognizing the deep necessity for it. The goyim, that's all they know, to fight with their fists, he thought.
Red stepped in. He had the discomfort a display of emotion always roused in him. "Let's take it easy," he muttered. "You guys'll be getting plenty of fight in a minute." He snorted. "Fightin' over the Army. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a goddam mess ever since they put Washington on a horse."
Toglio interrupted him. "You've got the wrong attitude, Red. It ain't decent to talk about George Washington that way."
Red slapped his knee. "You're a regular Boy Scout, ain't you, Toglio? You like the flag, huh?"
Toglio thought of a story he had read once, The Man Without a Country. Red was like the man in that, he decided. "I think some things aren't fit for kidding," he said severely.
"You want to know something?"
Toglio knew a crack was coming, but against his judgment he asked, "What?"
"The only thing wrong with this Army is it never lost a war."
Toglio was shocked. "You think we ought to lose this one?"
Red found himself carried away. "What have I got against the goddam Japs? You think I care if they keep this fuggin jungle? What's it to me if Cummings gets another star?"
"General Cummings, he's a good man," Martinez said.
"There ain't a good officer in the world," Red stated. "They're just a bunch of aristocrats, they think. General Cummings is no better than I am."
Their voices were beginning to carry above a whisper, and Croft said, "Let's keep it down." The conversation was boring him. It was always the men who never got anywhere that did the bitching.
Goldstein was still quivering. His sense of shame was so intense that a few tears welled in his eyes. Red's interruption frustrated him, for Gallagher's words had pitched Goldstein so taut