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PARTISAN REVIEW
ceeded to enlist God, anti-Communism, modern education, what's–
become-of-the-Army, World War II, last night's meal, and that even–
ing's problem in platoon-attack in his cause, and concluded with an
obscenity-studded panegyric of me, the I & E program generally, and
the commanding general of the post. Although I had long since
ceased to understand anything about his peroration other than that
it seemed to express a kind of dizzying and insensible veneration, I
advanced bravely when he had finished, sat the trainees down once
again and admonished them to heed what the Sergeant had said:
he was a combat-toughened veteran and knew whereof he spoke.
Stunned and wearied by Niederweg's castigation, they submitted to
my reprimand without a murmur.
Niederweg was one of the most opinionated people I have ever
known. Without provocation he would sometimes confront me with
a roster of his beliefs about life and death, the Communists, the
Chinese, and the C-rations. He held convictions in every area of
human experience and seemed prepared to lay down his life in rabid
defense of the most trivial of them. Even so, he was not excessively
brutal, as training sergeants go, and he commanded a frightened
respect from
his
troops by means of the force of his self-assertion and
the myriad stories about his experiences in combat which had at·
tained full currency in the regiment. Butcher of the language that
he was, he possessed in full measure the proprietory eloquence of his
profession. It came then as something of a shock to find him so
stricken in class. I never said anything to
him
about it-I was, per–
haps, too uncertain of his reply.
When I learned that only two of my students had any chance
of passing I didn't quite know what to do. I could inform the other
six privately or in a body that there wasn't much point in their
going on with these lessons, since the time alloted to preparing for
the examination was much too brief for them to acquire the requisite
knowledge. Or I could say nothing, continue with the classes, let
them
all
take the examination without a caution from me, and allow
them my judgment only if it were requested. The first course rec–
ommended itself because their exertions were so strenuous. It seemed
unscrupulous indeed to let them go on with a futile study and not
even warn them of certain failure. Each week they persisted in stag–
gering through another chapter of lessons, each week they managed
