PARTISAN REVIEW
443
coffin. And that it had always been waItmg there just for me. At
that precise point in space. And time.
But when the WAC leveled me out and wheeled me by the
interested faces of the two officers in the intermediate offices I felt
more like I was in a baby carriage.
There was no window in the wall of the colonel's office. There
were, however, two doorways, separated by a vertical wooden pillar,
between his office and that of the heavy light colonel, which
preceded it in the row. Each had a small sign above it. IN and
OUT. I was pushed under the sign marked IN.
And then dumped in the fourth office. It was larger than the
others and plushly furnished with rugs and plastic covered arm–
chairs. It seemed to be the last office in the line, for in the far wall
there was only a single small door which appeared to lead to a
closet or to a private bathroom, perhaps. A large mirror filled the
top half of the door. Next to it stood a tall bookcase filled with
army manuals.
Behind a huge desk (which was proportionately bigger than the
lieutenant colonel's in about the same ratio as the lieutenant colonel's
was bigger than the captain's) sat a man in medical whites with an
eagle on each shoulder. The colonel.
"Hello, lieutenant." He reached over the desk, stretching to grip
my hand, "Glad to see you made it. We've been expecting you.
My name is Dr. Creetner. Have a seat." He pointed to a steel-gray
colored chair which faced his desk.
"I wear two hats around here, lieutenant," he said, proudly.
"I'm chief of old Ellis here," he patted the top of his desk as
if
it
were the neck of his faithful horse, Trigger, "and I'm Post Surgeon."
As he said this, he pointed across the room to a hat rack, on which
there hung two hats. But they both looked the same to me.
And on the wall, above the hat rack, there hung a flag. It
pictured the medical caduceus above the motto, "Conserve The Fight–
ing Strength."
"Yes," the doctor said, leaning back in his chair, "if the balloon
goes up, I'm in charge of all medicine in New England."
He then proceeded to ask a few perfunctory questions–
when did we arrive and how was our trip. He was about sixty years
old, with a square-chinned face and short light hair which was
quite thin and neatly parted. His handshake had been unduly
