Once an Eagle

by Anton Myrer

and stood straight as a sentry on post, hands at her sides. “You know something, Sam? It’s all a pretty little fraud. This whole band-playing, spit-and-polish system you’re wound up in. It is simply insane. The system says you’re all noble knights in modern armor, holding the wall against the shaggy barbarian invaders. The fact of the matter is that there aren’t any invaders anywhere around—and if there were the American public wouldn’t give a hoot in a gale. The system says Batchelder is a fine, upstanding old soldier and Peavey is a brilliant tactician and Votaw is a wizard with weapons, and that they’re all officers and consummate gentlemen. The fact—the truth which nobody can mention inside this myth-laden booby hatch—is that Votaw is a pompous ass and Peavey is a power-drunk sadist, and dear old Batchelder is a miserable, wretched, skirt-chasing rummy!