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The President ignored him and walked to Jimmy Cronley.
“Son, I can’t tell you how sorry Bess and I were when Admiral Souers told us what happened to your girlfriend.”
“She wasn’t his girlfriend, Mr. President,” Jimmy’s mother said. “They eloped yesterday.”
“Oh my God!” Mrs. Truman blurted.
Jimmy’s mother put her hands over her face and began to sob. Bess Truman went to the couch, dropped to her knees, and put her arms around her.
“That’s Jimmy’s mother, Mrs. Truman,” Cletus Marcus Howell said. “The other lady is—was—Marjorie’s mother.”
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Jimmy said. “And thank you for not making . . . for excusing me from reporting to you at the White House.”
The President didn’t reply. He looked around and then took the glass Tom was extending on a silver tray. He took a healthy swallow, then looked around.
“General,” he said to Donovan. And then he said, “Colonel,” to Mattingly.
“Mr. President,” they replied just about simultaneously.
“And that’s Jimmy’s dad, Harry,” Cletus Marcus Howell said. “James D. Cronley Senior.”
The two shook hands.
“You can take a lot of pride in your son, Mr. Cronley,” President Truman said.
“I do, Mr. President. I’m very . . .” His voice broke, and then he found it and continued, “. . . I’m very proud of Jimmy.”
The President took another sip of the Collier and McKeel.
“I’d forgotten, Mr. Cronley,” he said, “that you and General Donovan served together in the First War.”
“Yes, sir. We did.”
President Truman scanned the room, then gestured. “Everybody please sit down,” he ordered. He turned to Tom Porter. “Could you get chai
rs for my wife and me, please? And Admiral Souers?”
The President helped his wife to her feet and installed her in a chair and then sat down himself. He looked at Jimmy.
“Son, the reason I asked the admiral to bring you to the White House was that I was going to make you a first lieutenant and give you the Bronze Star for what you did. That was General Marshall’s recommendation. He said he thought the Bronze Star was appropriate, but that since the war was over, the Bronze Star could not have the V for Valor device on it. And he said he would ‘look into’ making you a first lieutenant even though you don’t have the time in grade.
“This was before, I think I should mention, Admiral Souers told me what happened on U.S. 1. I don’t want you to think that what’s going to happen now is because I pity you, though God knows I think what happened to you this afternoon is about the worst kick in the ba— in the stomach that I can imagine.
“What happened was I got to thinking the Bronze Star without the V for Valor device wasn’t ‘appropriate.’ And as far as General Marshall ‘looking into’ whether you could be promoted early or not, I remembered when my National Guard outfit got called up for the First War, I went from staff sergeant to captain overnight. And finally, I remembered I’m commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America.”
The President drained his Collier and McKeel, handed the glass to Tom, and said, “I’ll have another of those, but hold off a minute, please.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Stand up, son,” the President ordered as he rose from his own chair. “We’ll get to what was supposed to happen in the White House.”
Jimmy stood.
“Okay, Sid,” the President ordered.
“Attention to orders,” Admiral Souers proclaimed.
General Donovan and Colonel Mattingly jumped to their feet and came to attention. Cletus Marcus Howell got to his feet next, then Jimmy’s father, and finally all the women.
