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"I had breakfast there.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Uh-huh. You take my point, Sergeant Major?”
“I will have lunch there, sir.”
“It was really bad, Dieter,” Lustrous said. “And that’s one of the things we just can’t have.”
“I’ll take care of it, sir.”
“I leave the matter in your capable hands, Sergeant Major, ” Lustrous said and motioned for the sergeant major to follow him into his office.
Dieter snatched one of the three stainless steel thermos bottles from the coffee machine table and followed Lustrous into his office.
“Give me a second, Colonel,” Dieter said. “What I want to show you is on my desk.”
Lustrous nodded, said “Sure,” took off his field jacket and hung it on a coat-tree, and then went behind his desk and sat down.
Dieter came back in the office a moment later carrying an eight-inch-thick stack of paper about fourteen inches across and twenty-two inches long fastened together with enormous Ace spring metal clips. On it sat a thin book bound in maroon-colored artificial leather.
“What the hell is that?” Lustrous asked.
“The regimental newspaper, sir,” Dieter said. “Specifically, for the year 1969.”
“Did you find Daddy in there?”
“Yes, sir, I think I did.”
Dieter laid the stack of old newspapers on Lustrous’s conference table and carefully opened it in about the middle.
“Want to have a look, sir?” Dieter asked.
Lustrous heaved himself out of his chair and walked to the table.
Dieter pointed to a somewhat faded photograph of two young officers in flight suits standing by the nose of an HU- 1D.
“That’s a Dog model,” he said, indicating the Huey helicopter.
“Uh-huh,” Dieter said.
The headline over the picture read, “BLACKHORSE TO TRAIN WITH SKYCAV.”
The caption under the picture read, “1st Lt. James Biden (left), Ithaca, N.Y., and WOJG J.A. Castillo, San Antonio, Tex., of the 322nd Aviation Company shown by their HU- 1D helicopter, one of eight which will participate in a three-week -long joint training exercise with troopers of the Blackhorse.”
“It’s a lousy photo,” Lustrous said. “But he looks like he’s fifteen years old.”
“I noticed that, sir,” Dieter said.
“Well, you found him,” Lustrous said. “Good for you.”
“You better hold off on that, sir,” Dieter said. “That’s not all I found.”
He picked up the book bound in maroon artificial leather and handed it to Lustrous.
Lustrous looked at the title.
“The Medal of Honor?” he asked, curiously.
