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Upstarts
The whole operation was done under considerable stress, for everything had to work
precisely to have the desired effect.
One day I remember setting up a big TOT, when right in the middle I was conscious of
an audience. Brigadier General Bixby himself had sidled into the tent and was watching my
every move intently. But he didn't say anything, didn't even fidget. Finally I had finished the
initial calls and was waiting, with a phone in each hand, for the other battalions to report ready to
fire. In the brief moment of slacked tension, I inquired, "Anybody got a cigarette?" It was a silly
thing to say; I didn't have a hand free to hold a cigarette anyhow.
"Well, Jesus Christ!" General Bixby exclaimed. He put two cigarettes in his mouth and
lit them both, then squeezed over to where I was and stuck one of them into my mouth. I was
flushed and flustered, but I managed to mutter a meaningless thanks and finish up the TOT with
smoke in my eyes.
My interpretation was that he meant to make me look cheap for thinking of anything so
frivolous as a cigarette at such a time. But Don Thomson saw it differently. "He was trying to
say that you were the guy carrying the ball, and that everyone else should do everything possible
to help you."
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