Word: soldierly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...HOUSE IN ORDER, by Nigel Dennis. There is a very fine difference between being savagely witty and wittily savage, and Author Dennis never confuses the two in this anguished parable of a man who chooses to be a gardener instead of a soldier...
Sweating heavily, with both temperature and humidity in the 80s, Johnson peeled off his jacket, self-consciously patted his paunch, then sprang another surprise. He presented Westmoreland with a Distinguished Service Medal "for his courage, for his leadership, for his determination, and for his great ability as a soldier and as a patriot." Like the good soldier he is, the general betrayed no surprise, did not even turn his head when he heard the news. "American fighting men," concluded the President, "you have the respect, you have the support, you have the prayers of a grateful President...
Plunging into the olive-drab crowd, the President heard an Army corporal say "Thank you for coming." "Thank you," he replied, "for being here." He reached for outthrust hands. "How about one for Texas?" shouted one soldier. The President gave him a hearty handshake and a big grin. In the air-conditioned Quonsets of the base hospital, the President gave out two dozen Purple Hearts, signed "L.B.J." on casts and fatigue caps, shook hands with nurses in baggy fatigues...
...that all the parts will be usefully employed to patch up other people. The French government, as representative of a loffical people, has worked it out that such procedures will do much to repair the military disadvantages of having a smaller population than the U.S. or China; one soldier can be used again and again...
Without history or features or known nationality, Dennis' Everyman is technically some sort of soldier, but as he explains early, "I am a victim, not a soldier." A very ignominious victim he is, unable even to get himself captured with the rest of his surrendering battalion. He was left behind because, in terror, he had hidden in a closet. An enemy soldier consents to take him prisoner, but then steals his spectacles, thus further cutting him off from the world, and forgets him. Here cowardice becomes the better part of valor. The hero takes refuge in an abandoned greenhouse...