Raus did not look up at the faces. An officer learned not to look at the faces. It was easier if you thought of them as bodies, as tools, means to an end. But just what the end was Raus could no longer say.

Halleck came from people who regarded a slight change of facial expression as adequate to convey the pain of a severed limb.

A good platoon sergeant, in the lieutenant’s mind, ought act like Kato on 'The Green Hornet' and not a disapproving uncle with a taste for the strap.

Bloke was a savage. On the pitch and in the sky. But his savagery wouldn't save him. He had flown too many missions and the numbers would catch up with him soon. They always did.

But that was the war for you. It was inconvenient, senseless, and it had placed Maurice Mickelwhite directly in the path of two thousand German bombers.