It has been almost two weeks since John's painstakingly written Proposal for Improving Army Logistics Management was in the hands of Chief Bull. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Except for the verbal praise of Major General Bull for his "enthusiasm for work" when he submitted the proposal, John never heard any more comments from the top of the staff on the matter.

Crawford and Martin, among several other colleagues who have read the proposal, have praised it. Crawford was even tempted to apply John's experience in solving spare parts problems in the aerospace industry to his daily work. Recently, live-fire training and exercises of various units of the US Army have become much more frequent, and the daily consumption of ammunition has increased by a large margin. He, the logistical staff officer in charge of ammunition supply, was already driven crazy by urging calls from all over the country.

However, it seems that the top of the staff was not very interested in John's "new ideas". John did not receive any feedback from his superiors on the proposal. Neither in favor nor against it, the proposal was quietly forgotten in the filing cabinet of the secretary's office.

The second shot he had carefully prepared did not fire, and John was a little unwilling. Even if someone jumps out to oppose it and pick on it, it's better than no one cares. I have worked hard and pondered for so many days, is it just to increase the workload of the little secretary of the General Office of the General Staff who is responsible for destroying expired documents?

He even had the idea of finding an opportunity to hand the proposal directly to Uncle Stimson, but in the end he held back. He is now an active-duty officer in the Army Staff, not a civilian officer in the War Department, and this is not in accordance with the rules. Even if Chief of Staff Marshall didn't care about Uncle Stimson's face, the other high-ranking staff would have taken it to heart. The army is no better than other places, and the phrase "the official level crushes people to death" is not a joke here, and if you don't get it right, you will really lose your life.

Unbeknownst to John, his proposal had already been sent to Chief of Staff Marshall. Marshall's little black notebook had a page with John's name written on it, so there were a few more lines of comment. The most important sentence is: "With a broad vision and keen observation, we can discover the new situation and new changes in future wars in a timely manner, and we can further undertake more important work." ”

It's just that these are only known to a very small number of people. For example, General Arnold, the deputy chief of staff who was the first to discover and favor John. Arnold, having read a copy of the proposal written by John, was intrigued by the idea of full asset transparency. Since he took office as the commander of the Army Air Force, he does not even know how many planes he has in his hands that can be used in combat. The figures reported by various departments are very different and contradictory, and Arnold has been dissatisfied with this for a long time.

To this end, he spent more than half an hour discussing John's proposal with Marshall. What the final discussion between the two men was, John couldn't tell. He had heard Vandenberg mention it much later, and after that discussion, a general from the Army Air Corps Command had made a special trip to visit Dean Dunant of Harvard Business School.

Another person who knows the inside story is Uncle Stimson. Marshall specifically consulted him on how to use John. Stimson agrees with John's proposal, but he doesn't think it's a good time to do it.

He reminded Marshall that there are too many old-fashioned old men in the army's top echelons, and the most important thing at present is how to transfer these veteran generals who cannot keep up with the times from key departments before they can talk about reforming a specific aspect. Rushing to reform the logistics management system at present will only add unnecessary trouble to the army's work of replacing the old with the new, and it is better to wait for the new army command system to be put in order before implementing it.

Stimson did this to protect John. After so many years in the political arena, he knows well Marshall's little care. Marshall was so eager to promote and reuse John, although there was an element of appreciating his ability, but more importantly, he wanted to use John's relatively tough and sharp "knife" to stab the conservative camp in the army a few times.

From Marshall's point of view, this is very reasonable, he was only a brigadier general not long ago, and now he has suddenly surpassed a large number of major generals and lieutenant generals to become the chief of staff of the army and a four-star general, and there are a group of veterans in the army who are not convinced by him. In peacetime, Marshall could still have a deal with the veterans and maintain a harmonious atmosphere. However, the current international situation no longer allows him to make peace with the mud, and if he wants to complete the preparations for war as soon as possible, he must quickly cut through the chaos and drive away this group of veterans.

The key question is how to pick it up and who will pick it up. For Marshall, John was a good candidate to charge for him. With strong ability and hard support, if this "little knife" is used well, it may really be able to poke a few holes in the conservative camp in the military. And even if you don't do it well, it doesn't matter if you break this knife. John is a person on Stimson's line, and he is not his younger brother, so even if he "loses" Marshall, he is not distressed at all.

However, Marshall is not distressed, Stimson is distressed. As a close friend of John's father, he still values this capable junior. Besides, John can be said to have joined the army because he dragged him down this time, even if he knew that it would not be a big deal for John even if he couldn't get along in the army, Stimson still couldn't let Marshall use John so "roughly".

In cultivating reserve talents, we must pay attention to ways and means, and we must not mess around. Even if you want to hammer and polish John, it's not this routine. It was true that the blade of the sword was sharpened, and there was no one who took the sword and slashed at the big rock. No matter how good a sword is, it can't withstand such a mess.

Fortunately, in the general direction, Marshall and Stimson are still the same. Especially at this time, Stimson's support is especially important to Marshall. Since he did not agree to let John "charge", then Marshall had to give up, and there was no need to make an unpleasant fuss about this little thing.

John himself was unaware of the turmoil caused by his proposal. At this moment, he is still feeling depressed about his "lack of talent" and "high and low".

Is it because your ideas are too advanced? Or is it because the General Staff is still busy with recruitment and training, and it will not have time to study logistics and supply for a while? After a few days of cranky thinking, John put the matter behind him. It's not that he's forgetful, it's that his work has suddenly increased dramatically, and he's too busy to think about proposals.

The sudden extra work in John's hands was all caused by another person thousands of miles away who fired a shot that shocked the world. On 30 November, Stalin ordered 23 divisions of 450,000 Soviet troops to cross the Finnish border. Soon, there was a heavy exchange of fire between the two armies at the Mannerheim Line.

When the eyes of the whole world were focused on the borders of Germany, France and Belgium, waiting for the outbreak of war in Europe, no one expected that the war would start in the distant Arctic permafrost.