On a sunny autumn morning, the scene in the Klabe barracks was in full swing. The acceptance team of the General Staff Department is conducting individual combat skills assessments on six randomly selected infantry companies. In addition to the high-level leaders of the 82nd Division and Clark, the leader of the acceptance team, there was also Lieutenant General Wald, commander of the Fourth Army, who personally rushed to support the 82nd Division's platform.

I have to say that Milley still has a hand in training. In just one month, the training situation of the 503rd Regiment, which had previously made Li Qiwei and John worried, has changed a lot. At least the company that was drawn did not perform well and did not drop the chain.

Wald, Ridgway, and Clark watched with great interest, and whispered a few words from time to time. John on the side was a little absent-minded, and his mind had already flown out of the training ground.

Last night, he received several phone calls from Eisenhower, Jairo, William Lee, and General Spatz of the Army Air Corps.

Although the original intention of the call was the same, they were all to tell John the "inside information" that he would likely be transferred back to Washington again.

As John's old boss, Jairo was clearly optimistic about Marshall's plan to transfer John back to Washington to be in charge of logistics. In Jairo's opinion, John, a logistics expert, is almost "gilded" below, and it is a good choice to take the opportunity to "kill" back to Washington.

William Lee, on the other hand, was a little worried about this sudden "change". He has been working on the "Air Infantry" program for several years, and in just half a year, he has been able to change from a small experimental project that has not been taken seriously at all under the Infantry Bureau to a big cast that has attracted the attention of Washington's top leaders.

For more than half a year, John has been using his network resources to make a name for himself in the Airborne Forces, and William Lee has given John the green light to help him gradually establish and expand his influence in the Airborne Forces. The two have formed a certain tacit understanding in the "cooperation".

Now, as it seems to be done, if John is suddenly transferred at this time, William Lee fears that it will inevitably affect the production of the subsequent formation of the airborne division.

As for Spatz, who had just taken up the post of head of the Army Air Corps' armament division, he simply wanted to congratulate John and deepen his relationship with him, an aircraft manufacturing tycoon who had some friendships in London.

Only Eisenhower knew John's mind best, and his communication with John was deeper and more thorough.

When you're faced with a big choice, it's good to have a friend who puts you in the shoes of a bystander and helps you calmly analyze the situation. But this time, after a long phone conversation with Eisenhower, John's heart became even more entangled.

Eisenhower bluntly told John on the phone that he could understand John's decision to become a great commander and had confidence in his ability to learn and grow at a pace. However, before he was tested in battle, John showed only potential. From the perspective of the overall situation of the Army, John's return to the logistics system is the most advantageous option.

John also knew very well in his heart how much of a role the new branch of the airborne troops could play in actual combat, and the top brass of the army did not know how much of a role it could play in actual combat. Even if the 82nd Division was reorganized into an airborne division, it would be experimental for a long time, and in the eyes of the army's top brass, it would be an idle move that had nothing to do with the overall situation.

And now the chaos of the logistics supply system, especially the transportation system, is the big problem for Marshall. If it is not resolved well, it will inevitably have a tremendous impact on the overall combat capability of the army.

Not to mention that John currently has only one "slightly potential" rising star, that is, a generation of famous generals, the army top brass will not hesitate to make a choice. After all, no matter how outstanding the combat capability of a division-level unit is, it is far from being able to compare with any slight improvement in the overall capability of the army.

But how could he be willing to let John return to the logistics system? Not to mention that the efforts of more than a year have been in vain, the key is that the "dream of a famous general" in his heart is likely to come to naught.

Although John never admitted it, since he put on this military uniform, he has bred the idea of becoming a generation of famous generals and leaving a name in history in World War II. Not to mention that he was more or less a "pseudo-military fan" in his previous life, even if he was an ordinary person who came to the magnificent World War II period, how could he not want to use the advantage of "foresight" to show his skills.

When he returned to work in the logistics system, it was likely that he would have to sit in his office for the entire Second World War and be completely out of the battlefield. Even if it makes better use of his abilities, and even his personal career may be taken to the next level, John is still unwilling to become an unknown "hero behind the scenes".

When it comes to World War II in later generations, who doesn't know the names of Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery, and Zhukov? Even Reinhardt, Guderian, and Yamamoto Isoroku are familiar to the descendants of the "generals of the defeated army" of the defeated countries. Conversely, what logistics officer's name can be remembered by future generations?

Even Admiral Somerville, the boss of the U.S. military's logistics system, not many people in later generations know about his exploits. Ironically, he is mentioned more simply because he presided over the construction of the Pentagon.

However, even if John was unwilling, his little "careful thinking" was not enough to tell the outside world, and if he wanted to continue to stay in the combat unit, he had to come up with enough convincing reasons to convince the army leadership, at least Uncle Stimson.

This saddened John. You must know that Stimson has always been very supportive of John going to the Airborne Forces, or even going to the front-line combat troops. It's just that now that the United States has not entered the war, he let John himself "toss around". If Marshall had formally offered to transfer John back to Washington, John would have guessed that Stimson would have gone with the flow and laughed at the other party's "kindness."

Fortunately, at that time, Marshall did not directly say anything at the meeting. Maybe he still needs to communicate with other bigwigs in private, after all, it is not a trivial matter to transfer a general, especially a general with a deep background like him. It also gave John a glimmer of hope that there was room for manipulation in the matter.

Soon, though, John realized he was overthinking. In the eyes of the Army's top brass, he is far less important personally than he thinks. The reason why Marshall stopped talking at the meeting was because he was in the next big game! And he, John, is just a small pawn in this chess game.