Director Nevins' home is not in Washington. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info but in the adjacent Fort-McNair. In Washington, senior generals generally made their homes on General Avenue on the banks of the Potomac River, while lower-ranking generals like Nevins preferred to live in scenic Fort McNair.

In 1976, after the Department of Defense established the National Defense University in Fort McNair, a large number of so-called "general buildings" were born here. John had visited here in his previous life, and the local tourism department had written a lot about these "former residences of famous generals".

John was visiting Nevins' house for the first time, and arrived a little later than expected because of the unfamiliar road. By the time he arrived, Nevins' house was already full.

In the past two years, the scale of the Operational Planning Division has swelled very rapidly like blowing up a balloon. Excluding civilian and female auxiliaries, the Operations Planning Service now has 114 full-fledged Army officers on its staff, almost double the maximum number of officers under the MacArthur-era National Defense Act.

Today, the gathering at General Nevins' house was attended by about 20 officers of the rank of section chief (lieutenant colonel) and above. John found that nearly one-third of them were raw faces.

"Haha, John, you're here." As soon as Commissioner Nevins saw John, he said happily and loudly; "Come on, come on, I'll introduce you to some new friends."

With that, Nevins began to introduce John to a few new people. Among the four lieutenant colonels and two colonels, John discovered another great god in the future - Joseph Collins.

In John's memory, this guy nicknamed "Lightning Joe" was one of the more capable American commanders in World War II. At the beginning, he was a division commander in the Pacific Theater, and he was the one who led the reinforcement of the 1st Marine Division in the battle for Guadalcanal. Later, he was transferred to Europe and served as the commander of the Seventh Army of the First Army. From the beaches of Utah in Normandy to the banks of the Elbe, he joined forces with Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front.

Compared with other army commanders, Collins's post-war development situation is even more enviable. In just four years, he served as deputy commander of the Army's ground forces, chief of intelligence, and deputy chief of staff of the Army, and in 1949 succeeded Bradley as the 18th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.

But now, Collins is only a lieutenant colonel, and has just been transferred from the post of instructor at the Army Military Academy to the operational planning department as deputy chief of the Far East Section.

"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Collins." After a brief greeting with the crowd, John walked over to Collins with a wine glass: "I've heard Mark (Collins and Clark are classmates at West Point) mention you a long time ago that you are good at amphibious landing operations. ”

"You've won too much, Colonel Vanderbilt. Mark is an expert in this area, and I only conducted a few small-scale island-seizing exercises when I was serving in the Philippines. ”

The officers here today know that John is the protagonist of tonight's gathering. Seeing that he took the initiative to talk to him, Collins was a little flattered, and hurriedly said a few words of modesty.

"I'm going to attend a seminar the day after tomorrow about the recent battle of Crete. It just so happens that you have studied the battle to seize the island, I wonder what you think of the Germans' style of play this time? ”

"Crete? Are you talking about the capture of the islands by purely airborne paratrooper units? It's also the first time I've seen this style of play. However, in terms of effect, it does not seem to be very ideal. Especially when there are a large number of fortifications built on the island, once the raid fails, the paratroopers can easily suffer losses in the storm. ”

Collins thought for a moment and added: "I think it would be better to combine airborne landing and amphibious landing." First, use paratroopers to raid key targets and disrupt the island's defenses. Then carry out landing operations to increase the firepower of the troops seizing the island, and if necessary, they can also use naval guns to suppress the fortifications on the island. ”

"Do you mean that the paratroopers still mainly play a role in harassment and involvement, and they still rely on heavy troops to attack fortifications?" John understood that this idea of Collins should be the mainstream view of most American military officers at the moment. Airborne troops, armed only with light weapons, no matter how elite they are, still play the role of spoilers on the battlefield, and their main role is only to disrupt the opponent's military deployment by launching surprise attacks and create conditions for follow-up operations.

It seems that in order to change this perception, it is necessary to find a way to increase the firepower of the Airborne Forces and make them change in the direction of the rapid reaction corps of later generations.

After chatting with Collins for a while, Deputy Director Gero arrived. As deputy director of the operational planning division in charge of logistics work, after the logistics reform meeting this afternoon, Jero will discuss with the logistics officers of the Third and Fourth Group Armies the specific implementation rules of the reform plan. It was busy until about 8 o'clock before I rushed over from the quartermaster building.

When Jairo arrived, tonight's meeting officially began. Commissioner Nevins' wife recently went to Ohio to see her daughter, so no one brought a female companion with them. A group of big men get together, and drinking is the most important thing. Dinner was in the form of a buffet, with plates and wine glasses in pairs, eating and chatting.

"I really don't understand what the old men in Congress are doing, isn't a 24 Infantry Regiment enough. We're going to get a bunch of to mess with us. Those stupid, stupid, and cowardly guys are not war material at all! A lieutenant colonel named Cook drank a few more drinks and complained loudly to his colleagues next to him.

In these years, racial discrimination in the United States is still very serious, and most whites are reluctant to work with blacks. Although there were black soldiers in the army, they could only be organized into separate regiments. Moreover, due to discrimination, the morale of the black regiment has always been very poor, the training is lax, the military discipline is lax, there are frequent accidents, and the reputation in the army is very bad. This also further exacerbated the antipathy of white officers towards black soldiers.

But recently, as the pressure of the war mounts, Congress has begun to demand that the military recruit more blacks into the military. It was heard that in addition to the traditional 24th Infantry Regiment, the Army was preparing to organize another black regiment. This incident has aroused a lot of criticism within the army staff.

"I heard that the Army Air Corps is also going to form a black flying squadron. Oh my God, those can't even learn ballistic calculations, how can they fly planes. The words of another lieutenant colonel aroused the "unanimous" approval of the officers present.

Only John knew how much of a role this all-black flying squadron (the 99th Flying Squadron, later expanded into the 332nd Flying Group, also known as the Red Tail Group) would play on the battlefield. Brigade Commander Benjamin Davis even became the first black general in U.S. history (retiring with the rank of lieutenant general in 1970 and being awarded the rank of general by Clinton in 1998).

Of course, John wasn't going to stand out and talk about racial equality at this point. It is true that there is an elite among blacks, but it is also true that the general quality is not high. In later generations, although racial discrimination was a major taboo in the United States, not showing it does not mean that I don't think so. Even when Obama became president of the United States, the general impression of black people in white Americans has not changed much.

Moreover, the officers who complained the most were Southerners, and it was a stronghold of white racists. Historically, the 30th Infantry Division (Old Hickory Division), which was reorganized from the National Guard of the four southern states, was even nicknamed the "Roosevelt SS" because of its serious racial tendencies.

John felt that as long as he didn't discriminate against blacks, it was fine, as for what other people thought. He's not Martin Luther King, Jr., can he afford to? With this kung fu, he might as well inquire about Major General Sullivan.

Finally, John found an opportunity and quietly pulled Deputy Director Jairo aside: "Leonard, why didn't I see Major General Sullivan of the Third Army when I had a meeting in the afternoon?" ”

"Major General Sullivan? Do you have a relationship with him? Jairo's expression became very strange. After looking around, Jairo whispered something in John's ear that surprised him.