Chapter 19 "Colonel Cathcart" Summary

Colonel Cathcart measures his own success in relation to the success of others, disdaining those below himself and sucking up to those above. His first concern lay with becoming a General. Seeing an article in the Saturday Evening Post about a bomber group whose chaplain says prayers in the briefing room before each mission, Cathcart wonders if playing the religion card might earn him some publicity. The Colonel summons the chaplain to discuss the possibility. Colonel Cathcart insists that he doesn't want the service to be too religious, suggesting that the men pray for tighter bomb patterns. The idea is ultimately scrapped when the Colonel learns, to his disgust, that such meetings would necessarily have to accommodate for atheists and enlisted men. The chaplain tries to speak to the Colonel on behalf of the disgruntled men, who...