Colonel Cargill

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Colonel Cargill is a character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22.

[edit] Before the war

Cargill was a successful, though completely untalented, marketing executive. During the introduction of Cargill's character, Joseph Heller takes delight in writing an oxymoronic paragraph that exemplifies the novel's style:

Colonel Cargill was so awful a marketing executive that his services were much sought after by firms eager to establish losses for tax purposes.

His prices were high, for failure often did not come easily. He had to start at the top and work his way to the down, and with sympathetic friends in Washington, losing money was no simple matter. It took months of hard work and careful misplanning.

He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.

[edit] In the Air Force

In the Air Force, Colonel Cargill provided his legendary lack of skills as General Peckem's troubleshooter. He took self-satisfaction in genius for ineptitude when addressing the enlisted men instead of the officers:

"You're American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make that statement. Think about it."