| Guard of Honor | |
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Hardback 1st edition cover |
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| Author(s) | James Gould Cozzens |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Harcourt, Brace and Company |
| Publication date | 1948 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Preceded by | The Just and the Unjust |
| Followed by | By Love Possessed |
Guard of Honor is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by James Gould Cozzens published in 1948. The novel is set during World War II, with most of the action occurring on or near a fictional Army Air Forces base in central Florida. The action occurs over a period of approximately 48 hours. The novel is chapterless in form, using three progressively longer parts entitled "Thursday", "Friday" and "Saturday". From dates on various memoranda quoted, the story takes place on September 2, 3, and 4, 1943.
Before entering the USAAF in 1943, Cozzens had already published 10 novels; his duties included writing speeches and articles for Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the USAAF. Cozzens worked in the USAAF Office of Information Services, a liaison and "information clearinghouse" between the military and the civilian press (like his Guard of Honor character Nathaniel Hicks, Cozzens' first duty was revising field manuals). One of the functions of his office was in controlling news, and it became Cozzens’ job to defuse situations potentially embarrassing to Arnold.
One such incident occurred in April 1945: African-American officers protested the segregation of officer club facilities in what became known as the Freeman Field Mutiny. Cozzens included a fictional but similar incident in Guard of Honor, not as a dramatic recreation of the incident but as backdrop for his analysis of the relationship between fate and the character and personality of leaders. Although several African-American characters appear in Guard of Honor, none are point-of-view figures.
Guard was one of Cozzens' "professional novels", in which he drew detailed portraits of individuals, centering on their professional lives and the details of their work. He expertly recreates the feel of the stateside Army Air Forces, accurately recalls historical facts pertinent to the story line without becoming academic, and references airplanes and technical aspects without excessive explanation and without bogging down the action. All characters in the novel, except Nathaniel Hicks, are named throughout using their rank or title and last name.
Contents |
The novel opens with seven characters flying to Ocanara Army Air Base, Florida, following a daylong visit to Sellers Field, Mississippi, aboard an AT-7 navigation trainer. It revolves around the activities of a fictional administrative command called Army Air Forces Operations and Requirements Analysis Division, acronymed AFORAD. This organization had as its closest real-life counterpart the directorate of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Operations, Commitments, and Requirements (OC&R).
The opening segment, the shortest of the novel, introduces the major characters and their traits by examining their reactions to a minor subplot of the handling of the querulous base commander at Sellers Field: an old Regular Army colonel who is an alcoholic. Much of the chapter is spent examining Colonel Ross' thoughts while he perfunctorily reviews his seemingly routine daily paperwork, which he has brought with him on the brief trip.
Two memoranda foreshadow major incidents in the storyline: the arrival of officers of Project 0-336-3, a group of African-American pilots slated to form a bombardment squadron; and an ever-expanding grandiose plan by another problem colonel (this one General Beal's own Executive Officer) to hold a surprise birthday parade ceremony for General Beal on Saturday using numerous military aircraft and troops in a flyover.
The chapter ends when the general's AT-7, in the midst of the harrowingly-described turbulence of a nighttime thunderstorm, barely avoids a mid-air collision with a B-26 landing at Ocanara. After an angry exchange with his own co-pilot, in which he impetuously puts the co-pilot under arrest, General Beal is distracted while mollifying Colonel Ross; his co-pilot confronts the bomber's crew, who are all African-American, and punches the black pilot in the face.
Events quickly begin to pile up early the next morning. A local newspaper, using leaks from classified memos, skewers AFORAD both for the coming parade and its many old colonels. Indignation among the newly-arrived African-American pilots, because of the assault and the Executive Officer's arbitrary decision to create a separate officer's club for them, results in a protest being organized. General Beal has cooled off and wants to quietly overlook his co-pilot's behavior. A black newspaper reporter shows up on base at an inopportune moment. The old alcoholic commander at Sellars Field has committed suicide after General Beal's visit. Two generals are due to arrive in the afternoon from the Pentagon, one bearing a high decoration to be presented to the black pilot for prior heroism, the other investigating the suicide.
Guard of Honor then begins to examine the motivations behind and interlocking effects of these problems (and those of a tragic accident yet to come) on General Beal, Colonel Ross, and Nathaniel Hicks as each tries to juggle his part in them with as little consequence as possible while still "doing the right thing."
"The original AT-7’s, of which this was one, were delivered to the Army Air Forces in the second summer of the war. Meant for use in navigator training, their cabins were equipped with three navigator’s positions- a seat; a plotting table; a drift meter and an aperiodic compass; a radio headset and a hand microphone".
"The whole morning had been upsetting, with too many things going on at once. Counting his own pulse, Colonel Ross could tell that his blood pressure, which troubled him occasionally, must be up, close to the point where the headache would begin."
"Colonel Ross knew that Captain Collins had been sports editor for a large city newspaper, though he could not remember what city. Though he was now in his middle thirties, wearing glasses, and somewhat filled-out and softened, it was evident still that there had been a time when Captain Collins was an athlete himself – probably a football player at one of the big state universities where football was a business".
"'Oh, Judge!' General Beal said. 'That boy is a honey! You can believe me. Because we have a few more like him we’re going to win the war'".
"It seemed more probable to Colonel Ross that they were going to win the war, not because they had a few more Bennys, but because they had thousands and thousands of run-of-the-mill pilots; and hills of bombs; and dumps of supplies as large as small cities, which could not be neutralized as Benny had so nearly been, by one burst of one automatic rifle in one ditch".
"... it ought not to be forgotten, while they beat their brains over this teapot tempest in a Zone of Interior installation, ... ... ...; now at this very moment, if the weather had been at all possible, Eighth Air Force bombers were turning, a certain number of them damaged with engines out and dead and wounded on board, to try to make their English bases".
In September 1948, Harcourt-Brace published Guard of Honor. There are at least 10 subsequent editions, some with changes (generally the removal of certain colorful sentences).