With that, Hap sat down on a rock, answered another question from Butler with a to-the-point, "Shut up," and with hands behind his head, rocked back and forth as he watched the show. These troops were the best in his class. It wasn't standard operating procedure to conduct evasion exercises as part of survival training, but the Colonel was of the mind that if more birdmen over North Viet Nam learned how to avoid capture when shot down, the POW story might have a different ending.

MacPherson wasn't a hawk -indeed this was part of the reason a full bird colonel was in charge of a survival school —having served a tour in Nam and seen for himself the blind stupidity of political policy run amok. He wasn't a dove, either. Hap was proud of the uniform he wore, and all that it supposedly stood for. That included the memory of friends from his squadrons over Germany in World War II, and in Korea, who had paid the ultimate price a country can ask of its youth. Since this was his command, and he had his way, Colonel MacPherson was trying to save lives —even if he killed these young pilots doing so.

"But-But" Butler was definitely going to return to his unit with a big, fat F in his record file. The Colonel was continually amazed how an outdoor experience had the effect of bringing out the best in a person, or the worst. He had excused the lazy lieutenant from the infiltration exercise the rest of the class was undertaking as a waste of time. And then wished he hadn't.

Finally, after the third "Sir?" inside of three minutes, the Colonel turned, pointed to a rock island at the head of the glacier that was high enough to have resisted the destruction of living ice carving away the mountain.

"See that little peak over there, Butler?"

"Sir, the brown one, or perhaps mauveish light grey, with the tree on top?"

"The brown one. Go climb it."

"But, Sir."

"Take up a vantage point. Hide behind those rocks. Only stick your nose out. For you, that would be perfect camouflage. Move!"

After "But-But" had gone, Hap felt a tiny bit guilty for suggesting the absurd assignment —and for subtly suggesting an appropriate nickname for Butler to the rest of the class —but fortunately the irritating Lieutenant, once out of sight, was soon forgotten. The Colonel quickly became absorbed in the stalking exercise.