After seventy-eight days of combat and a week of being absent without leave, Jake McNiece had returned to base camp in Mourmelon, France, feeling bone weary. He’d figured the AWOL had been a fair reward for all the killing of Germans he’d done in Market Garden, but the Army showed its disagreement by putting him under arrest in quarters the minute he got back. That meant he would be restricted to the barracks and have his pay docked and possibly find himself knocked down in rank for the third or fourth time. Jake’s pal Frank “Shorty” Milhan was in charge of quarters, the noncom who handled the administrative thisses and thats for the higher-ups during the overnight hours. He also played watchdog over the entrance to the barracks. Built by Napoleon in the 1850s, the stone huts were being used by the 101st after their return from the Netherlands. The division had lost about 40 percent of its men and was filling its ranks with replacements who’d made the place pretty crowded.
