Where was Chip? The train was going to leave in a few minutes, and if he didn’t show up soon, I’d miss him completely. I stood up on the step of the car so I could get a better view of the whole platform. It was filled with soldiers, sailors, and flyers, either standing together in groups or separately with their families or wives. It looked as if the whole armed forces were on the move and passing through Union Station today. The only people I’d had to say goodbye to were my new buddies at Manning, especially Jim and Johnnie. True, we hadn’t known each other that long, but all things considered, it almost felt as though we’d been through a war together already. Goodbye was a firm handshake, a pat on the back, congratulations on my success, a few jokes about meeting up again on the “other side of the pond.” No one wanted to make a big deal out of goodbyes in the military—there were too many of them. It was impossible to travel—impossible to go anywhere—without bumping into somebody in uniform.
