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От
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Skvortsov
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К
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zahar
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Дата
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17.11.2020 12:03:54
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Рубрики
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WWII; ВВС;
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Комэск до своей гибели вообще не позволил Моргону получить 1-го лейтенанта.
>В кино все офицеры экипажа, кроме командира не выше 1-го лейтенанта перед 25 вылетом.
Из мемуаров Моргана:
We kept on flying practice missions through mid-October. I had now logged 917 hours and 25 minutes of flying time and had been named a flight leader, but I was stuck in my rank of second lieutenant — the only flight leader in our group with that lowa ranking.
The general whose beach party I'd buzzed back in Florida apparently had let the chain of command know of his wish that I was not to be promoted.
…..
Now we were ready for the next step — trial-and-error combat.
We took that step on November 7,1942.
……….
Major Smelser's death eerily liberated me from the bonds of our old feud,in terms of my military rank. A few days after his plane disappeared, some order lies went through the desk drawers in his office,a routine cleaning-out assignment. In a side drawer they came upon two promotion forms sent to him by the War Department, both of them pertaining to me. One form was for my promotion to first lieutenant. The other, more recent, was to captain. All they needed for final processing was his signature. Yet they had lain for weeks in the drawer unsigned. As I'd suspected, it was the Major
who was enforcing the General's vow, back at McDill Field after my buzzing escapade, to keep me locked in forever as a second lieutenant.
The order lies turned the promotion forms over to Colonel Wray. He and Istudied them.The Colonel refrained from any sort of comment - the Major had after all died a hero's death — but Colonel Wray assured me in a quiet voice that things would be taken care of. The next week I was promoted to first lieutenant.The week after that I made captain.