Keep Your Powder Dry Page #9

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I'm sorry, ma'am.

That's all, Rand.

Rand.

The really important qualities

that go to make up an officer

are not written in textbooks.

It means a great deal to you

to get your commission?

It means everything, ma'am.

I'm sorry for you, Rand.

You've worked so hard to learn

so many lessons so badly.

Is that all, ma'am?

As today's acting

company commander,

you did ride Parks

pretty hard, didn't you?

Yes, ma'am.

In perfect honesty,

just who do you think

is responsible for

Parks' conduct?

As the acting

company commander,

I am responsible

for everything

that happens in my

company, ma'am.

That's all, Rand.

Officer candidate Darrison

is waiting, ma'am.

Oh, yes.

You'll want to see her

alone, won't you, ma'am?

Yes. That's all.

Candidate Darrison.

Officer candidate Darrison

reporting as directed, ma'am.

Sit down, my dear.

I have some very bad

news for you, Ann.

My husband?

Yes.

H-he's wounded?

He's dead?

3 weeks ago.

I wrote him last night.

But it's a good way

to go, I guess.

The best.

23...The third of may.

Oh, God.

I'm sorry.

Would you like to stay here

for a while by yourself?

Yes, please.

Oh, my God.

I've been waiting

for you, Ann.

I need your help.

I've never needed anybody

before in my whole life,

but... now suddenly I...

I need somebody.

I'm as good as

busted out of O.C.S.

Oh, no, Leigh.

Oh, yes.

But what's worse is that half

the girls in this outfit think

I'm the... the

kind of a specimen

you find clinging to the

bottom sides of slimy rocks.

Oh, that's not so.

Oh, yes, it is.

The commandant gave me a

chance to meet myself.

And for the first time, I...

I guess I understand me.

I understand my

feelings toward Val.

From the first time

I ever saw her,

she was everything I

wanted to be all my life.

A girl in... in high

heels and furs.

A girl who knew her

power as a woman.

The kind of a girl who...

who lives in the pages of

Vogue and Town and Country,

not in an army camp in

boots and breeches.

I just couldn't bear to see

a girl from her world

make good in mine.

The further she went, the

better soldier she became.

The better soldier she became,

the more envious I got,

and the more I wanted

to see her fail.

Leigh, don't. Please, don't.

And then when I found

out about the money

and a lease she had signed

on a Palm Beach house,

I lost my head completely.

She never intended

to use either.

She wanted to stay

in the corps.

I was even wrong about that.

Wrong about everything.

Don't punish yourself.

Oh, let me get

it off my chest.

I've got to say it out

loud to somebody.

I... I just can't be

whispering it to myself.

Valerie Parks turned out to be a

better soldier than Leigh Rand.

Funny, isn't it?

That's what I was

afraid to say,

and that's what I'm going to

tell her when I find her.

She's probably at the hotel.

Ann, will you...

Ann, you don't mind

going with me, do you?

I need your help with her.

But I don't see

how I can help.

Oh...

You've got so much

influence over both of us.

You're... you're so sane. You've made

your own life so fine...

and... with a husband

that adores you and...

please, stop it now.

Stop crying. It

doesn't do any good.

Honey, you mustn't let

yourself go like that.

No matter what happens, you've got

to hang on to yourself.

Now, stop crying.

Ann, you will go

with me, won't you?

I do need your help so.

All right.

If you think I can help.

A compartment... an upper,

a lower, just anything.

Oh, come in.

Well, all right. Thanks.

I left word downstairs

that I wanted to see no one,

and I meant no one.

Val.

I asked Ann to

help me find you.

So you came looking for

it, huh, Napoleon?

Please listen to her.

Oh, why? This whole

idea is silly...

women like me playing soldier.

"Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am."

Parading around,

saluting each other.

I was wrong from the

beginning, and I'm sorry...

terribly sorry.

You're sorry?

Oh, now wait a minute.

There's an angle to this.

No, there isn't

any angle to it.

I just want to square things.

Oh, you want to square things?

Ha ha! That's funny.

Tomorrow the murder

board will notify me

that I'm kicked out of O.C.S.

"Not fit to be an officer."

And you want to square things?

Well, I'm not waiting

to get the boot.

I've beat them to the punch.

I've already

resigned from O.C.S.

As of today, I am

through with the WAC.

They can give me a dishonorable

discharge or anything else.

I'm going home,

back to sanity,

and forget I ever

wore a uniform.

Sorry, Ann, but

that's the way I feel.

Val, would it change

your decision to quit

if... if I told you that I weren't

going to graduate, either?

What?

I had an interview

with the commandant,

and she told me that... that I

was unfit to be an officer.

Oh, I don't believe it.

It's true.

She said something else, too.

She practically said that if

anything happened to you,

I was responsible for it.

Oh, now I get it.

I knew there was an angle.

The colonel told you that if

the murder board bounced me,

she'd bounce you for using your

rank to ride me out of O.C.S.

Oh-ho-ho!

You're here to save

your own neck.

You're not sorry.

You're a...

wait a minute, Ann.

I'll go with you.

No, thank you.

Right now, I-I'd like

to be by myself.

Just be alone.

Right now.

Ohh.

Ann took my bag by mistake.

I found that in hers.

She came here to

straighten me out,

and all the time she

was dying inside.

I couldn't measure

up to Ann Darrison

if I lived 100 years.

And if she can take it after

what's happened to her...

Well, there are others in this

army who can take it, too.

Well, come on!

I admit I forfeited my chance

for a commission, ma'am,

and I'm willing to

go on as a private.

I'm ready to take my medicine

and start over, too.

Very generous of you both.

I'm sure this board is impressed

with your having learned

at least to subordinate yourselves

to the good of the service.

Have either of you any idea

what it costs the army to train

you to be officers?

Over $3,000... no, ma'am.

No, ma'am.

Having made that

investment in you,

the army, not you,

will decide what your

future duty will be.

So, your requests for transfer

back to enlisted service

as privates are denied.

And your commissions as

officers... approved.

Holy mackerel, colonel!

I mean, thank you, ma'am.

Me, too. Thank you, ma'am.

Oh, Ann, it's all right.

We're going to graduate!

Oh, I'm so happy!

I'm so glad for you both.

We made it!

Attention!

Sorry, girls.

Still practicing

to be a sergeant.

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