“Yes, sir.” “I am not supposed to discuss the proceedings of the Board,” he continued, “but I was a member of it and, confidentially, I served notice on them that I would not approve a list that failed to reach down through you.” “Thank you, sir.” “I needed you here, and you can depend on me to look out for you in the future.” He fumbled with his pipe. “There’s a lot going on around Washington,” he volunteered. “That fellow Billy Mitchell over in the Army Air Service makes a lot of trouble for me. But back in ’twenty-two at the Limitation of Arms Conference I set him back on his heels. He tried to take over the chairmanship of the session on aviation, and the first subject on the agenda was reparations. This country was scheduled to get one of the latest German Zeppelins, converted to a merchantman, and I didn’t intend to let the Army beat me to that punch.” He paused to glance at a silvery model of a rigid airship, standing on top of his cluttered desk. “And so,” he went on, “when Mitchell breezed in with a secretary, all ready to take the chair, I inquired by what authority he pretended to assume the chairmanship. He mumbled something about rank. ‘Since when,’ I demanded, ‘does a one-star brigadier rate a two-star admiral?’ That stopped him, and the Navy got the _Los Angeles_.” He moved close to me, tapping me on the forearm with his pipestem. “It isn’t just the old Army-Navy dogfight, though of course there is a lot of that in it. But these overzealous knights of the air actually believe that the airplane has already obsoleted the Navy. It isn’t their own idea but the nonsense preached by that Italian General Douhet in a book called _Command of the Air_. And on his say-so, these wild-eyed enthusiasts want to scrap the Army and Navy, on no other grounds than their personal opinions, unsupported by experience or fact.” He paused. “And the old fogies over in Operations are no help to me, either,” he added. “They lay themselves wide open to Mitchell. If they had let me handle the publicity on the bombing off the Virginia Capes, I could have made a monkey out of him.” He began pacing the room. “If the Navy doesn’t hurry and build up its own air force,” he rattled on, “it _will_ be obsolete, just as Mitchell claims. Without an air force, the fleet would be a sitting duck. Mitchell knows that, and his game is to concentrate all aviation in a separate and independent air force under his command. With that setup he can emasculate naval aviation just like the British Air Ministry is doing in England. Meanwhile I am taking advantage of that to catch up with our own carriers. Give me a little time and we’ll leave them in the ruck.” A flush had crept up around his ears. “So that’s why I had to create this Bureau—and why I had you ordered here. We’ve got a fight on our hands to keep Mitchell from sinking the Navy, and the country along with it.” He paused to cock his eye at me.