Outside of combat, he couldn't have landed in a tougher spot. First of all, no unit likes to have a new CO brought in from the outside, especially when he's an armchair trooper. Second, if there is ever a perfect time to pull the rug out from under him, it's on maneuvers. In combat, helping your CO make a fool of himself might mean getting yourself killed. But in maneuvers, with the top brass watching him all the time, it's easy.

Chandler understood this and expected the worst. But his first few days with Troop H were full of surprises, beginning with First Sergeant Robert Early. Chandler had expected a tough old trooper with a gravel voice. Instead Sergeant Early was quiet, sharp and confident. He had enlisted in the Army straight out of high school and had immediately set about learning his new trade. There was no weapon Early could not take apart and reassemble blind-folded. He could lead a patrol and he knew his paper work. Further, he had taken full advantage of the Army's correspondence courses. He not only knew soldiering, but mathematics, history and literature as well.

But for all his erudite confidence, Sergeant Early was right out of the Garryowen mold. He was filled with the spirit of the Fighting Seventh. That saved Mel Chandler. Sergeant Early let the new CO know just how lucky he was to be in the best troop in the best regiment in the United States Army. He fed the captain bits of history about the troops and the regiment. For example, it was a battalion of the 7th Cavalry under Colonel George Armstrong Custer that had been wiped out at the Battle of The Little Big Horn.