It occurred to Jake that a major reason why the men bonded into one cohesive unit was due to this man sitting in front of him. Lonnie Burton was a strong-willed hard-working man who had a natural flair for leading men. Almost all of the enlisted men looked to him for guidance. When the hardest work had to be done, or some duty had to be performed that others would shy away from, this man would step forward and place it upon his shoulders without uttering a word of protest. In many respects he acted more like a top-notch line officer than he did as an NCO.
“Why do you think Grimms was glad to see Sergeant Higgins arrive, Lonnie?”
“Remember when Higgins arrived? We were back in England then. It was maybe a week before we shipped out. Raining that night it was. A hard rain that didn’t want
