Who is Colonel Horace F. Hastings from Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War and what is their importance? "Goodbye

Hastings is the regimental commander of the author's unit during its stateside training in North Carolina. He is older and tough, with brooding eyes, corded neck, windbitten face, and sinewy hands. Hastings is described as fairly stupid, though popular with the ladies. Hastings is much given to redundant speech patterns and is a veteran of the Great War and various campaigns in Central America. Hastings invents a complex and ineffective device to capture insects. Eventually, Hastings is fired for gross incompetence. He appears only within Chapter Easy.