Chapter 15 Summary and Analysis

Russell spends eighteen months in training throughout the South, and when Germany surrenders, he's sent to Pensacola, Florida. In the summer of 1945, he's flying out of Whiting Field and making trips into Pensacola several nights a week to have a chaste romance with Karen, the nursing school student he's in love with.

Russell learns to swim with ease after his instructor, not caring that he can't swim, makes him jump into the fifteen-foot pool with everyone else. He learns to fly from Jim, a nervous civilian pilot who sends Russell out solo before he's ready. Russell spins violently on his first landing and ends up in the grass. He moves on to Navy instructors. Everyone tells him it's like driving a car, and Russell's ashamed to admit he's never driven. After failing one flight, his reexamination is scheduled with "Total Loss...