“Wearing a holster gave you the ritual edge in authority. Even in spite of their training and the weeks apart spent establishing their rank through punishing drills and endless parades, the officers were vey young and most of them slimly built compared to the veterans of lumber camps and railroad gangs. In the end, it was only their mutual obedience to some intrinsic tyranny that held the men and officers in check-apart. Perhaps it was the airless limitations of the ship. Perhaps it was the storm. Whatever it was, the confrontations always came to the same conclusion. Someone would laugh.”
Timothy Findley, “The Wars”, 1977
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