Guard of Honor
James Gould Cozzens
 The novel opens with seven characters flying to Ocanara Army Air Base, Florida, following a daylong visit to Sellers Field, Mississippi, aboard an AT-7 navigation trainer. It revolves around the activities of a fictional administrative command called Army Air Forces Operations and Requirements Analysis Division, acronymed AFORAD. This organization had as its closest real-life counterpart the directorate of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff for Operations, Commitments, and Requirements (OC&R). The opening segment, the shortest of the novel, introduces the major characters and their traits by examining their reactions to a minor subplot of the handling of the querulous base commander at Sellers Field: an old Regular Army colonel who is an alcoholic. Much of the chapter is spent examining Colonel Ross' thoughts while he perfunctorily reviews his seemingly routine daily paperwork, which he has brought with him on the brief trip. Two memoranda foreshadow major incidents in the storyline: the arrival of officers of Project 0-336-3, a group of African-American pilots slated to form a bombardment squadron; and an ever-expanding grandiose plan by another problem colonel (this one General Beal's own Executive Officer) to hold a surprise birthday parade ceremony for General Beal on Saturday using numerous military aircraft and troops in a flyover. The chapter ends when the general's AT-7, in the midst of the harrowingly-described turbulence of a nighttime thunderstorm, barely avoids a mid-air collision with a B-26 landing at Ocanara. After an angry exchange with his own co-pilot, in which he impetuously puts the co-pilot under arrest, General Beal is distracted while mollifying Colonel Ross; his co-pilot confronts the bomber's crew, who are all African-American, and punches the black pilot in the face. Events quickly begin to pile up early the next morning. A local newspaper, using leaks from classified memos, skewers AFORAD both for the coming parade and its many old colonels. Indignation among the newly-arrived African-American pilots, because of the assault and the Executive Officer's arbitrary decision to create a separate officer's club for them, results in a protest being organized. General Beal has cooled off and wants to quietly overlook his co-pilot's behavior. A black newspaper reporter shows up on base at an inopportune moment. The old alcoholic commander at Sellars Field has committed suicide after General Beal's visit. Two generals are due to arrive in the afternoon from the Pentagon, one bearing a high decoration to be presented to the black pilot for prior heroism, the other investigating the suicide. Guard of Honor then begins to examine the motivations behind and interlocking effects of these problems (and those of a tragic accident yet to come) on General Beal, Colonel Ross, and Nathaniel Hicks as each tries to juggle his part in them with as little consequence as possible while still "doing the right thing."