1.   As he plans the rebuilding, he sounds like the old sergeant, reclaiming an overrun firebase.

2.   Gershon tells a story about an old Army sergeant, a male nurse in charge of a group of paraplegics.

3.   Instead of being thrown to the mercy of tough old sergeants, recruits who arrive too soft and flabby for regular training get an easier course.

4.   The old sergeants refused to coddle them.

5.   When he was done an old sergeant quizzed him on where the throttles and gauges were and where the stick was.

6.   But here was the gritty old sergeant, on oxygen and an electric cart, wading into a crowd of Japanese war veterans to make his peace.