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any capacity for which they felt him qualified.
    The Army accepted and in January he was posted to Moultrie Advanced Air Force Base in Georgia as the base’s quartermaster at his reserve rank of lieutenant colonel. Before he left, he paid a visit to Kevin at the hospital. At the time Kevin was in a full body cast in an attempt to treat the illness through immobilization. When her father left the hospital, Anne was shocked to see him in tears.
    Gruff, stern, and insistent were the qualities most remembered by his children. GH or the
     “Kernel”, as he was now signing his letters, was a disciplinarian of the old school. He was
     a precise, neat man who hated confusion and disorder. He had a dry sense of humor. He tended
     to be choleric but usually with cause. He had a graduated series of expletives — “Damn
     it”, “Goddammit”, and “Goddamitall to hellingone” — the severity of which indicated
     when the children should make themselves scarce.
    The “Kernel” was
never
seen crying. Except now — leaving a son he might never
     see alive again.
    Â 
Stuart Hall and Anne McCaffrey
    S tuart Hall and Anne McCaffrey were not a good fit. A Northerner in a Southern school was a problem in itself, a headstrong Northerner who was also a Catholic was a sure recipe for trouble with the Dean of Women. While Anne was allowed to attend Mass she was also required to attend the Episcopalian services in school. She learned more from the Padre than she had ever from a priest or a nun and that, coupled with her crisis of faith in a God who would allow small children the horror of total war and incurable disease, started her break with Catholicism.
    Stuart Hall was completely shocked when Anne insisted that she wanted to see the movie
     “Tarzan” in the nearby town. No chaperone could be found but her wish marked her even more
     as a “rebel.” (The movie did not live up to the books.)
    However, Anne was an honor’s pupil, allowed to wear the school seal, and performed in the
     choir and the theatre, taking the role of the Major General in “The Pirates of Penzance.”
     And, thanks to her Aunt Gladdie, Anne had a year of piano lessons.
    Anne had written her first story, “Flame, Chief of herd and track” when she was nine and her
     second in Latin class, “Eleutheria the Dancing Slavegirl.” At Stuart Hall she wrote poetry.
     Lots of it. Anne would spend hours pondering on the perfect pen name and sent several poems
     in to the magazines but none were ever published.
    At Stuart Hall that Anne had an experience that haunted her then, and profoundly shaped her future. The Kernel had been sent from Moultrie AFB to the Military Governor’s course at the University of Virginia. In May 1943, he disappeared — shipped overseas.
    Lessa woke, cold.
    Anne recalls,
    â€œI woke abruptly — at about 3 a.m. — and terribly worried. Sick worried. I was so sick with worry that I wandered the halls, trying to keep from being seen by the night watchman because I shouldn’t have been out of my little room. There was no way I could reach my mother, and I just didn’t know what was wrong but something very much was.
    â€œAt about 4:30, I was overcome with sleep and just made it back to my room.
    â€œThe next morning the Dean sent for me. There was a call from my mother. The whole school knew that the Kernel had been sent overseas.
    â€œâ€˜Anne, did anything happen to you last night?’ my mother asked. ‘Kevin’s all right but
     something is very, very wrong. I’m told that Hugh is well.’
    â€œI said, ‘It’s probably Dad then. I woke up at 3 and couldn’t get back to sleep.’
    â€œâ€˜That’s when I woke up,’ mother told me.
    â€œâ€˜Then at about 4:30 I fell asleep again.’
    â€œâ€˜Then it has to be your father … ’ her voice trailed off. There was no way