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she could
     find out where the Kernel was.
    â€œI tried to cheer her up, ‘Well, the feeling went away, didn’t it? So whatever it was is
     over.’
    â€œâ€˜Yes, yes, that’s it. He’s all right now,’ mother agreed and hung up.
    â€œSix months later we found out that German U-boats had attacked the convoy which took the Kernel to Algiers. He and the other top brass had spent an hour and a half in lifeboats — at exactly the same time of early morning that time my mother and I had been so worried.”
    Cold with more than the chill of the everlastingly clammy walls. Cold with the prescience of a danger …
    Â 
The Kernel survived
    T he Kernel survived his lifeboat experience, ordered a medical officer not to report his heart attack in Morocco, and was the first man off his landing craft in Licata, Sicily. The sight of him calmly walking up and down the jetty smoking a cigarette was an inspiration to the green GIs — he was awarded a Beachhead medal. His first assignment was military governor of the town of Agrigento, Sicily.

    Colonel McCaffrey in Sicily
    In Agrigento the Kernel’s “Sight” saved his life late one night as he was returning from a
     staff meeting. In daylight he and his driver had taken the same route they were retracing
     late at night when the Kernel had his premonition. Peremptorily ordering the driver to stop,
     the Kernel got out of the jeep in the pitch darkness and, walking to the front, discovered
     that the bridge had been blown out. He later ordered the bridge rebuilt by Army engineers
     and it was known as
Ponto del Caffreo
.
    Shortly after this incident a young reporter arrived to get some background color on the liberated Italians. He was directed to Agrigento and Colonel McCaffrey. He stayed on for a long while. During his stay, General Patton started an advance out of Agrigento and was enraged to discover that the road into Agrigento was used by the local water carts. Patton ordered that no more carts could use the road.
    Agrigento sits up above the sea, with a road leading in from the sea and road leading inland. All the water for Agrigento came up that one road. Without the water carts, the thirty thousand inhabitants of Agrigento would be forced to leave their town. It would be hard to convince people — particularly the public at home — that, having liberated the Sicilians, the US would force them to leave their homes.
    The Kernel made a hard decision. He countermanded General Patton’s order and ordered that the water carts continue their operations. When Patton heard about this he was furious. General Mark Clark agreed with the Kernel and so the Kernel’s counter-order remained in effect but the Colonel who countermanded a General’s orders remained a Colonel for the rest of his life.
    To placate Patton, the Kernel was removed from Agrigento. In his place a Navy captain took over and continued in the same tradition. Ultimately the captain arranged to get a bell to replace the town’s church bell which had been shattered by the allied artillery. The reporter — John Hersey — stayed on and later wrote
A Bell for Adano
— for which he won the Pulitzer Price. His Colonel Santori is a blend of the Kernel and the captain.

    Colonel McCaffrey near Naples
    Â 
    While her father was leaving
    W hile her father was leaving Agrigento, Anne was leaving Stuart Hall. The McCaffreys are not intimidated by authority and Anne was no exception. She finished high school back in New Jersey, being shunted from good neighbor to good neighbor, becoming as independent in bearing as she was in inclination.)
    The Kernel got his spirit of independence from his father, the Irish cop who was so honest
     that he arrested John “Honey Fitz” Francis Fitzgerald — John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s
     grandfather for electioneering. The Kernel went to Harvard with Joseph Kennedy — both
     majoring in