Japanese By Spring
When Benjamin "Chappie" Puttbutt's mom and dad said Off to the Wars, they really meant it. George Eliott Puttbutt was a two-star Air Force General, cited and decorated for distinguishing himself in two the the three great yellow wars, the wars against Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and Ruby Puttbutt's star was on the rise as a member of the United States Intelligence community. As a military brat Benjamin knew the techniques of survival and so, after reading that Japan would become a future world power, Puttbutt began to study Japanese while enrolled at the Air Force Academy during the middle sixties. It was the end of an upbringing characterized by regimen and discipline. George and Ruby Puttbutt's idea of education was similar to John Milton's. In his "Of Education," he recommends that "two hours before supper [students]. . . be called out to their military motions, under sky or covert according to the season, as was the Roman wont; first on foot, then, as their age permits, on horseback, to all the art of cavalry . . . in all the skill embattling . . . fortifying, besieging, and battering, with all the the helps of ancient and modern stratagems, tactics, and warlike maxims.
"That's not the only attitude shared with Milton. With their continuous need for enemies, their motto could have been taken from Milton's panegyric for Cromwell: "New Foes Arise." Their favorite blues singer was "Little Milton." Their favorite comedian: Milton Berle."