The Chaplain's Assistant, Corporal Whitcomb

Corporal Whitcomb, the chaplain's atheist assistant, is insubordinate and ambitious. He constantly badgers the chaplain to allow him to send form letters to the families of casualties, a plan that eventually wins Colonel Cathcart's approval. Whitcomb is a petty tyrant who represents the bureaucratic and cynical side of the military, in contrast to the chaplain's sincere but ineffectual faith.