Lowery Field

Lowery Field, a U.S. Army Air Forces base in Colorado, serves as a foundational site of absurd military discipline and bureaucratic chaos in the novel. It is where Yossarian first encounters the institutional madness that will define his war, where Clevinger's principled idealism is crushed by a kangaroo court, and where ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen perfects his career of digging and filling holes as a form of patriotic duty. The base also witnesses the "Grand Conspiracy"—the mysterious disappearance of sixty-four men from a single barracks on payday—and the oil-drilling frenzy that ultimately displaces Chief White Halfoat and sends him to Pianosa.

Training and the Parades

At Lowery Field, Yossarian and Clevinger are aviation cadets under the command of Lieutenant Scheisskopf, a fanatical parade-ground martinet. Scheisskopf's obsession with winning Sunday parades leads him to experiment with nailing men to two-by-four beams and, ultimately, to discover the "no-hands" marching technique that makes him a military legend. Yossarian, who volunteered for cadet training hoping the war would end before he finished, finds himself trapped in a system where parades are more important than combat readiness. Clevinger, a Harvard-educated intellectual, is brought before the Action Board for the crime of having a mind, and is subjected to a surreal interrogation where he is charged with "breaking ranks while in formation, felonious assault, indiscriminate behavior, mopery, high treason, provoking, being a smart guy, listening to classical music and so on." The board, composed of the bloated colonel with a mustache, Lieutenant Scheisskopf, and Major Metcalf, convicts him and sentences him to walk fifty-seven punishment tours.

The Grand Conspiracy and Wintergreen's Holes

Lowery Field is also the setting of the "Grand Conspiracy," when all sixty-four men in a single barracks vanish on payday and are never heard from again. Yossarian initially mistakes this for a mass desertion and runs excitedly to tell ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen, who is digging holes as part of his perpetual punishment cycle. Wintergreen, a snide and pragmatic survivor, explains his system: each time he goes AWOL, he is caught and sentenced to dig and fill holes six feet deep, wide, and long; each time he finishes his sentence, he goes AWOL again. He accepts this role with the uncomplaining dedication of a true patriot, noting that "somebody has to do it." The holes are in no great demand, so he can dig them at a leisurely pace, but he regrets the loss of rank each time he is court-martialed back to buck private.

The Oil Frenzy and Chief White Halfoat's Transfer

The most dramatic event at Lowery Field occurs when Wintergreen strikes a water pipe while digging one of his holes and almost drowns. Word spreads that it is oil, and soon every man who can find a shovel is outside digging frenziedly for oil. Chief White Halfoat, whose family has a supernatural "natural affinity for petroleum deposits," is kicked off the base at the first rumor of oil. He is transferred out of Colorado and eventually ends up in Pianosa as a replacement for Lieutenant Coombs, who was killed over Ferrara. The oil frenzy transforms the base into a scene of chaotic greed, with dirt flying everywhere and men stealing armor plate from repair sheds to roof over their excavations.

Narrative Significance

Lowery Field establishes the novel's central themes of institutional absurdity, the triumph of bureaucracy over reason, and the survival strategies of individuals trapped within a system that values parades over lives. It introduces the pattern of arbitrary punishment and meaningless labor that will recur throughout the novel, and it provides the backstory for several key characters—Clevinger's destroyed idealism, Wintergreen's cynical pragmatism, and Chief White Halfoat's nomadic curse. The base's chaotic energy prefigures the madness of Pianosa, where the same forces of ambition, greed, and indifference will play out on a larger scale.