Major -- de Coverley
Major -- de Coverley is the squadron executive officer, a splendid, awe-inspiring, grave old man whose duties consist entirely of pitching horseshoes, kidnaping Italian laborers, and renting apartments for rest leaves, and who excels at all three. He is a silent, commanding presence whose mere gestures compel obedience, and his mysterious authority is recognized and feared by everyone from the lowest enlisted man to Colonel Cathcart himself.
Identity and Introduction
Major -- de Coverley is a massive, leonine figure with a shock of wild white hair and a stern, patriarchal face. He is a colossus to the men of the squadron, though they never dare tell him so. His duties as executive officer are, as both Doc Daneeka and Major Major have conjectured, limited to pitching horseshoes, kidnaping Italian laborers, and renting apartments for rest leaves, and he excels at all three. He accomplishes everything without uttering a word, by the sheer force of his solemn, domineering visage and the peremptory gestures of his wrinkled finger. No one even knows his first name, because no one has ever had the temerity to ask him.
Life and Plot Trajectory
Each time the fall of a city like Naples, Rome, or Florence seems imminent, Major -- de Coverley packs his musette bag, commandeers an airplane and a pilot, and has himself flown away. A day or two after the city falls, he returns with leases on two large and luxurious apartments, one for officers and one for enlisted men, already staffed with competent, jolly cooks and maids. He is always among the first American soldiers into the shattered city, seated straight as a ramrod in a jeep, glancing neither right nor left as artillery fire bursts around him. His only injury occurs ironically in Rome, where he is wounded in the eye by a flower fired at close range by a seedy, cackling, intoxicated old man. He resolves to remain binocular and specifies to Doc Daneeka that his eye patch be transparent so he can continue pitching horseshoes, kidnaping Italian laborers, and renting apartments with unimpaired vision.
Key Actions and Objectives
Major -- de Coverley's most significant action is his role in launching Milo Minderbinder's syndicate. When Milo approaches him with a hard-boiled egg, Major -- de Coverley demands to know where the fresh egg came from. Milo explains he can fly to Malta once a week to bring back fresh eggs. Major -- de Coverley, who has a weakness for fresh eggs, gives Milo his blessing and a horseshoe, effectively authorizing the mess officer's enterprise. He also single-handedly ends Captain Black's Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade. When he returns from Rome and finds his way blocked by a wall of officers waiting to sign loyalty oaths, he strides to the counter and commands, "Gimme eat." When Corporal Snark offers him a loyalty oath instead, Major -- de Coverley sweeps it away with mighty displeasure, and his command "Give everybody eat!" brings the crusade to an immediate end.
Relationships and Conflict
Major -- de Coverley is a mystery to everyone, including Colonel Cathcart, who has no idea whether to look up or down in his attitude toward him. Cathcart is afraid of him, and even Colonel Korn tends to be wary. The only one who ever dares address him is Milo Minderbinder, who approaches the horseshoe-pitching pit with a hard-boiled egg and holds it aloft for Major -- de Coverley to see. Major -- de Coverley is astonished at Milo's effrontery but eventually accepts the egg and gives his approval. The only officer foolish enough to pitch one of his horseshoes is stricken the very next day with the worst case of Pianosan crud anyone has ever seen, and everyone is positive the disease was inflicted in retribution by Major -- de Coverley, though no one is sure how.
Change and Ending
Major -- de Coverley disappears after the mission to Bologna. He packs his musette bag, commandeers an airplane, and, under the impression that Florence has been captured by the Allies, has himself flown to that city to rent two apartments. He never returns. His disappearance is noted with somber awe by the men, and Nately learns from the old man in Rome that it was he who wounded Major -- de Coverley in the eye with a rose during the triumphal entry into Rome. The old man describes him as "a silly old fool who really has no right acting like a silly young fool" and asks where he is today, to which Nately answers softly that nobody knows.
Narrative Role and Evaluation
Major -- de Coverley functions as a figure of almost mythic authority in the novel, a silent, indomitable presence whose power is unquestioned and whose motives are inscrutable. He represents a kind of pre-modern, patriarchal authority that stands in stark contrast to the bureaucratic, self-serving machinations of Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn. His ability to command without speaking, to end the loyalty oath crusade with a single sentence, and to launch Milo's syndicate with a single gesture marks him as a force of nature within the absurdist world of the novel. His disappearance, like that of Clevinger and Orr, underscores the novel's theme of arbitrary loss and the fragility of even the most seemingly invincible figures.
