ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen
Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen is a mail clerk at Twenty-seventh Air Force Headquarters who, despite his low rank, wields enormous behind-the-scenes power by controlling the flow of correspondence. He is a snide, opportunistic figure who distorts, destroys, or redirects any communication that might benefit those he dislikes, and he uses his access to a mimeograph machine to forge orders and manipulate outcomes. His cynical pragmatism and relentless self-interest make him one of the most influential—and most amoral—characters in the novel, a true embodiment of the bureaucratic absurdity that Catch-22 satirizes.
Identity and Background
Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen is a snide little punk who enjoys working at cross-purposes. He was originally a private first class at Lowery Field, Colorado, where his military specialty was digging and filling up holes six feet deep, wide, and long. Each time he went AWOL, he was caught and sentenced to dig and fill up holes for a specified length of time; each time he finished his sentence, he went AWOL again. He accepted his role with the uncomplaining dedication of a true patriot, observing philosophically, "It's not a bad life. And I guess somebody has to do it." He was busted down to buck private each time he was court-martialed, and he regretted this loss of rank keenly, reminiscing, "It was kind of nice being a P.F.C. I had status—you know what I mean?—and I used to travel in the best circles." He later rose to ex-corporal after his transfer to Twenty-seventh Air Force Headquarters as a mail clerk, but was busted right down to private again for making odious audible comparisons about the commissioned officers for whom he worked.
Role and Influence
Wintergreen's power derives entirely from his position as mail clerk. He determines the outcome of jurisdictional disputes by throwing communications from officers he dislikes into the wastebasket. When General Peckem and General Dreedle clashed over tent-pitching directives, Wintergreen threw all of Peckem's prolix communications away and sped along Dreedle's less pretentious prose, giving Dreedle victory by default. He also scribbled a brusque, unsigned reminder that the Army had only one Major Major Major Major and did not intend to lose him by promotion just to please Colonel Cathcart, rejecting Cathcart's recommendation for promotion. He distorted, destroyed, rejected, or misdirected any correspondence by, for, or about Colonel Cathcart that might do him credit, ensuring Cathcart had no chance of becoming a general. When Colonel Cargill phoned to inquire about the cryptic message "T. S. Eliot," Wintergreen told him there was no record of such a person at Headquarters, and then added that Cargill's prose was still too prolix.
Cynical Philosophy and Self-Interest
Wintergreen operates on a brutally pragmatic code. When Yossarian asked what would happen if he refused to fly more missions, Wintergreen replied, "We'd probably shoot you." When Yossarian cried, "We? Since when are you on their side?" Wintergreen retorted, "If you're going to be shot, whose side do you expect me to be on?" He refused to forge official orders to get Yossarian out of flying to Bologna, explaining, "Because it's your job. We all have our jobs to do. My job is to unload these Zippo lighters at a profit if I can and pick up some cotton from Milo. Your job is to bomb the ammunition dumps at Bologna." When Yossarian pleaded that he would be killed, Wintergreen replied, "Then you'll just have to be killed. Why can't you be a fatalist about it the way I am?" He also sold stolen Zippo lighters for a dollar apiece, undercutting Milo's price of a dollar and a penny, and gloated, "I beat him every time."
Relationship with Milo and the Syndicate
Wintergreen's relationship with Milo Minderbinder is one of competitive opportunism. He offered to unload Milo's Egyptian cotton on the black market by rolling it up on wooden toothpicks and peddling it as sterile swabs, but Milo refused to sell to him at any price because Wintergreen had gone into competition with him. Later, however, Wintergreen and Milo merged their operations, becoming partners in M & M Enterprises. This merger, along with Milo's partnership with Colonel Cathcart, closed off any hope Yossarian might have had of using Wintergreen to undermine Cathcart and Korn.
Narrative Significance
Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen embodies the novel's central theme that power in a bureaucratic system is not a function of rank but of control over information. A lowly mail clerk with a mimeograph machine can thwart generals and colonels, determine the outcome of power struggles, and even influence the number of missions men must fly. His cynical fatalism—"If I'm destined to unload these lighters at a profit and pick up some Egyptian cotton cheap from Milo, then that's what I'm going to do"—mirrors the absurd logic of Catch-22 itself, where individual agency is rendered meaningless by an impersonal, self-perpetuating system. Wintergreen is the ultimate insider who has no loyalty to anyone but himself, and his success is a damning indictment of the values that govern the military hierarchy.
