Avord is recalled as the place where the narrator, training as an airman, was denied an officer’s rank. That decision followed him into the war: years later, he still remembered the injustice, but his mother prevented him from trying to correct it by falsely wearing a second lieutenant’s stripe.

Training and Denied Rank

The narrator describes Avord as the setting of his flight-school experience and the loss of an officer’s commission. He regarded the decision as unjust, attributing it to the treachery of several officers. The rank he believed he had earned remained more than a professional grievance: it became a test of how he would respond to the wrong done to him.

The Temptation to Correct the Injustice

After reaching Glasgow, the narrator considered sewing a second lieutenant’s stripe onto his sleeve. He reasoned that he had a right to the rank and had been deprived of his commission through the conduct of a few officers. Rather than ask his mother’s advice, he tried to keep the plan from her and push her out of his thoughts. She nevertheless confronted him, insisting that such an act would violate what she had taught him and bring her shame and grief. He tried to escape her in the streets; she followed, carrying her stick and pleading with him. He did not put on the stripe and remained a sergeant.

Avord in Retrospect

Five years later, the narrator encountered the officers associated with the episode. They were still captains, without ribbons on their chests, while he had become a decorated officer. He spoke with them about their shared memories of Avord, keeping the conversation to inoffensive recollections and reporting that he felt no animosity toward them. The contrast between the rank denied at Avord and his later honors gives the place a lasting role in his account, while his refusal to claim a rank dishonestly marks a consequence of the episode beyond military advancement.