.

2 April, 1916
Bertangles West, France
3 Squadron, R.F.C.
2nd Lt. Randolph Arvid Swanson MC
10 confirmed victories


Swany is set up in his new digs at Bertangles, more or less. It will be tent living for a while, which he is no stranger to from his days back in Minnesota working as a lumberjack for his uncle. The young airman is still dealing with the loss of Daniel Craig, as well as coming to grips with his new G/O, Captain Lance Rankin. After their ill-fated first sortie together and the altercation that followed, the two men reached an understanding; Swany would work with the Captain in terms of getting him more at ease with the Morane when it was being tossed all about the sky, and respect his rank in the process; and the Captain would actually take every shooting opportunity he was presented in the future, no matter what. The two were going to have to learn to depend on and trust each other, at least while in the air. On the ground, well, that remained to be decided.

Before leaving Brauy, 2nd Lt. Swanson had caught a courier that was heading up to St. Omer and he asked the fellow if he would go through Auchel, stop by the café, and deliver a note to Georgette. The man agreed, so Swany quickly jotted down a message explaining the situation to his madam and promised he would do his best to get back to see her as soon as possible. He handed it off and returned to the job of packing up his kit and preparing for the flight to Bertangles. Shortly before the planes were readying for take off Major Harvey-Kelly informed his star pilot that his last two claims had been verified. He now had ten confirmed victories to his credit: one of which would be shared with Rankin; the other being the last he would share with the now-deceased Captain Craig. Despite these two confirmation making him a "double ace", they were each bitter to him. He thanked the Major for the news. The CO could see Swanson was more troubled by the announcement than he was pleased by it and surmised why. "Put it out of your head for now Lieutenant, best to get on with things", the elder officer assured. "Besides, we'll be having quite the affair in our new mess once we have it all whipped into shape. Not every day a fellow can boast he's got ten Huns to his credit!"

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