000 02266cam a22003373u 4500
001 28156
003 UtSlPG
005 20260610133637.0
006 m
007 cr n
008 260607r2009||||utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d
040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aSharkey, Jack,
_d1931-1992
245 1 0 _aMinor Detail
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2009
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Amazing Stories November 1959.
500 _aRelease date is 2009-02-23
508 _aProduced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
520 _a"Minor Detail" by Jack Sharkey is a satirical science fiction short story first published in the late 1950s. The narrative centers around the farcical military endeavors of General "Smiley" Webb and his ambitious plan to deploy troops using an innovative yet absurd contraption called the Whirligig. The story explores themes of military bureaucracy and the folly of over-complicated solutions to fundamental problems of warfare. The plot unfolds with Secretary of Defense James Whitlow's visit to observe General Webb's top-secret project, designed to land soldiers safely in enemy territory without traditional parachutes. Webb's unorthodox method involves subjecting soldiers to extreme centrifugal forces in the Whirligig to prepare them for high-altitude jumps. However, the demonstration goes hilariously awry, leading to a disastrous outcome where the soldiers fall head-first rather than landing safely. The story ends with the general fainting in shock, highlighting the absurdity inherent in his ambitious plans. Through humor and irony, Sharkey critiques military thinking and the push for conflict in a time marked by fragile peace. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _nOriginal publication data not identified
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aShort stories
830 0 _aProduced from Amazing Stories November 1959.
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28156
999 _c69065
_d69065