Parenting & Family Quote by Richard H. Davis

There is a sly double-exposure in Richard H. Davis's voice here: the tenderness of being taken in, and the quiet theater of power that makes such tenderness possible. An "old sergeant from headquarters" who "treats me like a son" sounds like sentimental war-color, the kind of human-interest varnish Davis was famous for. But the next beat flips it. Pride is attached not to bravery under fire but to "whatever I do or write" - a reminder that in modern conflict, reputation and narrative are part of the campaign. The sergeant isn't just fathering; he's managing access.

"Certain doors" is the line that gives the game away. Doors are literal checkpoints and symbolic thresholds: who gets to see what, who gets to speak to whom, which stories get told. Davis frames the arrangement as kindly patronage, yet it reads like the soft-gloved machinery of bureaucracy directing a correspondent's movement. Assignment becomes both privilege and leash.

The phrase "I always obey orders" lands with a wink. Davis performs obedience as a social pose: "like the little gentleman that I am". Gentlemanliness, in this context, is not independence but compliance rendered charming. It's the subtext of a writer embedded before that term existed: you get protection, proximity, and paternal approval, and you pay in deference. The tone is light, almost boyish, but the intent is practical - to reassure someone back home that he's safe, connected, and in good standing. The cultural context is turn-of-the-century war reporting, when access was currency and the press learned to flatter the uniform even as it fed on it.