Why does yossarian get a medal and a promotion

Wintergreen tries to sell Yossarian a cigarette lighter, going into competition with Milo as a black-market trader. He is aghast that Milo has cornered the entire world market for Egyptian cotton but is unable to sell any of it. The men are terrified and miserable about having to bomb Bologna.

One night, Yossarian, Nately, and Dunbar go for a drunken drive with Chief White Halfoat; they crash a jeep and realize that it has stopped raining. The cat runs away, and Hungry Joe is satisfied. When he goes back to sleep, however, he has another nightmare about the cat. Everyone is afraid of him, and no one will talk to him.

His sole duty is traveling to major cities captured by the Americans to rent rooms in which his men can take leave; he spends the rest of his time playing horseshoes. Major —— de Coverley always manages to be photographed with the first wave of American troops moving into a city, a fact that perplexes both the enemy and the American commanders.

The narrator relates that Milo once approached —— de Coverley on the horseshoe range, successfully requesting authorization to import eggs on Air Force planes. We also learn that Colonel Cathcart had attempted to give Yossarian a medal some time earlier.

Yossarian pretends to see everything twice so he can stay in the hospital. He then pretends to be some dying son for the benefit of a visiting family whose son just passed away. They don't recognize that Yossarian is not their son and the conversation is surprisingly emotional. One Thanksgiving, Yossarian argues with Scheisskopf's wife about God. Yossarian is upset when Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions to sixty. Colonel Cathcart considers Yossarian a personal threat and resolves to take care of him.

We find out that after the Avignon mission, Yossarian showed up naked in formation to receive his medal because Snowden had bled all over his clothes. Besides Yossarian decided never to wear clothes again anyway. During a mission briefing, Yossarian begins moaning with desire for a woman. His moans get louder and louder until all the men echo it. Yossarian takes us back to relive the Avignon mission for a second time.

This time, we discover that Snowden is the radio-gunner and that he is dying in the back of the plane. Also, the copilot Dobbs wanted Yossarian to help him murder Cathcart. Yossarian refuses to help him kill Cathcart. During a rest leave, Yossarian flies with Milo to Cairo.

Milo is organizing things for his syndicate so the whole long rest leave is full of flying, packing, and unpacking. Yossarian never gets the rest he needs. He learns that Milo is a celebrity wherever he goes. Yossarian confronts Milo about killing Mudd, but cannot make Milo see reason.

After Avignon, Yossarian attends Snowden's funeral naked and watches from a tree. Milo finds him and asks him to try chocolate-covered cotton. Yossarian pronounces it inedible and advises Milo to try selling his excess cotton to the government rather than passing it off as food. Milo agrees. Yossarian injures his leg at Leghorn and gets hospitalized.

Yossarian feels up Nurse Duckett and later ends up dating her. He is referred to an incompetent shrink who wants to send him home. But the administration sends him right back into action. Hearing about a second mission to Bologna, Yossarian agrees to help Dobbs kill Cathcart.

But Dobbs no longer wants to do it. Yossarian has a conversation with Orr while he fixes the stove. He knows something funny is up when Orr asks him to fly with him. Yossarian refuses.

We learn later that Orr has been lost at sea. Yossarian witnesses McWatt accidentally kill Kid Sampson with the propeller of his plane while flying low over the beach. When fall comes, Yossarian is depressed, constantly gazing out to sea and thinking of his dead comrades. He is annoyed when his new roomies come in. He takes a rest leave to Rome, where he helps Nately rescue his prostitute from some Germans who are trying to make her say "uncle.

The Major obliges and makes Milo mess officer by simply calling him the mess officer. The military is subject to further satirical treatment by Heller. Yossarian insists on making a second run at the bridge over the Po River at Ferrara because he is sick of having to repeat the mission it's the squadron's tenth attempt in seven days and because he did not get his bombs dropped on the first try.

During a bomb run, the bombardier is in control of the plane; Yossarian uses that authority to order a second run at the bridge. His entire flight of six planes goes with him.

Kraft and his crew are killed when their plane is hit by flak. Yossarian is called in for questioning by Colonel Cathcart and his assistant, Lt. Colonel Korn, who don't know how to handle the situation.

Men have been killed, perhaps needlessly; but the colonels don't care about that. They just don't want the official report to make them look bad. Yossarian suggests that they call it a heroic act and give him a medal. Like the bomb raid, the debate goes around twice until the colonels are the ones suggesting a medal — and a promotion as well. As Colonel Korn says, in the military it never hurts to "act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of.

Returning to the raid on Bologna late June , we find a fresh definition of courage. Yossarian has no interest in medals but is even braver than he was at Ferrara. In fact, the narrator tells us, Yossarian is so brave that he now has the courage to avoid the mission altogether. Yossarian tries to tell the immature pilot, Kid Sampson, that the plane must return to base because something is wrong.

Sampson at first responds, "Everything seems okay.