Colonel Cathcart is a character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 and the novel's de facto main antagonist.
A full colonel, he is a group commander at a U.S. Army Air Corps base in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As such, he does whatever it takes to please his superiors—in particular, by repeatedly raising the number of missions the men have to fly to complete a tour of duty, beyond that normally ordered by other outfits. This becomes the bane of Yossarian's life, as every time he comes close to obtaining the target number of missions for being sent home, Colonel Cathcart raises the required number again.
Ironically, Cathcart himself has only flown in two missions, one of which was accidental.
Read more about Colonel Cathcart: Feathers and Black Eyes, Catch-22, Yossarian, Film
Famous quotes containing the word colonel:
“I am asked if I would not be gratified if my friends would procure me promotion to a brigadier-generalship. My feeling is that I would rather be one of the good colonels than one of the poor generals. The colonel of a regiment has one of the most agreeable positions in the service, and one of the most useful. “A good colonel makes a good regiment,” is an axiom.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)