Editing Colonel Cathcart (section)

{{Short description|Character in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22}}{{More citations needed|date=December 2024}}

'''Colonel Cathcart''' is a character in [[Joseph Heller]]'s novel ''[[Catch-22]]'' (1961) and the novel's ''de facto'' main [[antagonist]].

A full [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]], he is a group [[commander]] at a U.S. [[United States Air Force|Army Air Forces]] 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muste |first=John M |title=Masterplots |date=November 2010 |edition=4th |chapter=Catch-22 |chapter-url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=164540274&lang=en-gb&site=eds-live&scope=site |via=[[EBSCOhost]]}}</ref>

Cathcart himself has only flown in two missions, one of which was accidental.