W.E.B. Griffin - The Corps VII - Behind the Lines

Stecker chuckled.

"Oh, yes," he said. "I remember First Sergeant McPherson."

"If Pluto's Sergeant Percy Everly is my Percy Everly," McCoy went on, "the one thing about his service with Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Ma-rines, that he will never forget is First Sergeant Quentin Alexander McPherson. And if he remembers him, he'll remember Zimmerman, too; he made the mis-take of taking him on."

T O P S E C R E T

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS SWPOA

NAVY DEPT WASH DC

VIA SPECIAL CHANNEL

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND TRANSMITTAL

FOR COLONEL F. L. RICKABEE

CHIEF USMC OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

MONDAY 23 NOVEMBER 1948

DEAR FRITZ:

BECAUSE OF A PRIORITY PROBLEM AT PEARL HARBOR, SESSIONS AND SUPPLIES ARRIVED ALONE THIS MORNING. MAJOR BROWNLEE AND CAPT MACKLIN EXPECTED HERE ON FOLLOWING PLANE TOMORROW MORNING. WILL ADVISE.

MCCOY BELIEVES SERGEANT PERCY L. EVERLY WITH FERTIG MAY HAVE SERVED WITH BANNING IN 4TH MARINES. IF THIS IS SO, IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT BANNING FURNISH IMMEDIATELY REPEAT IMMEDIATELY WHATEVER PERSONAL INFORMATION RE: EVERLY BANNING FEELS MIGHT BE VALUABLE IN ESTABLISHING SOI OF TYPE USED VIS-A-VIS HOWARD AND KOFFLER.

DESPITE THE HIGH REGARD WITH WHICH EVERYONE IN THE NAVAL SERVICE SEEMS TO REGARD CAPTAIN MACKLIN, I HAVE BEEN WONDERING WHY HE IS A CAPTAIN AND MCCOY ISN'T. PLEASE SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT THIS.

REGARDS,

FLEMING PICKERING, BRIGADIER GENERAL, USMCR

T O P S E C R E T

[THREE]

Headquarters, U.S. Forces in the Philippines

Davao Oriental Province

Mindanao, Commonwealth of the Philippines

0810 Hours 24 November 1942

"Come up, gentlemen, please," Brigadier General Wendell W. Fertig, Com-manding General, USFIP, said, making the appropriate gesture with his hand.

He was sitting at a rattan table on the verandah of his headquarters, a thatched-roof building on stilts built against a hill.

Second Lieutenant Robert Ball, the USFIP signal officer, and his chief radio operator, Sergeant Ignacio LaMadrid, Philippine Army, who had been standing near the top of the ladderlike steps to the verandah, climbed the rest of the way up.

Both saluted, and Fertig returned the salute.

"We've got a message from Australia, Sir," Ball said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense."

"They rarely do, do they, Lieutenant?" Fertig said, and put his hand out to take the sheet of paper in Ball's hand.

It appeared to be a carbon copy of a decrypted message, but it was in fact the original. Though two typewriters, eight reams of typewriter paper, and a ream of carbon paper had been acquired-from the basement of the ruins of the burned Manuel Quezon Primary School-for the use of HQ, USFIP, neither had a ribbon. It was consequently necessary to make a paper-carbon-paper sandwich to type anything on the ribbonless machines; the original looked like a carbon.

"It's longer than usual, isn't it?" Fertig said as he began to read.

"Yes, Sir," Ball agreed.

The great bulk of their traffic from Supreme Headquarters, SWPOA, was usually very brief: Your request being considered, or various paraphrases, all meaning the same thing. We 're still thinking about whether or not we 're going to help you.

GYB TO MFS

USING FULL REPEAT FULL NAME OF FIRST DOG BAKER FOURTH

REPEAT BAKER FOURTH SEND LAST REPEAT LAST NAME MOTOR

SERGEANT MISSIONARY RESCUE CONVOY

GYB STANDING BY

"What the hell does this mean?" Fertig asked, baffled. Lieutenant Ball and Sergeant LaMadrid responded with a shrug.

"Sergeant, would you please ask Captains Weston and Buchanan to join us?" General Fertig ordered.

"Yes, Sir," LaMadrid said, saluted, and went back down the ladder.

Captains Buchanan and Weston appeared several minutes later. Captain Buchanan was freshly shaved and was wearing a neat khaki uniform. He had even hemmed the trousers and sleeves where they had been cut off. Captain Weston was wearing a pith helmet with a Marine Corps insignia, baggy and somewhat soiled loose white cotton garments of local manufacture, and a full beard.

"I believe, Sir, they're after a simple substitution code," Buchanan of-fered. "In other words, if we have the full name they mention, we use that to construct a simple substitution code."

"What name?"

"First sergeants are called First Dogs," Buchanan said.

"That could mean Baker Company of the Fourth Marines, Sir," Weston offered, becoming convinced as he spoke that that was exactly what it meant. "We sent out Everly's name. He was in the 4th Marines."

"Where is he?"

"Not here, Sir. He took a patrol out toward Bunawan."

"And won't be back," Fertig said, chagrined that he had forgotten he had ordered the patrol himself, "until when? Day after tomorrow?"

"No, Sir," Buchanan said. "Not until Friday. 27 November. If everything goes well."

"Can we send a runner after him?" Fertig wondered aloud.

"Yes, Sir, we could," Buchanan said, his tone making it perfectly clear he thought this would be ill-advised.

"OK, where are we?" Fertig asked. "It is your opinion, gentlemen, that we need a code based on a name which might be that of a first sergeant in the Fourth Marines, and that name might, just might, be known to Lieutenant Everly? Because he served with the Fourth Marines?"

"What about the other Marines?" Lieutenant Ball asked.

"They're with Everly," Buchanan said.

"Damn!" Fertig said.

He exhaled audibly, then bent over the rattan table and wrote out the reply of Headquarters, USFIP, to the message from Supreme Headquarters, SWPOA. He wrote using very small letters. When the four reams of typewriter paper from the Manuel Quezon elementary school were exhausted, he had no idea where they were going to get more.

MPS TO GYB

REGRET TACTICAL OPERATIONS PRECLUDE RESPONSE TO YOUR 24 NO-VEMBER MESSAGE PRIOR TO 27

NOVEMBER

COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN OUR HEADQUARTERS WOULD BE GREATLY FACILITATED IP SUPPLY OP

TYPEWRITER RIBBONS COULD BE INCLUDED IN NEXT WHICH OF COURSE WOULD BE FIRST SUPPLY

SHIPMENT

END

FERTIG BRIG GEN COMMANDING

[FOUR]

Signal Section

Office of the Military Governor for Mindanao

Cagayan de Oro, Misamis-Oriental Province

Mindanao, Commonwealth of the Philippines

1305 Hours 25 November 1942

Lieutenant Hideyori rose from behind his desk and bowed as Captain Matsuo Saikaku walked in.

"I would have been happy, Sir, to have brought this to your office."

"Not a problem, Hideyori. This was quicker. I have my Lincoln V-12, you know."

"I called as soon as the decryption came in from Signals Intelligence, Sir," Hideyori said, handing Saikaku a single sheet of paper. "GYB, Sir, is the call sign, one of the call signs of American Headquarters in Australia."

"Yes, so you have told me," Saikaku said, somewhat impatiently.

GYB TO MFS

USING FULL REPEAT FULL NAME OF FIRST DOG BAKER FOURTH REPEAT BAKER FOURTH SEND LAST REPEAT

LAST NAME MOTOR SERGEANT MIS-SIONARY RESCUE CONVOY GYB STANDING BY

MFS TO GYB

REGRET TACTICAL OPERATIONS PRECLUDE RESPONSE TO YOUR 84 NOVEMBER MESSAGE PRIOR TO 27

NOVEMBER

COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN OUR HEADQUARTERS WOULD BE GREATLY FACILITATED IF SUPPLY OF

TYPEWRITER RIBBONS COULD BE INCLUDED IN NEXT WHICH OF COURSE WOULD BE FIRST SUPPLY

SHIPMENT

END

FERTIG BRIG GEN COMMANDING

After reading both messages, he asked, "Presumably, this copy is for me?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Did Signals Intelligence offer anything that would make sense of this?"

"No, Sir," Hideyori replied. "All they offered in amplification was that this was encrypted on the same U.S. Army device."

"Has there been anything else?"