W.E.B. Griffin - The Corps IV - Battleground

There was no response to the first call. Koffler's finger went back to the key.

FRD6. FRD6. FRD6.

This time there was a reply. Howard had learned enough code to be able to read the simple groups.

FRD6.KCY.FRD6.KCY.FRD6.KCY.

KCY, the United States Pacific Fleet Radio Station at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, was responding to Ferdinand Six.

That radio room leapt into Joe Howard's mind. Before the war, as a staff sergeant, he had been stationed at Pearl Harbor; and he had been sergeant of the guard at CINCPAC, Commander in Chief, Pacific. He saw the immaculate officers and the even more immaculate swabbies at their elaborate shiny equipment in a shiny, air-conditioned room with polished linoleum floors. Air-conditioned!

Now Koffler's hand came to life. Howard could not read what was going out over the air. Koffler was proud of his hand. He could transmit fifty words a minute. He was doing so now. Even repeated three times, the message didn't take long. Then there was a reply, slow enough for Howard to understand it.

FRD6, KCY. AKN. SB.

Ferdinand Six, this is CINCPAC Radio. Receipt of your last transmission is acknowledged. Standing By.

Koffler's fingers flew over the keys for a second or two.

FRD6 CLR.

Detachment A of Special Marine Corps Detachment 14 has no further traffic for the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet and thus clears this communications link.

Koffler put his fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly. When he had Ian Bruce's attention, he signed to him to stop cranking the generator. Then he looked at Howard.

"No traffic for us, I guess," he said.

Howard shrugged.

"I mean, I guess if there was bad news at home or something, they'd let us know, right?"

"Yeah, sure they would, Steve," Howard said.

(Four)

RADIO ROOM

USS MCCAWLEY

1033 HOURS 8 AUGUST 1942

"Sir," the Radio Operator 2nd Class sitting at the console called out, "I've got a TOP SECRET Operational Immediate from CINCPAC." Operational Immediate is the highest priority message, taking precedence over all others. A tall Lieutenant Junior Grade went to his position and stood over him as the radio operator typed out the rest of the message. The moment the radio operator tore it from the typewriter, he snatched it from his fingers and took it to the cryptographic compartment.

Five minutes later, a Marine corporal in stiffly starched khakis stepped onto the bridge of the McCawley. He was armed with a.45 pistol, its holster suspended from a white web belt with glistening brass accoutrements.

He walked to Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, Commander, Amphibious Forces, South Pacific.

"Sir, a message, Sir," he said.

"Thank you," Admiral Turner said, and took it and read it.

OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE

TOP SECRET

FROM CINCPAC

TO COMAMPHIBFORSOPAC

INTELSOURCE 1 INDICATES YOU MAY EXPECT ATTACK BY

FORTY FIVE BETTY AIRCRAFT AT APPROXIMATELY 1200

YOUR TIME. END

Admiral Turner handed the sheet of paper to his aide-decamp.

"See that the word is passed to the fleet," he said. 'Tell the carriers I want to know when they launch their fighters. Tell them I think this is reliable, and I want to go with it"

"Aye, aye, Sir."

(Five)

USS MCCAWLEY

OFF BEACH RED

GUADALCANAL, SOLOMON ISLANDS

8 AUGUST 1942

At 1600 Admiral Fletcher received word from General Vandergrift that the 1st Battalion, First Marines had captured the Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal, relatively intact. The field was renamed Henderson Field in honor of Major Lofton R. Henderson, USMC, who had died at Midway. In Vandergrift's opinion, the airfield could be repaired enough to accept fighter aircraft within forty-eight hours.

At 1807, Admiral Fletcher radioed Admiral Ghormley stating that in repelling the Japanese aerial attack at noon, he had lost twenty-one of his ninety-nine aircraft. He stated further that the necessary maneuvering of the ships of the invasion fleet during the invasions had reduced his fuel supply to a level he considered inadequate. He further stated that there was a strong probability that a second Japanese attack by air or sea would be made against his fleet. Unless permission to withdraw the invasion fleet was immediately granted, this attack would result in unacceptable losses to his Task Force.

At 2325 hours, General Vandergrift, having been-ordered to report to Admiral Fletcher, came aboard the McCawley. There Admiral Fletcher informed General Vandergrift that he had received permission from Admiral Ghormley to withdraw from the Guadalcanal area. At 1500 9 August (the next day), he went on to say, ten transports, escorted by a cruiser and ten destroyers, would depart from the beachhead. The balance of the invasion fleet would sail at 1830.

General Vandergrift is known to have protested that the off-loading of the 1st Marine Division and its supporting troops-including the heavy (155mm) artillery, along with considerable quantities of ammunition and supplies, including rations-had not been completed. Admiral Fletcher's reply to the protest has not been recorded.

General Vandergrift returned to the invasion beach on Guadalcanal shortly after midnight.

(Six)

HEADQUARTERS, FIRST MARINE DIVISION

BEACH RED

GUADALCANAL, SOLOMON ISLANDS

1830 HOURS 9 AUGUST 1942

Division Sergeants Major have far more important things to do than escort individual replacements to their assigned place of duty. But in the Marine Corps, as elsewhere, there is an exception to every rule, and this was an exceptional circumstance.

For one thing, Major General A.A. Vandergrift had personally told his sergeant major to "take this gentleman down to Colonel Goettge and tell him I sent him."

The gentleman in question was more than a little out of the ordinary, too. He was in his forties, silver-haired, tall, erect, and with a certain aura of authority about him that the sergeant major's long military service had taught him came to men only after a lifetime of giving orders in the absolute expectation that they would be obeyed.

The gentleman was wearing Marine utilities, loosely fitting cotton twill jacket, and trousers already sweat stained. The outline of a Colt.45 automatic pistol and two spare magazines for it pressed against one of the baggy pockets of the utilities. The outlines of two "Grenades, Hand, Fragmentation" bulged the other trousers pocket. A Springfield Model 1903A3.30-06 caliber rifle hung with practiced ease from his shoulder on a leather strap. And the outline of a half dozen five-round stripper clips of rifle cartridges pressed against the material of the right breast pocket of his utility jacket.

There was a small silver eagle pinned to each of the utility jacket's collar points. Fleming Pickering looked for all the world like a Marine Colonel engaged in ground combat against the enemy. Considering his age and rank and his casual familiarity with the Springfield, other Marines would probably guess that he was a regimental commander, rather than a staff officer.

But the Sergeant Major had learned that he was not a Marine. The silver eagles on his collar points were intended to identify him as a Navy Captain. And the Sergeant Major had also heard that Captain Fleming Pickering was the only man in the United States Naval Service on Guadalcanal, sailor or Marine, who had not been ordered there. He was on Guadalcanal because he wanted to be. According to the General's orderly, who overheard a great deal, and who was a reliable source of information for the Sergeant Major, no one-not General Vandergrift, not even Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the overall Pacific Ocean Areas (POA) Commander-in-Chief back in Pearl Harbor-could order him off, or for that matter, order him to do anything.

The Sergeant Major was just about convinced that he liked this Navy VIP. This was unusual for him. His normal reaction to Naval officers generally, and to Naval VIPs specifically, was to avoid the sonsofbitches as much as possible.