W.e.b. Griffin - The Corps II - CALL TO ARMS

"Griffith thinks our organization of the 2nd Raider Battalion is the way the entire Corps should go," Carlson said, with just a hint of smugness in his dry voice. "That is to say, six line companies and a headquarters company, as opposed to the competition's four line companies, a heavy-weapons company, and a headquarters company. And he has made that a formal recommendation to the Commandant."

There was a round of applause, and Carlson grinned at his men.

"And he agrees, more or less, with our organization (Each company consisted of two rifle platoons, plus a company headquarters. Each platoon, under a lieutenant, consisted of three squads. Each squad consisted of a squad leader, and a three-man fire-team, armed with a BAR, an Ml Garand, and a Thompson submachine gun) of the companies as well," Carlson went on. "He agrees more than he disagrees."

There was another round of applause.

And then, on the subject of mortars, Carlson told them that the decision by the brass had not been made, but that he hoped it would "go our way."

There were two mortars available, a 60-mm and an 81-mm. The 81-mm was the more lethal weapon. It was capable of throwing a nearly seven-pound projectile 3,000 yards (1.7 miles). It was standard issue in the heavy-weapons company of a Marine infantry battalion. On the other hand, the 60-mm's range, with a three-pound projectile, was just about a mile.

For a number of reasons (with which McCoy, who fancied himself a decent man with either weapon, agreed completely), Carlson was opposed to the Raiders carrying the 81-mm mortar into combat. For one thing, the kind of combat the Raiders anticipated would be close range, and the 60-mm was better for that purpose. More importantly, considering that the Raiders planned to enter combat by paddling ashore in rubber boats, a ready-for-action 81-mm mortar weighed 136 pounds. It would of course be broken down for movement, but the individual components-the tube itself, and especially the base plate- were heavy as hell, and were going to be damned hard to get into and out of a rubber boat. As would the ammunition, at seven pounds per round.

It was not, furthermore, a question of choosing either the 60-mm or the 81-mm. The TOE provided for both 81-mm and 60-mm mortars in each company; and that meant that if they did things by the book and took the 81-mm too, they would have to wrestle two kinds of mortars and two kinds of ammunition into and out of the rubber boats.

But Carlson told him that he thought he had come up with a convincing argument against the Raiders following standard Marine Corps practice requiring an 81-mm mortar platoon in each company: Such a platoon would exceed the carrying capacity of the APDs (Grandly known as High Speed Transports, the APDs, which were supposed to transport Raiders on missions, were in fact modified World War I-era "four-stacker" destroyers. Two of their four boilers and their exhaust stacks had been removed, and the space reclaimed converted to primitive troop berthing. They were "high speed" only when compared to freighters and other slow-moving vessels). If the 81-mm mortar platoon went along on the APDs, it would be necessary to split the companies between several ships. That obviously was a bad idea.

"But there are those," Carlson said, "close to the Deity in Marine Corps heaven who devoutly believe the Corps cannot do without the eighty-one-millimeters. So I have proposed that we drag them along with us-without personnel-in case we need them. In which case, they would be fired by the sixty-millimeter crews."

McCoy thought Carlson was absolutely right about the mortars, and he hoped that the brass would let him have his way. But he wondered if they actually would. He had not forgotten Chief Warrant Officer Ripley's disturbing remark about the "brass really having a hard-on for Carlson." He knew they hadn't changed that attitude because the Commandant had blown his stack about spying on Carlson. A lot of the brass, and even people like Captain Jack Stecker, thought the whole idea of Raiders was a lousy one. Which meant that a lot of people were still going to be fighting Carlson at every step. If Carlson said the moon was made of Camembert, they would insist it was cheddar.

"That will be all, gentlemen," Colonel Carlson said, a few minutes and a few minor items later. "Thank you. If there are no questions…"

There were questions. There was always some dumb sonofabitch who didn't understand something. But finally the questions had been asked and answered, and Carlson waved his hand in a gesture of dismissal. In a regular unit, the exec would have called attention and then dismissed them after the commanding officer had walked away. Doing it Carlson's way, McCoy thought, made more sense.

Colonel Carlson called out to him as McCoy started to get to his feet.

"McCoy, stick around please. I'd like a word with you."

"Aye, aye, sir," McCoy said.

Carlson went into the building, after motioning for McCoy to follow. When he went inside, the sergeant major waved him into Carlson's office. Captain Roosevelt was there.

"Stand at ease, McCoy," Carlson said, and searched through papers on his desk. Finally he found what he was looking for and handed it to McCoy. It was a TWX.

HEADQUARTERS USMC WASH DC 1545 21 APR 1942

THERE EXISTS THROUGHOUT THE MARINE CORPS A CRITICAL SHORTAGE OF OFFICER PERSONNEL FLUENT IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES. RECORDS INDICATE THAT 2ND LT KENNETH R MCCOY PRESENTLY ASSIGNED COMPANY B 2ND RAIDER BN IS FLUENT IN CHINESE JAPANESE AND OTHER FOREIGN LANGUAGES. UNLESS HIS PRESENT DUTIES ARE CRITICAL TO THE 2ND RAIDER BATTALION IT IS INTENDED TO REASSIGN HIM TO DUTIES COMMENSURATE WITH HIS LANGUAGE SKILLS.

YOU WILL REPLY BY THE MOST EXPEDITIOUS MEANS WHETHER OR NOT SUBJECT OFFICER IS CRITICAL TO THE MISSION OF YOUR COMMAND. BY DIRECTION

STANLEY E WATT COLONEL USMC OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF FOR PERSONNEL

"You don't seem especially surprised, McCoy," Colonel Carlson said in Cantonese.

"No, sir," McCoy answered, in the same language. "Major Banning told me there was a shortage of people who could speak Chinese and Japanese."

Carlson smiled, and nodded at Roosevelt. "The Big Nose doesn't know what we're talking about, does he?"

Chinese often referred to Caucasians as "Big Noses."

"No, sir," McCoy said, now in English.

"Then in English," Carlson said.

"Thank you, gentlemen," Captain Roosevelt said.

"Well, McCoy, are you critical to the Raiders?" Carlson asked.

"I don't know, sir," McCoy said.

"Well, let me put it this way, then, Lieutenant," Carlson said. "In your opinion, can you make a greater contribution to the Corps doing what you're doing with the Raiders, or doing whatever Major Banning has in mind for you to do? And I don't think there is any more question in your mind than there is in mine that Ed Banning is behind that TWX."

"Straight answer, sir?"

"I certainly hope so," Carlson said.

"I think I can do more here, sir," McCoy said.

"Huh," Carlson snorted. "Go buy yourself a bigger hat, Lieutenant McCoy. I am about to designate you as Critical to the Second Raiders."

"Thank you, sir."

"Not even the Big Nose is critical," Carlson said, in Cantonese, and smiled benignly at Captain Roosevelt, who smiled back. "Only you and me, McCoy."

McCoy grinned back.

Still in Cantonese, Carlson went on: "I don't think you need to know the name of the island, yet, McCoy, so I won't give it to you. But for our first mission, we are going to conduct a raid on a certain island. That's subject to change, of course, but I have a hunch it won't. The reason I'm telling you this much is that it is currently projected that we will be transported in submarines, rather than the converted destroyers. That will limit the force to no more than two hundred people. I want you-alone, don't confer with anyone else-to start thinking how we'll have to structure that force, and equip it."