Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 09 - Under Fire

"Sir?"

"What exactly do you know about Captain McCoy?" Dawkins asked.

"Well, sir, from what I understand of Captain McCoy, he was lucky to be retained on active duty as an officer as long as he was."

"Anything else?" Dawkins asked, softly.

"Sir, as I understand the situation," Colonel Brewer be-gan, slowly, having sensed that he was marching on very thin ice, and having absolutely no idea why that should be, "Captain McCoy was commissioned from enlisted status in the early days of World War Two when the Corps was desperately seeking officers."

"And we commissioned practically anybody who could see lightning and hear thunder?" Dawkins asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Anything else?" Dawkins asked.

"Well, sir, it's come to my attention that he's... uh... in a financial position where he would be better off to spend his last twenty-nine days in the Corps on duty, rather than on leave. So that he could be paid for his unused ac-crued leave on separation, sir."

"And what would you have Captain McCoy doing on his last twenty-nine days of active service, Colonel?"

"Well, sir, as I'm sure you know, there's always some-thing an officer can do. Inventory supply rooms. The Ex-change. That sort of thing."

"Colonel," Dawkins said. "Listen to me carefully. I'll tell you what you are going to do vis-a-vis Captain McCoy, who is at this moment en route here. You will immediately receive him in your office. Ninety seconds after you re-ceive him in your office, he will depart your office on leave until the last day of his active service as an officer. When he reports back here on that last day of service, you will have arranged for the hospital to give him his separation physical examination on a personal basis-that is to say, it will take no longer than sixty minutes. If the hospital has any problem with that, have them contact me. When Cap-tain McCoy has his separation physical in hand, you will personally hand him his final pay and his travel orders to his home of record, and wish him well in his civilian ca-reer. You understand all that?"

"Yes, sir," Lieutenant Colonel Brewer said.

"See that it happens, Harry," Dawkins said to Colonel Wade.

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Come on, Art," General Dawkins said to Captain McGowan, and walked out of the room.

[SIX]

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF FOR OFFICER RECORDS

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF,

G-l HEADQUARTERS

CAMI PENDLETON, CALIFORNIA

1610 8 JUNE 1950

"You wanted to see me, Colonel?" Major Robert B. Macklin, USMC, inquired of Lieutenant Colonel Peter S. Brewer, USMC, from Brewer's open office door.

"Come in, Macklin," Brewer said, "and close the door."

"Yes, sir."

"About this Captain McCoy, Macklin..."

"Yes, sir?"

"I want to make sure I have this straight in my mind," Brewer said. "From what you told me, you served with him. Is that right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Where was that?"

"I was on several occasions stationed in the same places as McCoy, sir, but I don't know if that could be construed as `serving with' him, sir."

"For example?"

"The first time I ran into McCoy, sir, I was in intelli-gence in the 4th Marines in Shanghai, and he was a machine-gun section leader in one of the companies. I knew of his reputation there."

"Which was?"

"Sir, I... uh... I'm a bit reluctant, under the circum-stances..."

"This is just between you and me, Macklin. Let's have it."

"He was known as `the Killer,' sir. He got into a knife fight-a drunken brawl, as I understand it-with some Italian Marines, and killed one of them. I was surprised that he wasn't court-martialed for that, and even more sur-prised when I was an instructor at the Officer Candidate School at Quantico, when McCoy showed up there."

"I see."

"At the time, knowing what kind of a man he was, I rec-ommended that he be dropped from the officer training program. I just didn't think he was officer material, sir."

"But he was commissioned anyway, despite your rec-ommendation?"

"Sir, the Corps was desperately short of officers at the time, scraping the bottom of the barrel. The Quantico ser-geant major, for example, was a sergeant major one day and a lieutenant colonel the next."

"Really? What was his name? Do you remember?"

"Yes, sir. Stecker. Jack NMI Stecker."

"You serve with McCoy anywhere else, Macklin?"

"When the OSS was formed, sir, there was a levy on the Corps for officers with intelligence experience in China. And/or who had some knowledge of Oriental languages. Both McCoy and I were assigned to the OSS. He had some smattering knowledge of Chinese, I believe."

"And that's how you came to understand his personal characteristics, his `payday-to-payday' philosophy of life?"

"Yes, sir. I suppose it is. May I ask-?"

Brewer put his hand up to silence him. "I hardly know where to begin, Major Macklin," he said. "Let me start with Brigadier General Jack NMI Stecker, holder of the Medal of Honor, under whom it was my priv-ilege to serve when he was special assistant to General Vandegrift, when he was Commandant of the Corps. You weren't suggesting, a moment ago, that he was something like Captain McCoy, someone who really shouldn't have been an officer in the first place, much less a lieutenant colonel and ultimately a brigadier general, were you?"

"No, sir. General Stecker was a fine Marine officer. But, if I may say so, he was sort of the exception to the rule."

"Not like McCoy, is what you're saying?"

"Not at all like McCoy, sir."

"Would you be interested to learn that whatever other problems Captain McCoy has at the moment, paying the rent is not one of them?"

"Sir?"

"I just came from Colonel Wade's office, Macklin, where I very much fear I left General Dawkins with the impres-sion that I don't know what's going on around here."

"Sir?"

"Both General Dawkins-who is obviously personally acquainted with Captain McCoy-and Colonel Wade- who had a somewhat different opinion from yours of Mc-Coy's service to the Corps even before we had a look at his records-are convinced the Corps is making a stupid mis-take in separating Captain McCoy from the service."

"I can only suggest, sir, that the general and the colonel are privy to information about Captain McCoy that I'm not."

"You didn't know that he was both wounded and deco-rated for valor when the Marine Raiders made the Makin Island raid?"

"That never came to my attention, sir."

"Did it ever come to your attention that Captain McCoy was awarded the Victoria Cross by the Brits for his service to the Australian coastwatcher service?"

"No, sir, it did not."

"How about his award of the Distinguished Service Medal for his having established a weather station in the Gobi Desert in Japanese-occupied Manchuria?"

"No, sir."

"There are several possibilities here, Major," Colonel Brewer said, almost conversationally.

"Sir?"

"One of which is that you are the most stupid sonofabitch ever to wear the insignia of a Marine major. Among the others are that you are a lying sonofabitch with a per-sonal vendetta-for reasons I don't even want to think about-against Captain McCoy."

"Sir-"

"Shut your mouth, Major," Brewer snapped. "Until I make up my mind which it is, and what I'm going to do about it, you will report to the Headquarters Commandant for an indefinite period of temporary duty. I don't know what else he will have you doing, but you will start by inventorying every company supply room on the base. You are dismissed, Major."

[SEVEN]

THE DIRECTOR'S OFFICE

EAST BUILDING, THE CIA COMPLEX

2430 E STREET

WASHINGTON, D.C.

0930 9 JUNE 1950

"The Director will see you now, Senator," the executive as-sistant to the Director of the CIA said, and held open the door to an inner office.