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

THE CORONADO BEACH HOTEL

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

1030 10 JULY 1950

Captain Kenneth R. McCoy sprang to his feet and opened the door of the suite.

"Good morning, gentlemen," he said to the two Marine brigadier generals and their aides-de-camp, both captains. "General Pickering expects you. Will you come in, please?"

"How are you, McCoy?" Brigadier General Clyde W. Dawkins said, extending his hand. "It's good to see you."

Captain McCoy had never seen either captain before, but Captain Arthur McGowan, Dawkins's aide, had heard about the legendary Captain "Killer" McCoy and looked at him curiously.

He doesn't look, McGowan thought, like either a legend or somebody known as "the Killer."

"Thank you, sir," McCoy said. "It's good to see you, sir."

Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, USMCR, came into the sitting room from one of the bedrooms that offered a view of the Pacific and had long ago been converted to a bar, holding a mug of coffee in his hand.

"I was going to say, `Christ, Dawk, you didn't have to come here,'" he said, "But I think I'd better make that, `Good morning, gentlemen.'"

Dawkins chuckled.

He nodded at the officer beside him.

"I just now found out you two don't know each other; I thought you'd met on the `Canal. General Fleming Picker-ing, General Edward A. Craig."

Craig offered his hand to Pickering.

"I think you left the `Canal-" Craig began.

"Was ordered off," Pickering interjected.

"-before I got there," Craig finished. "But I know who you are, General, and I'm glad to finally get to meet you."

"General, I tried to tell General Dawkins that whenever he could find a few minutes for me, I would be in his of-fice."

"Craig and I had to go to the Navy base, coming here was easier all around, and I don't think I could have given you an uninterrupted five minutes in my office," Dawkins said. "Things are a little hectic out there."

"I can imagine."

"Craig has been named CG of the 1st Provisional Ma-rine Brigade," Dawkins said. "Which sails for Kobe, Japan, on the twelfth."

Colonel Edward J. Banning, USMC, and Marine Gun-ner Ernest W. Zimmerman came into the room.

"I didn't know you were here, too, Ed," Dawkins said.

"Good morning, General," Banning said. "It's good to see you."

"Ed Banning I know," Craig said. "Fourth Marines. Hello, Ed."

"Good morning, General," Banning replied, and added, "Mr. Zimmerman and Captain McCoy are old China Marines, too."

Craig shook Zimmerman's hand, then glanced at his watch.

"We are pressed for time," Craig said. "So if there's some place these fellows can wait... "

He nodded at McCoy, Zimmerman, and the aides-de-camp.

"Why don't you go in the bar?" Pickering said, nodding at the door to the room. "There's coffee. McCoy, you stay."

"Aye, aye, sir," McCoy said.

Captain McGowan and General Craig's aide were sur-prised, and possibly a little annoyed, that they were being excused, and Captain McCoy was not, but they and Zim-merman went into the bar and closed the door.

"I'm the self-invited guest, General," Craig said. "When Dawkins told me he was coming to see you, I invited my-self."

"You're welcome, of course," Pickering said.

"I don't think I have to convince you of the value of intel-ligence, General," Craig said. "I have practically none about Korea. If the price of getting some is bad manners..."

"Ken's got some pretty detailed knowledge of the North Korean order of battle," Pickering said, nodding at McCoy. "With the caveat that you don't ask him where he got it, and if you can give him an hour between now and 1830, when we get on a plane for Tokyo, he could brief you."

"I'll find the hour," Craig said. "Thank you."

"You're going to Tokyo, General?" Dawkins asked.

His real question, Pickering understood, is "What are you going to do in Tokyo? " and after a moment, he decided to answer it.

"What you hear in this room stays in this room, Okay?" he said.

"Agreed," Craig said.

"Yes, sir," Dawkins said.

"The President is unhappy that we were so badly sur-prised by what's happening over there," Pickering began. "And he's afraid that he's not going to get the whole pic-ture from MacArthur. He called an old buddy of his, an Army National Guard major general, Ralph Howe, to ac-tive duty, to go over there and see for himself what's hap-pened, and will happen. Then, because I'm acquainted with MacArthur, he did the same thing with me."

Craig nodded.

"May I ask what you're doing at Camp Pendleton?"

"That's Ed Banning's idea, and like most of his ideas, a good one. Howe and I will be reporting directly to the Presi-dent. If we use the normal communication channels, the odds are that our messages would be in the hands of the brass at least half an hour before they were in the President's hands. If, on the other hand, we communicate with your comm center here, with Banning getting the messages, no one would see them but Banning. We haven't worked out the details yet, but I'm sure Ed can find a secure channel from here to Washington."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Dawkins said. "If necessary, we can set up a secure radio-teletype link between here and the White House Signal Agency."

"I have to say this, Dawk," Pickering said. "I don't want one of your commo sergeants making copies of our traffic for you."

"Yes, sir," Dawkins said.

"McCoy, Zimmerman, and I are going to Japan tonight," Pickering said. "I'm going to see General MacArthur. Mc-Coy and Zimmerman are going to Korea."

"Why?" Craig asked McCoy.

"We want to interrogate prisoners, sir," McCoy said. "And see what else we can find out."

"What are you going to do about an interpreter?"

"Sir, I speak Korean, and Mr. Zimmerman speaks Chi-nese."

"At least two kinds of Chinese, General," Ed Banning said. "And Japanese. As does McCoy. McCoy also speaks Russian and-"

"I could really use officers with those skills," Craig said, and looked at Pickering. "I suppose that's out of the ques-tion?"

"I'm afraid so," Pickering said.

"How about access to what they learn?"

"With the caveat that it's not for-what do the newspa-per people say, `attribution'?-and doesn't go any fur-ther than you think it really has to, I can see no reason why Ed Banning can't filter out what he thinks would be useful to you from our traffic, and give it to you and Dawkins."

"Thank you," Craig said.

Dawkins looked at his wristwatch.

"Ed, it's that time. They expect us at the port."

Craig nodded.

"If you don't need Captain McCoy right now," Craig, said, "he could ride along with us, and I could pick his brain in the car."

"Sure," Pickering said, and then saw the look on Mc-Coy's face.

"Something I don't know about, Ken?" he asked.

"Sir, Zimmerman and I were going to go out to Pendleton and scrounge utilities, 782 gear, (Field equipment-for example, web belts, harnesses, canteens, helmets, etc) and weapons," Mc-Coy said.

"I think we can fix that," General Craig said.

He walked to the door of the bar and opened it.

"Charley," he said to his aide, "I can't imagine a Marine gunner needing help from a captain scrounging anything, but you never know. Get a car and take Mr. Zimmerman out to Pendleton and help him get whatever he thinks he needs."

"Aye, aye, sir," Craig's aide-de-camp said.

"And you better go with him," General Dawkins said to Captain McGowan. "We'll link up somewhere later."

Zimmerman looked at McCoy.

"Thompson?" he asked.

McCoy thought that over.

"I think I'd rather have a Garand," he said. "Maybe both? See if you can get a tanker's shoulder holster for me."

Zimmerman nodded.

McCoy turned to General Craig.

"Whenever you're ready, sir," he said.