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

Sergeant Major Neely nodded.

"I don't know..."

"The PIO is up to his ass in alligators," Neely said. "Somebody has to deal with the Hollywood Marines."

There is no reason, Dawkins decided at the moment, that Macklin can't contemplate his sins, whatever they were, while dealing with the Hollywood Marines.

"Send for Major Macklin, please, Sergeant Major," Dawkins ordered.

"Aye, aye, sir."

In the forty-five minutes it took to notify Major Macklin that the deputy commanding general wished to speak to him personally, and for Macklin to reach Dawkins's office, Dawkins had a little-very little-time to ruminate on his decision.

He was aware that he was not one of those who thought the Richard Widmark cinematic opus was a great thing for the Marine Corps. He was further aware that he had heard somewhere that this Macklin character was a three-star asshole. He was forced to draw the conclusion that he had allowed his personal feelings to color his decision; that he had sent an asshole to deal with the Hollywood assholes.

That was not the thing to do. The Marine Corps had de-cided the movie was in the best interests of the Marine Corps, and that being the case, it behooved him to support the movie as best he could, which obviously meant he shouldn't send this asshole major to deal with the Holly-wood assholes.

He would have to find some really competent officer, on a par with Major L. K. Winslow, to assist the Hollywood people in their production.

Just about at the time he had reached this conclusion, Sergeant Major Neely stuck his head in the door and re-ported that Major Robert B. Macklin, USMC, had arrived.

"Send him in, please," Dawkins had ordered. Since he had summoned him, courtesy required that he at least talk to him.

Major Macklin-who was, Dawkins was somewhat sur-prised to see, a good-looking, trim, shipshape Marine offi-cer-entered the office, walked to precisely eighteen inches from General Dawkins's desk, and came to atten-tion.

"Major Macklin, Robert B., reporting as ordered, sir."

"At ease, Major," Dawkins said.

Macklin stood at ease.

"This may sound like a strange question, Macklin, but do you have any public relations experience?"

"Yes, sir, I do."

That's not what I expected to hear.

"In the Corps?"

"Yes, sir."

`Tell me about it," Dawkins ordered.

"Sir, when I returned from the `Canal-"

"You were on Guadalcanal?" Dawkins asked.

I'll be damned.

"Actually, sir, I was on Gavutu."

"Then why did you say `Guadalcanal'?"

"I've found, sir, that it's easier to say Guadalcanal than have to explain that Gavutu was a nearby island."

That's true. Gavutu is not well-known.

"What were you doing on Gavutu?"

"Actually, sir, I didn't get a chance to do much on Gavutu. I went in with the ParaMarines and took a hit be-fore I reached the beach."

The ParaMarines were decimated-literally, they lost ten percent of their men-landing on Gavutu.

"I see," Dawkins said. "And?"

"I was on limited duty, sir, and the Corps assigned me to a war bond tour. It had several aces from Guadalcanal."

"Oddly enough, I'm familiar with that tour. Several of those aces were mine. And you were the public relations guy for that tour?"

"Yes, sir, and*-I was still on limited duty, sir-for oth-ers that followed."

"And that's how you spent the war? On public relations duties?"

"No, sir. When it became obvious that I wasn't going to be able anytime soon to pass the full duty physical, I vol-unteered for the OSS. I was sent on to Mindanao, which the Japs then held-"

Goddamn it! I don't need a spy. I need somebody to deal with the Hollywood Marines and Richard Widmark.

Well, at least he has some public relations experience.

"Major," Dawkins interrupted, "the Marine Corps is co-operating with a Hollywood motion picture company. They're making a movie to be called Halls of Montezuma, which will star Richard Widmark."

"Yes, sir?"

"The coordinating officer was assigned to the 1st Marine Provisional Brigade, and I have to find someone to take his place, and do so right now-the Hollywood people have already begun to arrive here. Do you think you could han-dle something like that?"

"Sir, if I have a choice between going to Korea or this, I really would prefer going to Korea."

"Most of us would prefer to be going to Korea, Major," Dawkins said. "My question was do you think you could handle something like that?"

"I'm sure I could, sir, if that's what the Corps wants me to do."

"Okay. Just as soon as you can wind up whatever you're doing now, report to Colonel Severance in public rela-tions."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"That will be all, Major. Good luck."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Before Major Macklin was out of the building, General Dawkins got Colonel Severance on the horn and told him that he was sending him an experienced public relations officer to take the place of Major Winslow.

He also told Colonel Severance that he wanted "the Hol-lywood project" to go smoothly-that the Corps had promised "full cooperation," and full cooperation was what they were going to get.

"Unless it actually interferes with our movements to Ko-rea, see that they get everything they want."

Colonel Severance said, "Aye, aye, sir," and General Dawkins put the Hollywood Marines out of his mind.

Major Macklin was delighted with his new assignment. He would have gone willingly to Korea, of course, and still would. But the facts were that his previous service had de-nied him the privilege of command. He had never been a company commander, and service as a company com-mander as a captain was at least an unofficial prerequisite to serving as a battalion executive officer as a major.

Neither had his intelligence service prepared him for duty with a brigade as an intelligence officer. He had spent most of his OSS service on the Japanese-occupied island of Mindanao. That was certainly valuable service-and certainly dangerous service-but it wasn't the sort of thing that had given him the experience to assume duties as a regimental intelligence officer.

So the situation was that even if he was ordered to Korea with the brigade-or later, with the 1st Marine Division- he more than likely would have been given duties in personnel or supply. That was certainly important work, but looking at the big picture, he could make a far larger con-tribution to the Marine Corps by doing an outstanding job supporting the filming of Halls of Montezuma.

And his work would certainly be noticed by senior offi-cers, which was important, if he looked down the road to selection time for promotion to lieutenant colonel.

When he reported to Colonel Severance, Severance re-peated to him what General Dawkins had said about the importance of the project, and told him to guide himself accordingly. He also told him that the "senior members" of the production company were putting up at the Coronado Beach Hotel, and that he should establish contact with the producers and the director there.

He was given a copy of the "shooting script" and a long list of things, from Jeeps and trucks to telephone service, the production company would require. He was also asked to escort the "location manager" around the Camp Pendleton reservation to find suitable sites for various "scenes" and "shots" in the film.

He got right on that, and returned the same evening to the Coronado Beach to report his progress to the director and producers. While he was at Camp Pendleton, he sug-gested to Colonel Severance that since he was going to have to be on twenty-four-hour call to take care of the re-quests of "the company," he thought it would be a good idea if he took a room at the hotel. That would mean that he would have to be put on temporary duty, so that he could draw per diem and quarters pay. Colonel Severance said he would take care of it.