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

Howe gestured that it was not important.

"Hart, go get Charley and the sergeant," he ordered.

"Hello, Taylor, how are you?" McCoy said.

"McCoy," Taylor replied.

McCoy had just enough time to pour himself a cup of coffee before the other Marine captain returned with two Army master sergeants in tow.

The one in the Class A uniform looks old enough to have been at Valley Forge; the one in fatigues doesn't look old enough to be a master sergeant. And fatigues in a fancy suite in the Imperial?

"My name is Pickering, Sergeant Keller," the Marine one-star said. "We've talked on the telephone. This is Gen-eral Howe, and I think you know everybody else but Lieu-tenant Taylor."

Everybody shook hands.

"You have the weapons, Keller, right?" McCoy said. "You can look forward to spending the rest of your life singing baritone?"

"I've got them, sir," the young master sergeant said.

Everybody but Taylor-who had no idea why this was funny-chuckled.

"Okay," General Howe said. "Let's get this started. Sergeant Keller, did Sergeant Rogers clue you in on what's going on here?"

"Yes, sir," Keller said.

"Did he show you our orders?"

"No, sir," Keller said.

Howe reached into his shirt pocket and came out with a squarish white envelope. He handed it to Keller.

"When you're through, show that to Lieutenant Taylor," Howe said.

"Yes, sir."

There was a knock at the door.

"Jesus, now what?" Howe asked, in great annoyance.

Hart went to the door.

The CIC agent was standing there with an Army signal corps captain.

"This officer has an Urgent for General Pickering," the CIC agent said.

Pickering motioned for the captain to enter the room. He entered, saluted, and handed Pickering a sealed eight-by-ten-inch manila envelope, on which SECRET was stamped, top and bottom, in red ink.

Pickering tore the envelope open, took the carbon of a radio teletype message from it, read it, and then slipped it back in the envelope.

"Anything important, Fleming?" Howe asked.

"No, sir. It will wait," Pickering said. Then he added, to the Signal Corps officer, "Answer is, Thank you. Picker-ing, Brigadier General, USMCR."

"Yes, sir, I'll get that right out," the Signal Corps captain said. He saluted and left the room.

"Lieutenant?" Master Sergeant Keller said and, when he had his attention, handed him the squarish envelope.

Taylor took it and read it.

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON, D.C.

JULY 8, 1950

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

MAJOR GENERAL RALPH HOWE, USAR, IN CONNECTION WITH HIS MISSION FOR ME, WILL TRAVEL TO SUCH PLACES AT SUCH TIMES AS HE FEELS APPROPRIATE, ACCOMPA-NIED BY SUCH STAFF AS HE DESIRES.

GENERAL HOWE IS GRANTED HEREWITH A TOP SECRET/WHITE HOUSE CLEARANCE, AND MAY, AT HIS OPTION, GRANT SUCH CLEARANCE TO HIS STAFF.

U.S. MILITARY AND GOVERNMENTAL AGEN-CIES ARE DIRECTED TO PROVIDE GENERAL HOWE AND HIS STAFF WITH WHATEVER SUP-PORT THEY MAY REQUIRE.

Harry S. Truman

HARRY S. TRUMAN

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

"Jesus Christ!" Taylor blurted.

Howe said, "General Pickering has identical orders, with only the name changed."

"Yes, sir," Taylor said, and handed the orders back.

"As far as Sergeant Keller is concerned," Howe said, "he's on indefinite temporary duty to us. `Us' is defined as what-ever General Pickering and I decide that it means. You're also on indefinite temporary duty to us, Lieutenant, but right now I don't know for how long that may be. But so far as both of you are concerned, so long as you are assigned to us, that means your chain of command is directly through either General Pickering or myself, and then the President of the United States. You are not subordinate to the orders of any-one but General Pickering and myself. Anyone else includes General MacArthur and any and all members of the SCAP headquarters and subordinate units. Is that clear?"

Master Sergeant Keller said, "Yes, sir."

Howe looked at Taylor, who said, "I understand, sir."

"You will consider anything you hear or see in connec-tion with your duties here to be classified Top Secret/White House, and you will not share that information with any-one, repeat anyone, who doesn't have a Top Secret/White House clearance, and I have been informed that no one in SCAP, including the Supreme Commander, has such a clearance. Is that clear?"

This time the two said "Yes, sir" almost in unison.

"Okay. Early tomorrow morning, Ambassador W. Averell Harriman and General Matthew B. Ridgway are going to get on an airplane in Washington to fly here. Am-bassador Harriman is going to inform General MacArthur, in his role as Supreme Allied Powers-and now UN Com-mand-Commander that the President does not wish Gen-eral MacArthur to employ in any shape or manner Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese troops. Ambassador Harri-man will report to the President his assessment of how General MacArthur receives this order, and probably what he thinks MacArthur will do. I think it highly probable that after receiving the Ambassador's report, the President will wish to comment on it, and perhaps give the Ambassador supplemental orders.

"Obviously, neither the President nor Ambassador Har-riman wants anyone to be privy to this interchange of in-formation. If the customary cryptographic channels were used, SCAP cryptographers would have to read the ex-change. The possibility of a leak is there. That's where you come in, Sergeant Keller. In Sergeant Rogers's briefcase, there is a special code that will be used solely for the com-munications between the Ambassador and the President. Getting the picture?"

"Yes, sir," Keller said. "There's a story going around that the President used a system like this at Potsdam, sir."

"You crypto people gossip, do you?"

"Only about techniques, sir, not message content."

"I'll give you the benefit of a large doubt on that, Keller. But no, the President did not use this system at Potsdam. I was there with him. He started using it after Potsdam, when he suspected that his `eyes only' messages to and from Potsdam had been read by a large number of senior military and State Department officers who knew how to cajole-or intimidate-crypto people into sharing infor-mation with them."

"You were at Potsdam, Ralph?" Pickering asked.

"Lovely place," Howe said. "Even right after the war. It's now in the Russian zone."

He turned to Keller.

"This one you don't gossip about, clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"General Ridgway is going to confer with General MacArthur about Inchon," Howe went on. "That's where you come in, Lieutenant Taylor. Both General Pickering and I have been charged by the President to come up with opin-ions-independent opinions-of whether MacArthur-who is now using the phrase `when I land at Inchon'-can really carry that off."

"That's what I've been doing at SCAP, General," Taylor said. "Working on that plan. They pulled me off my LST right after this war started, and put me to work on that."

"Gut feeling, Mr. Taylor? Is it possible?" Pickering asked.

"Gut feeling, sir: It's a hell of a gamble."

"I'd never even heard of the place a month ago," Howe said, "and aside from what General Pickering has told me, I still know virtually nothing about it."

General Pickering told you? What the hell does a Marine general know about Inchon? was written all over Taylor's face, and both Howe and Pickering saw his confusion.

"I was a sailor, a long time ago," Pickering said. "I told you." He chuckled, and added: "Who once ran the Pacific Wanderer aground at Inchon."

Pacific Wanderer? That's a PandFE freighter. This gen-eral was master of a PandFE freighter?

Oh, Jesus Christ. This guy's name is Pickering. PandFE is owned by the Pickering family. There has to be a connec-tion. So what's he doing in a Marine general's uniform?