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

"How do you know that?"

"General Craig told me, sir."

"The Provisional Brigade commander?"

"Yes, sir."

"You two had a little chat? In my experience-and re-member, Captain, I used to be Captain Howe-generals don't have many conversations with captains."

"You're having one right now, General," General Picker-ing said.

"Point taken," Howe said, with a smile.

"I spoke with General Craig in San Diego, sir," McCoy said. "When the brigade was getting on the transports, and yesterday..." He paused. "Yeah, that was only yesterday. It seems a lot longer. I saw General Craig and the brigade debarking in Pusan."

Howe looked at him.

"You were about to say something else," he said. "Say it."

"The Marines in the Brigade looked like... Marines, sir."

"You mean they looked to you as if they could fight?"

"Yes, sir," McCoy said.

"Well, let's hope you're right, McCoy," General Howe said. "Now, where were we?"

"You were talking about the islands from which artillery could be brought to bear on the invasion fleet," General Pickering said.

"Right," Howe said. "So what does General MacArthur plan to do about them?"

"I believe the current plan is to take them on D Minus One, sir," Lieutenant Taylor said.

"You mean twenty-four hours before the actual landing at Inchon?"

"Yes, sir."

"Which would certainly tell the North Koreans we were going to land at Inchon, and give them twenty-four hours to bring up reinforcements, right?"

"Yes, sir," Taylor said.

"Nobody had a better idea than that?" Howe asked.

"Sir," Taylor said, and stopped.

"Go on," Howe ordered.

"Sir, I've given that some thought-"

"You have an idea, ideas?"

"Yes, sir," Taylor said. "I think it would be possible-"

Howe stopped him by holding up his hand.

"Not now," he said. "Later."

"Yes, sir."

"No, I mean later. I want to hear them. But right now, I have to send the President what I have so far about MacArthur's idea to land two divisions of men he doesn't have some place where an invasion can be held on only one or two days a month, and where the tides are thirty feet. Let's go, Charley, and you, too, Keller."

He got to his feet, gestured for the others to keep their seats, and walked out of the room, with Master Sergeants Rogers and Keller on his heels.

"Taylor," General Pickering asked, "these ideas of yours, have you put them on paper?"

"No, sir."

"I'm sure General Howe meant it when he said he wanted to hear them. Step one to do that is get them on pa-per-just the rough idea, or ideas."

"Yes, sir. How much time do I have?"

"See how much you can get down by seventeen hundred," Pickering said. "General Howe and I are going to be at SCAP most of the afternoon. Have you got someplace to work?"

"Only at SCAP, sir, or in my BOQ."

"George, get him a typewriter and a desk, and put him in one of the rooms here."

"Aye, aye, sir," Hart said.

Pickering looked at McCoy and motioned for him to fol-low him into his bedroom. McCoy motioned for Zimmer-man to wait.

Pickering closed the bedroom door after McCoy en-tered.

"Sir?" McCoy said.

Pickering handed him the large envelope marked "Secret" the signal corps had given him, then went to his window and looked out of it, his back to McCoy. McCoy looked at him curiously for a moment and then went into the envelope and took out the carbon copy of the radio teletype message.

SECRET

URGENT

1650 2 AUGUST 1950

FROM: ASST COMMANDER

1ST AIRCRAFT WING

TO: EYES ONLY BRIG GEN FLEMING PICKER-ING USMC

HQ SUPREME COMMANDER, ALLIED POW-ERS

DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT AT SHORTLY AFTER 1220 THIS DATE MAJOR MALCOLM S. PICKERING, USMCR, WAS FORCED TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN HIS F4-U AIRCRAFT BEHIND ENEMY LINES IN THE VICINITY OF TAEJON SOUTH KOREA AND HIS WHEREABOUTS AND CONDITION ARE PRESENTLY UNKNOWN.

AT APPROXIMATELY 1220 HOURS THIS DATE, MAJOR PICKERING, WHO WAS FLYING ALONE ON A RECONNAISSANCE MISSION OFF USS BADOENG STRAIT, MADE A MAYDAY RA-DIO CALL STATING HE WAS APPROXIMATELY FIFTEEN MILES NORTH NORTHEAST OF TAE-JON, AND THAT HE HAD BEEN STRUCK BY ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE, HAD LOST HYDRAULIC PRESSURE, HAD AN ENGINE FIRE AND WAS GOING TO DITCH.

LT COL WILLIAM C. DUNN, USMC, WHO WAS LEADING A THREE F4-U AIRCRAFT FLIGHT FROM THE USS BADOENG STRAIT IN THE VICINITY, HEARD THE MAYDAY AND IM-MEDIATELY WENT TO THE AREA. LT COL DUNN FIRST SPOTTED A HEAVY COLUMN OF SMOKE COMING FROM A DESTROYED BUT STILL BURN-ING ENEMY RAILROAD TRAIN AND THEN AP-PROXIMATELY THREE MILES NORTH OF THE TRAIN A COLUMN OF SMOKE FROM A BURNING F4-U AIRCRAFT. IN THREE LOW LEVEL PASSES OVER THE DOWNED AND BURNING AIR-CRAFT LT COL DUNN WAS ABLE TO DETERMINE THE COCKPIT WAS EMPTY. THERE WAS NO SIGN OF MAJOR PICKERING, AND LT COL DUNN DID NOT SEE A DEPLOYED PARACHUTE.

LT COL DUNN BELIEVES THAT MAJOR PICKERING WAS ENGAGING THE ENEMY RAIL-ROAD TRAIN AS TARGET OF OPPORTUNITY AND THAT HIS AIRCRAFT WAS STRUCK BY.50 AND 20-MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE FROM THE TRAIN AND/OR DEBRIS CAUSED BY THE DETONATION OF EXPLOSIVE AND/OR COM-BUSTIBLE MATERIALS ABOARD THE TRAIN.

FIXED AND ROTARY WING AIRCRAFT OF 1ST MAW WERE IMMEDIATELY DIRECTED TO THE CRASH SITE, ARRIVING THERE AT APPROXIMATELY 1335. THEY REPORTED THAT MAJOR PICKERING'S AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN CONSUMED BY FIRE AND THERE WAS NO SIGN OF MAJOR PICKERING.

6. IN CONSIDERATION OF THE ABOVE, MA-JOR PICKERING IS NOW CLASSIFIED AS MISSING IN ACTION. HQ USMC HAS BEEN NOTIFIED. FURTHER INFORMATION WILL BE FURNISHED AS DEVELOPED.

THOMAS J. CUSHMAN BRIG GEN, USMC

SECRET

"Goddamn it!" McCoy said, and then raised his eyes to look at General Pickering. Pickering had turned from the window and was leaning against the windowsill, facing McCoy.

"Goddamn this war," Pickering said, almost conversa-tionally. "Goddamn wars in general."

"Nothing was said about spotting a body," McCoy said.

"I'm going to have to call his mother," Pickering said, "and now. Before some unctuous chaplain gets to her with the usual nonsense about God's mysterious ways."

"Nothing was said about spotting a body," McCoy re-peated. "Billy Dunn said the aircraft was on fire and the cockpit empty. It obviously burned up later. Pick had time to get out of it."

Pickering didn't reply.

"This was not Pick's first emergency landing," McCoy said. "He's a hell of a pilot, and you know it. And this would not be the first time he's run around behind the lines."

Pickering looked into McCoy's eyes for a long moment.

"You tell me what you think happened, Ken."

"He got out of the airplane and got away from it."

"Or he got out of the airplane and the NK's got him. And shot him."

"More likely, they would have taken him prisoner," Mc-Coy said.

Pickering looked at McCoy for another long moment.

"If you're going to call Mrs. Pickering," McCoy said, "why don't we go out to my place?"

Pickering considered that for a long moment.

"One of the reasons I was less than overjoyed when Ernie came over here was because I knew that if you didn't come back from one of your Korean commutes, I knew I was going to have to be the one to tell her," Pickering said. "Now you're going to have to tell her about Pick."

"Come out to the house anyway," McCoy said.

"Thank you, but I don't have the time right now. Later, maybe."

"Sir?"

"General Howe and I are going to meet with MacArthur; he's going to tell us all about his Inchon landing. I don't want to miss that."

McCoy nodded but didn't reply.

"Best possible pissing-in-the-wind scenario," Pickering went on. "Phase one: Pick survived the crash in reasonably good shape..."

"And we will shortly hear that he's been spotted by the Air Force, or one of the Marine helicopters..."