Griffin W.E.B. - The Corps 08 - In Dangers Path

A Corsair and the R4-D were parked right in front of base operations. There was a red flag with a single white star flapping from a small staff beside the pilot's side window of the R4-D.

«Come see us anytime, General,» Admiral Ball said to General Mclnerney.

«Thanks, Jesse,» General Mclnerney said. He was obviously touched. He shook Admiral Ball's hand and then General Pickering's. «Take care of yourself, Flem,» he said. «And good luck!»

«You, too, Mac,» Pickering said.

General Mclnerney offered his hand to Lieutenant Pickering.

«It was good to see you, Pick,» he said. «Keep up the good work.»

Good work, my ass

, Admiral Ball thought, but he smiled.

«Thank you, sir,» Pick said. «It was good to see you, sir.»

General Mclnerney nodded, then walked toward the Corsair.

The band began to play «The Marines' Hymn,» and kept playing it until General Mclnerney climbed into the Corsair and fired up its engine, and until General Pickering—who embraced his son quickly before walking to the R4-D—was aboard. Then the band began playing «Auld Lang Syne.»

In the cockpit of the Corsair, General Mclnerney waited for the needles to move into the green, then looked at Admiral Ball, saluted, and started taxiing. A moment later, the R4-D began moving.

Pick waved at his father.

General Mclnerney turned onto the active runway and immediately began his takeoff roll. As soon as he had broken ground, the R4-D began to roll. Once airborne, the R4-D took up a course for Chicago. The Corsair, which had made a shallow climbing turn to the left after takeoff, now headed back to the field. It flashed over the field at 250 feet, with its throttles to the firewall, and then pointed its nose skyward. At 5,000 feet, it entered a layer of clouds and disappeared.

Admiral Ball walked over to Lieutenant Pickering.

«I think General Mclnerney enjoyed all this, don't you, Lieutenant? And your father, too, of course?»

«Yes, sir. I'm sure they did.»

«And what about you, Lieutenant. Did you enjoy it?»

«Very much, sir.»

«And last night? Did you have a good time last night?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Commit it to memory, you disgrace to the uniform you're wearing. It will be the last thing you'll enjoy for a hell of a long time.»

«Sir?»

Two Marines with Shore Patrol brassards on their sleeves, one of them a technical sergeant, marched up and saluted Admiral Ball.

«This officer is under arrest,» Admiral Ball said. «Escort him to his quarters— his

on-base

quarters—and when he has changed into the prescribed uniform, bring him to my office.»

«Aye, aye, sir,» the technical sergeant said. «This way, please, Lieutenant.»

note 69

Office of the Base Commander

Memphis Naval Air Station

Memphis, Tennessee

0910 29 March 1943

Three Marines, two of them wearing shore patrol brassards and armed with .45 –caliber pistols, marched in a line into the base commander's office.

«Detail, halt,» the Marine technical sergeant ordered, then «Detail, left FACE!» The three were now facing Rear Admiral Jesse Ball, USN. «Sir…« the technical sergeant barked as he saluted.

Lieutenant Malcolm S. Pickering, USMCR, started to raise his hand in a reflex action to salute, but catching something in Admiral Ball's eyes—a look of contemptuous surprise—stopped with his arm half up and lowered it.

»… Technical Sergeant Franz reporting to the Admiral with the prisoner as ordered, sir,» the technical sergeant finished.

Admiral Ball returned the salute. «Leave the prisoner and stand by in the outer office,» he ordered.

«Aye, aye, sir!» the technical sergeant barked, then went on. «Guard detail, one: step backward, ha-arch! Right, FACE! Forward, ha-arch!»

The two Shore Patrolmen marched out of the room.

Lieutenant Pickering remained at attention, facing Admiral Ball.

«Pickering, prisoners are denied the privilege of saluting,» Admiral Ball said conversationally. «That's something you might wish to keep in mind.»

«Yes, sir,» Lieutenant Pickering said.

«Have you any idea why I have placed you under arrest, Mr. Pickering?»

«No, sir.»

«I have the odd feeling, perhaps naively, that you may possess one—one only—of the characteristics required of an officer in the Naval Service,» Admiral Ball said. «You may not be a liar. Are you a liar, Mr. Pickering? Are you capable of answering a question put to you truthfully?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Yes, sir, which? Yes, you are a liar? Or yes, you will answer a question bearing on your fitness to be an officer truthfully?»

«Sir, I am not a liar. I will answer any question put to me truthfully.»

«Well, then, let's put that to the test. Mr. Pickering, it has been alleged that you have had on several occasions carnal knowledge of a female who is not only not your wife but is married to someone else. Specifically, one Elizabeth-Sue Megham, sometimes known as Mrs. Quincy T. Megham, Jr. Do these allegations have any basis in fact?»

«Sir, I was raised to believe that a gentleman does not discuss—«

«Don't hand me any crap about you being a gentleman, you miserable sonofabitch!"' Admiral Ball exploded furiously. «Have you. or have you not, been fucking this banker's wife?»

«Yes, sir,» Pick said.

«Knowing that she was a married woman?»

«Yes, sir.»

«The basis of all law in what we think of as the Western world, Mr. Pickering, is generally agreed to be the Old Testament. In the Old Testament it is recorded that Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying in his arms two stone tablets on which God himself had etched a number of rules by which God-fearing men were to conduct their lives. Are you familiar with that story, Mr. Pickering?»

«Yes, sir.»

«These ten rules, which came to be called the Ten Commandments, provide for God-fearing people a list of some things they are supposed to do and some things they are not supposed to do. Are you familiar with the Ten Commandments, Mr. Pickering?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Two of them have a special meaning for us here today. One of them is 'thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days,' et cetera, et cetera. Are you familiar with that particular commandment, Mr. Pickering?»

«Yes, sir.»

«I'm told you are an imaginative young man. 1 believe that. When you told the flight safety officer that you weren't even aware you had barrel rolled over the control tower because you had an oil-pressure warning light at the time, and were devoting all of your attention to that problem, now. that was imaginative. You were lying through your goddamned teeth, of course, but it was imaginative.»

«Yes, sir.»

«You admit that you lied to the flight safety officer?»

«I didn't think of it as a lie at the time, sir.»

«Goddamn you!» Admiral Ball exploded again. «Did you lie to the flight safety officer or not?»

«Yes, sir. I lied about that.»

«For your general fund of knowledge, Mr. Pickering, the Regulations for the Governance of the Naval Service, to which you are subject, provide that any officer who knowingly and willfully utters any statement he knows to be untrue shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.»

«Yes, sir.»

«We were talking about your imagination, Mr. Pickering. Can you imagine which of the Ten Commandments in addition to the 'thou shalt honor thy father' one has an application here today?»

«No, sir.»

«You mean you really don't know? Or, sniveling little smart-ass that you are, you're afraid to say?»

«The one concerned with adultery, sir?»

«Thou shalt not commit adultery,' « Admiral Ball said. «Now, that seems a simple enough order to me. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' It means you shouldn't screw somebody else's wife. Was that commandment beyond your comprehension, Mr. Pickering?»