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

«If you stay for several days, Colonel, that will alleviate any suspicions General Chow might have about the real purpose of our trip here.»

«I understand, sir,» Banning said.

«Thank you very much, General,» Pickering said.

«I think the time has come, don't you, after all we've been through together, that we can use our personal names?»

«Thank you very much,

Sunny

,» Pickering said.

«You're entirely welcome, Fleming.»

note 87

Headquarters

U.S. Military Mission to China

Chungking, China

1615 14 April 1943

As the C-47 taxied up to the area before base operations, the eyes of Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, USMCR, fell on Second Lieutenant Robert F. Easterbrook, USMCR, leaning on the fender of a Studebaker President staff car, cradling a 12-gauge trench gun in his arms. The sight brought a smile to his lips.

So the Easterbunny has seen Rutterman with one of the «people killers

,» he thought,

and is

—

the most sincere form of flattery

—

imitating him

.

What was incongruous, so far as Pickering knew, was that Master Gunner Rutterman, who looked as if he had been sent over from Central Casting in response to a request for an actor who looked like a seasoned, veteran Marine, had yet to hear a shot fired in anger in this war, and nineteen-year-old Lieutenant Easterbrook had two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star.

It occurred to Pickering that Master Gunner Rutterman never referred to Easterbrook as «The Easterbunny» either. That privilege seemed to be reserved for those who had been with him on Guadalcanal.

After the airplane was parked, Easterbrook waited for Pickering to say goodbye to Brigadier General Sun Chi Lon and Major Kee, and then for their mountain of luggage to be loaded by their orderlies into the two cars sent to meet them, before coming over to Pickering and Hart. He saluted, then started to help Hart carry their suitcases to the car.

«You know how to use that shotgun, Bob?» General Pickering said, beating him to his own suitcase and picking it up.

«Yes, sir, I do,» Easterbrook replied. «Did you know, General, that every one of those itty-bitty little balls it shoots—there's a dozen of them in every shell— is like a .32 pistol bullet? Just as powerful?»

«I think I remember hearing that somewhere,» Pickering said.

«I have a hell of a time with the Thompson,» Easterbrook went on. «I can't keep the muzzle from climbing. But I can handle a trench gun.»

So much for my theory that the Easterbunny is aping Rutterman.

«Colonel Banning and that OSS captain still on the plane, sir?»

«Colonel Banning is at the moment learning more about the Thirty-second Military District than he really wants to know,» Pickering said. «He won't be back for a couple of days.»

«By now, the Colonel is probably working very hard to preserve the reputation of the Marine Corps,» Hart said.

«That is quite enough on that subject, Lieutenant,» Pickering said.

«Yes, sir,» Hart said, unabashed.

«And McCoy took Sampson with him into the Gobi,» Pickering said. «To work the radios.»

«I'll be damned,» Easterbrook said. «Did he want to go or did the Killer volunteer him?»

«He wanted to go,» Hart said. «And Captain McCoy—who isn't happy when somebody calls him 'the Killer' —said he could go.»

«I'm not too happy when people call me 'Easterbunny' either,» Easterbrook said. «When the Killer stops calling me the Easterbunny, I'll stop calling him the Killer.»

«The difference,

Lieutenant Easterbrook,'»

Hart said, smiling broadly as he slammed the trunk closed on their luggage, «is that you're a second lieutenant and he's a captain.»

«McCoy wouldn't pull rank about something like that,» Easterbrook said with absolute confidence.

Well, he's got McCoy figured correctly

, Pickering thought.

There really is more to the Easterbunny than at first meets the eve

.

«There have been no messages for me, Bob?» Pickering asked.

«There's one, sir. I thought I'd wait until we got in the car, out of the wind. Will you drive, George?»

«Sure,» Hart said.

That was an order

, Pickering thought.

It was phrased as a question, but it wasn't even a request, it was an order

.

«I don't think you're going to like it very much, sir,» Easterbrook added.

When they were in the backseat of the Studebaker together, and Pickering had read the two Special Channel messages, Pickering realized that Easterbrook was right. He didn't like what the Special Channel message said.

T O P S E C R E T

FROM ACTING STACHIEF OSS HAWAII

1115 GREENWICH 13 APRIL 1943

VIA SPECIAL CHANNEL

DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN

TO BRIGGEN FLEMING PICKERING USMCR

OSS DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR PACIFIC OPERATIONS

THRU: US MILITARY MISSION TO CHINA CHUNGKING

SUBJECT: PROGRESS REPORT NO.3

1. RECEIPT OF YOUR MESSAGE SUBJECT: IMPORTANCE OF LIAISON DATED 11 APRIL 1943 RELUCTANTLY ACKNOWLEDGED.

2. SUNFISH WITH METEOROLOGISTS, EQUIPMENT, PLUS LT CD. LEWIS AND CHIEF MCGUIRE ABOARD DEPARTED PEARL HARBOR 0600 LOCAL TIME 11 APR 43. ETA RENDEZVOUS POINT NOT SOONER THAN 28 APRIL. YOU WILL BE ADVISED DAILY AS ETA IS REVISED BASED ON POSITION REPORTS FROM SUNFISH AND OTHER FACTORS.

3. FOLLOWING VOLUNTEER USMC AVIATORS HAVE REPORTED ON TEMPORARY DUTY TO MAG-21:

WILLIAMSON, MAJ AVERY R. USMC (PENSACOLA NAS)

WESTON, CAPT JAMES B USMC (PENSACOLA NAS)

PICKERING, 1/LIEUT MALCOLM S USMCR (MEMPHIS NAS)

4. ADDITIONALLY, STEVENSON, 1/LEEUT THEODORE J. USMC CVMF-229, EWA MCAS) HAS VOLUNTEERED AND REPORTED ON TDY.

5. LT COL DAWKIN8 REPORTS THAT ALTHOUGH WILLIAMSON, WESTON AND STEVENSON HAVE EXTENSIVE CATALINA EXPERIENCE, THEIR TRAINING AT EWA WILL CONTINUE ON A DAILY BASIS UNTIL EXECUTION OP MISSION IS ORDERED. THE 6 (SIX) US NAVY AVIATORS WHO PARTICIPATED IN ONE OR BOTH RENDEZVOUS/REFUELING DRY RUNS REMAIN ON TDY TO MAG-21, AND ANY OP THEM WOULD BE AVAILABLE AS A REPLACEMENT SHOULD ANY OF THE MARINE AVIATORS REQUIRE REPLACEMENT.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED

HOMER C. DILLON

MAJOR USMCR

T O P S E C R E T

I

have not yet recovered from my emotional reaction to watching Ken McCoy and Zimmerman

—

and Sampson

—

driving off into the Gobi

—

with that cheerful

«Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits»

tooting of the horn

—

and now this

.

What motivates these young men? Don't they want to live?

«Bad news, sir?» Hart asked from the front seat.

«I'm trying to make up my mind,» Pickering said. «Dillon sent us the names of the pilots who will fly the Catalinas.»

«Something wrong with them?»

Good question. Yeah, there's something wrong with them. They're all crazy, the regulars, the Old Breed, McCoy, Zimmerman, and Weston, and probably this Major Williamson, and the amateurs, my son and his Harvard classmate, Sampson. They are perfectly willing, perhaps because they are Marines, and Marines are supposed to do heroic things, or perhaps because they consider that voluntarily taking enormous chances with their lives

—

this would apply to Pick and Sampson

—

is what is expected of them as members of the social elite. Or maybe just to prove to themselves that they are not only men but a special kind of men

.

«There's a Major Williamson, from Pensacola, I don't know who he is…«

«General, I don't know how I know this,» Hart said. «But I think he's a pal of Captain Galloway,» Hart offered. «He's probably all right.»