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

«I could probably take a ton,» Williamson said. «That's seven people at a hundred and fifty pounds per. The old rule of the sea is women and children first.»

McCoy did not respond directly. «And torch just the one plane,» he said.

«I have a suggestion there, too,» Williamson said. «Leave enough fuel in the tanks of the other Catalina for ten, fifteen minutes. Take it off. The pilot trims it up in a shallow climb and jumps. That would take it thirty, fifty miles—maybe more—before it ran out of gas and crashed. Empty, a Cat will glide a long way.»

«That way we wouldn't have to move right away,» McCoy said.

«Who would you send out?» Chief Brewer asked. «A lot of people will think they have the right to go.»

«Gunny Zimmerman is going out,» McCoy said, looking at Brewer. «And he's not about to leave his wife and kids again, so they're going.»

«That's liable to cause some resentment,» Chief Brewer said.

«So is Mrs. Banning and her baby,» McCoy said.

«When my people find out that a plane is leaving,» Chief Brewer said, «they'll want to decide who goes on it. Either vote on it or maybe pick names out of a hat.»

«This is not open for discussion, Chief,» McCoy said coldly. «Gunny Zimmerman is going, and so are his wife and kids. And Mrs. Banning and her baby. If there's any more room, then the sick people. And if there's any room after that, you can send whoever you want.»

«You're going?» Brewer asked.

«No, I'm not. Major Williamson will pick his copilot. Everybody else stays.»

Williamson raised one eyebrow but said nothing.

«If we're going to do this,» McCoy said, «we'll have to do it first thing in the morning. So we'd better start getting the fuel transferred.»

«Okay. That shouldn't be much of a problem. Chief McGuire, the guy who kissed the ground, built some special fuel-transfer pumps to get fuel to the main from the auxiliary tanks—which he also built.»

«And there's one thing more,» McCoy said. «Major, I want you to find Lieutenant Colonel Ed Banning—he's probably in Chungking—and personally turn Zimmerman and the women over to him. I'm going to write Banning a letter saying how I think we can get the rest of these people out, and I don't want anybody but Banning to see it.»

«Sure,» Williamson said after a just barely perceptible hesitation.

I'll

be damned. I almost said, «Aye, aye, sir

.»

«McCoy,» Williamson said. «If we can get the Army Air Corps in Yümen to loan us a C-46—or, for that matter, a C-47—we can get these people out of here in a matter of days.»

«No,» McCoy said simply.

«Just like that, 'no'?» Chief Brewer said. «Why not?»

McCoy turned to look at him. «The priority here, Chief, is to keep this weather station going. The only way to do that is not draw the Japs' attention to it. Every time an airplane leaves Yümen, the Japs know about it. And when it lands wherever it's going, they know about that, too. If a C-46 took off from Yümen and didn't land someplace else, the Japs would start wondering why. And start looking for answers.»

«It would only take one flight,» Brewer protested.

«I almost told Major Williamson to torch both planes,» McCoy said, «because when that Catalina lands at Yümen, the Japs will be wondering where it came from. And start looking for answers.»

And

, Williamson thought,

if he had told me to torch both planes, I would have

.

«I decided sending Gunny Zimmerman out,» McCoy went on, «justified the risk—«

«Your sergeant and his wife and kids, and the Colonel's wife and—« Chief Brewer interrupted.

«Get this straight, Chief,» McCoy cut him off, coldly angry. «I don't have to justify a goddamned thing to you.»

«McCoy,» Williamson said, «I can sort of understand the chief's position—«

«Or to you, either, Major,» McCoy snapped, turning to meet Williamson's eyes. «With respect, sir, I'm in command here. My orders regarding you and the other airplane drivers is to get you out of here as soon as I can, without endangering the mission. In other words, you'll go, or not go, when and how I decide.»

«No offense.»

«If you're uncomfortable flying the one plane out here, fine. I'll have Weston fly it out. The only reason I decided to let you fly it is that you're the only pilot who's married.»

«I didn't mean to question your authority, Captain.»

«Thank you, sir,» McCoy said.

note 102

Headquarters, 32nd Military District

Yümen, China

1430 3 May 1943

Major Avery Williamson, USMC, estimated that he had had one-point-two-five hours of fuel remaining when he touched down at Yümen, escorted by two Chinese Curtiss P-40 fighters that had intercepted him a hundred miles away.

He felt bad about that. He could have brought out more people, and it didn't help much to tell himself that he had done what he could to bring out as many people as he could, including flying without a copilot.

As he should have expected, Weston refused to fly as copilot. He could not ingood conscience do so, he said, if that would mean leaving women and children behind. Weston's selflessness had shamed Lieutenants Stevenson and Pickering into making the same statement. In fact, Pickering was so inspired—or maybe shamed—by Weston that he insisted on flying the other Catalina off into the desert and then parachuting from it.

Williamson waited to hear that Pickering had landed safely—a little bruised, but not seriously hurt—before taking off with Gunny Zimmerman and fifteen women and children aboard, plus two seriously ill male gypsies, a Yangtze River sailor, and a 15th Infantry soldier.

The two P-40s stayed on his wingtips until he actually touched down, then they added throttle and went around to land themselves. Until the very last moment, Williamson suspected, they probably feared he was a Japanese aircraft in American markings. They didn't see many Catalinas in inland China, and, with the bubbles removed and faired over, his Cat did not look like any of the Catalinas in the Aircraft Identification Charts.

Williamson was not surprised when he turned off the runway to find two machine-gun-mounted jeeps waiting for him, in addition to a Follow Me jeep. The fighters had obviously radioed ahead that a very strange aircraft, very possibly a Japanese suicide bomber, was on the way. The machine-gun jeeps followed him to the parking area in front of base operations.

A tall Marine officer came out of base operations. His overcoat collar was turned up against the icy wind.

Well, that's luck. A fellow Marine should know how I can find this fellow Banning.

Williamson shut the Cat's engines down. He wondered if the Air Corps had any people here who had ever even seem a Catalina before, and would be qualified to inspect it before he flew on to Chungking. If something needed to be replaced, whatever it was would have to be flown in, and Christ only knew how long that would take. Presuming that the airplane was OK, was he going to be expected to try to get it from here back to Pearl Harbor? Without a copilot?

Maybe

, he thought, as he climbed out of the seat, I

could just leave it parked here and see about getting a ride back to the States. God, I know better than that. I'm stuck in this frozen wonderland until I can fly this airplane out of here

.

«Everybody stay put, please, until I sort things out with the authorities here,» he called, and then walked toward the fairing that had replaced the bubble. As he passed Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman, the tough Old Breed Marine was in the process of changing a diaper. As he passed Mrs. Banning, he saw that she was weeping uncontrollably.