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

McCoy nodded.

But what if he's wrong ? What if the long shot comes in ? What if Milla is alive ? What do I tell Carolyn?

«I'm going over to T-2032,» Banning said. «We really need Zimmerman. Can you handle the cleaning by yourself?»

«Yes, sir.»

«Then go home and ask Ernie to do something for that sunburn. We can't afford to have you in the hospital.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

Chapter Ten

note 36

USMC Transient Barracks

U.S. Naval Station

San Diego, California

0720 4 March 1943

Staff Sergeant Karl Krantz had been a clerk for the Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad before a surge of patriotism sent him to the Marine Recruiting Office on December 9, 1941. After graduating from Parris Island, he had been a clerk in the Marine Corps.

That hadn't kept him from being wounded on Guadalcanal; but it had kept him from carrying a rifle on the line. Having seen what happened on the line to people who carried rifles, he was now profoundly grateful for that.

He had been wounded by bomb shrapnel during a Japanese raid on Hendersonfield. a half-inch chunk of jagged shrapnel had struck him in the left buttock— which was not nearly as funny as it sounds. In due course, Corporal Krantz was sent to the Navy Hospital at Pearl Harbor. And on discharge from the hospital, he had been declared «limited duty.» He could walk, but not very far, and it hurt when he did.

After three months as a clerk at Pearl Harbor—long enough to make sergeant—they sent him home, thus allowing some fully fit sergeant clerk to be sent to the war zone. Back in the States, he had been assigned to San Diego, doing much the same thing he had done for the Delaware & Lackawanna—except here it was people getting on and off ships and airplanes, as well as trains.

He thought of himself as sort of an expediter. He was good at it and took his responsibilities seriously, and this had gotten him another stripe.

Which explained his presence at the office at 0720 on a Sunday morning. The man with the duty—Corporal Vito Martino, who had also been in the wrong place at the wrong time on the 'Canal, and who now had a wired-together jaw that gave him a perpetual leer—did not, in Staff Sergeant Krantz's opinion, have either the dedication or the brains to be relied upon. Sergeant Krantz was not surprised to find Corporal Martino sound asleep on a cot behind the enlisted transients report here counter. That in itself did not bother him—there was nothing wrong with crapping out if nothing was coming in or going out. What bothered him was that Martino had slept through breakfast. He would, in other words, really rather crap out than eat.

Sergeant Krantz woke Corporal Martino up by kicking the legs of the cot. Corporal Martino opened his eyes, then pushed himself up on the cot, supporting himself with his elbows.

«Hey, Sarge, what's up?»

«That was what I intended to ask you. Anything happen?»

«The 2100 Coronado from Pearl was damned near two hours late. They was getting real worried. But it got here, and I was up to damned near midnight working it.»

«Any problems?»

«No. Usual thing. Some brass, some guys who got hit. Customs caught two guys trying to smuggle in Nambu pistols. The usual shit,» Corporal Martino said, and then remembered something. «There was a gunny on it, mean-looking fucker, with some really strange orders.»

«What do you mean, 'really strange orders'?»

«They're over there, in the Incoming Enlisted box,» Corporal Martino said, pointing.

Staff Sergeant Krantz went to the counter and found the orders Martino considered damned strange.

Headquarters

U.S.M.C. Special Detachment 16 FPO, San Francisco, Cal.

February

Subject: Detachment of

Gunnery Sergeant Ernest W. Zimmerman, 66230, USMC.

Staff Sergeant Stephen M. Koffler, 166705, USMC

Previous verbal orders CTNCPAC detaching Gunnery Sergeant Ernest W. Zimmerman from temporary duty with Snd Raider Bn, USMC, and VMF-229 are confirmed and made a matter of record.

Verbal orders of Supreme Commander SWPOA awarding Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman and Staff Sergeant Koffler the Bronze Star Medal for «Conspicuous valor and intrepidity in the face of the enemy in an extremely hazardous classified operation» are confirmed and made a matter of record. The citations will be forwarded to Hq, USMC when available.

Gunnery Sergeant Ernest W. Zimmerman is detached USMC SpecDetl6, FPO, San Francisco, Cal. effective 10 Feb 1943 and attached USMC Office of Management Analysis, Washington, DC, for further reassignment.

Gunnery Sergeant Ernest W. Zimmerman will proceed from present station to USMC Office of Management Analysis, Washington, DC, by first available US Government or commercial air transportation. Priority AA1 is authorized. Under the provisions of USMC PersReg 42-101 «Recuperative Leave for Personnel Returning to USMC Control After P0W Status or Other Service Behind Enemy lines» 30 days Delay En Route Leave Hot Chargeable As Ordinary Leave is authorized.

Inasmuch as the exigencies of the Naval Service have caused Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman's service and pay records to become unavailable, Gunnery Sergeant Zimmerman is authorized to draw a partial pay of no more than ninety-percent (90%) of the anticipated pay of a Gunnery Sergeant with eight (8) years service each month until his records can be located or reconstructed.

Staff Sergeant Stephen M. Koffler is detached USMC SpecDet16, FPO, San Francisco, Cal. Effective 10 Feb 1943 and attached USMC Schools, Quantico, Va., for enrollment in Officer Candidate School.

Staff Sergeant Stephen M. Koffler will proceed from present station to USMC Schools, Quantico, Va., by first available US Government or commercial air transportation. Mrs. Daphne F. Koffler (Dependent Wife) is authorized to accompany Staff Sergeant Koffler. Travel will be arranged so that Staff Sergeant and Mrs. Koffler will not be separated during travel. Priority AAA1 is authorized. Under the provisions of USMC PersReg 42-101 «Recuperative Leave for Personnel Returning to USMC Control After P0W Status or Other Service Behind Enemy Lines» 30 days Delay En Route Leave Not Chargeable As Ordinary Leave is authorized.

Authority:

Letter, Office of the Secretary of the Navy, Subject, «Establishment of U.S. Marine Corps Special Detachment 16.» 8 Apr 1942.

Verbal Order, BrigGen F.Pickering, USMCR

10 Feb 1943.

BY DIRECTION OF COLONEL WATERSON:

Official:

John Marston Moore st Lt John Marston Moore, USMCR

Adjutant

Staff Sergeant Krantz had seen the orders before. Five days earlier Staff Sergeant Koffler and his wife had passed through San Diego. Koffler looked as if he had left boot camp about that long ago, and his wife was an Aussie girl who looked as if she was going to be a mother in the

next

five days.

And now the gunny on the same orders had apparently shown up.

«You should have called me, Martino,» Sergeant Krantz said.

«It was midnight, Sergeant,» Martino said. «I figured you'd be in the sack.»

«Anytime you get something out of the ordinary like this, you call me. Understand?»

«You got it, Sarge.»

«You got him into the hospital okay?» Krantz asked.

«Hospital? No. He said he was going into 'Diego and see if he could find a poker game.»

«What?»

«I told him to check back at 0900 Monday, by then his tickets would probably be ready, and he could draw a partial pay, and I asked him if he wanted a ride to the Staff NCO quarters. And he said no, he was going to catch the bus, go into 'Diego, and see if he could find a poker game.»

«Jesus Christ, I don't believe you,» Krantz said. «Didn't you read the goddamned orders? This guy is either an escaped POW—which seems likely, since he doesn't have his service records—or he was doing something behind the enemy's lines.»