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

He handed the telephone to Colonel Warren.

«Captain David Haughton, USN, is Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy,» Rickabee said.

Colonel Warren took the telephone.

He said «Yes, sir» five times; «I understand, sir» twice; and then «Glad to be of service, sir» once.

note 43

Office of the Deputy Director, USMC Aviation

Building F

Anacostia Naval Air Station

Washington, D.C.

1115 9 March 1943

«General,» Brigadier General D. G. Mclnerney's aide-de-camp announced, «there is a General Pickering and a Colonel Stecker to see you, sir.»

«Tony, that's

the

General Pickering and

the

Colonel Stecker,» Mclnerney said. « 'A' suggests there's more than one of each, and that's just not the case.»

«Yes, sir.»

«Send them in, and then lock up the silver. I don't think they're here just to say hello.»

«Aye, aye, sir,» the aide said.

He turned and opened the door.

«Gentlemen, General Mclnerney will see you.»

They walked into the office.

«To what do I owe the honor of such distinguished visitors to my humble abode?» Mclnerney greeted them, coming from around his desk.

«You want the truth, Mac?» Pickering asked, as their handshake turned into a hug.

«If possible, that would be very nice,» Mclnerney said, as he gave Stecker an affectionate hug.

«We want to pick your brains,» Pickering said, «and eventually steal things.»

«Tony, am I flying today?» Mclnerney asked.

«No, sir.»

«In that case, a little nip is called for. Bring in the cheap stuff.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

First Lieutenant Anthony I. Sylvester had not been General Mclnerney's aide for long. He was still on limited duty following hospitalization for injuries to his neck suffered in a bad arrested landing. But he had been around long enough to know that these two officers were somehow special to Mclnerney. He had never heard of General Pickering, but wondered if Colonel Stecker could be the near-legendary Colonel Jack (NMI) Stecker.

A moment later, Sylvester returned to Mclnerney's office with two bottles, one of scotch, the other of bourbon, the best available in the lower filing case in the office.

«I said the cheap stuff, Tony,» Mclnerney said. «I had the great misfortune to serve with these two in what used to be called The Great War—I was one of Sergeant Stecker's corporals, believe it or not. They wouldn't know good booze if they were drowning in it.»

My God, that is Colonel Jack (NMI) Stecker!

«And even then, Lieutenant,» Pickering said, «he was known for his peculiar sense of humor. That liquor will do very nicely, thank you.»

«Aye, aye, sir.»

«Lieutenant Sylvester—Tony—just came to me from Philadelphia,» Mclnerney said. «And to answer your question, yes, he knows Dick. I asked him, and he confirmed what I'd heard, Dick's doing all right.»

«You're Lieutenant Stecker's father, sir?» Lieutenant Sylvester asked.

Stecker nodded.

«We had therapy together,» Sylvester said.

«They do amazing things at Philadelphia,» Stecker said. «For a while…« He decided not to pursue that thought. «But now,» he continued, «thank God, Dick's walking around with only a cane.»

«He told me he'd been pretty badly banged up,» Sylvester said.

«Young Stecker and young Pickering were in VMF-229 on the 'Canal,» Mclnerney said. «So this is sort of a family gathering. With that in mind, Flem, should I tell Tony to pour himself a drink? Or is this visit official?»

Pickering looked uncomfortable. «I'd rather you decide later, Mac, how much Lieutenant Sylvester should know about what we're going to talk about,» he said finally.

«Okay, Tony. Out. Bar the door. Nobody but the Commandant.»

«Aye, aye, sir,» Lieutenant Sylvester said, and left the office.

«What the hell is going on?» Mclnerney asked.

«What I said. I need to pick your brains.»

«About what?»

«What follows is Top Secret,» Pickering said.

Mclnerney nodded. «Understood.»

«We're going to set up a weather station in the Gobi Desert,» Pickering said.

«Who is 'we'?»

«The OSS,» Pickering said.

«I saw that in the paper—I mean, you going over there. You too, Jack?»

«Jack is my liaison to the Corps,» Pickering said. «Unofficially.»

«When is Vandegrift going to take over? Any word on that?»

«He wants to stay with the First Marine Division until he gets it back in shape. Whenever he decides it is, he'll take over,» Stecker said.

«So you're going to have to wait awhile for your star?»

«If that ever happens,» Stecker said.

«It'll happen. Vandegrift told me it would,» Mclnerney said firmly, then looked at Pickering. «Okay, tell me about your Gobi Desert weather station. I heard the Army Air Corps was going to set one up in Russia. Same idea?»

«The Russians won't let the Air Corps in. Nimitz and Leahy want a weather station as soon as possible. Leahy gave the mission to the OSS, and Nimitz got Leahy to 'suggest' that I be given the job.»

«Which means Leahy and Nimitz think you're the guy who can do it,» Mclnerney said. «Proving once again that I was wrong when I told you you couldn't do the Corps any good.»

«You told me that because you believed it, Mac,» Pickering said. «And that's why I'm here. I want you to tell me what you believe, not what you think I'd like to hear.»

«Okay. I don't think you can do it. That blunt enough? The Gobi Desert is in the middle of nowhere, a long way from anything we control. How the hell are you going to put people in there? On camels?»

Stecker chuckled. «That's one of the options, Mac, but what Flem wants to ask you about is airplanes.»

«I don't need a map and a compass to measure the distance. I can tell you the Gobi Desert is beyond the range of any airplane in the inventory—Marine, Navy, or Air Corps. You didn't know that?»

«When you speak of range, you're talking round trips, right?» Pickering asked.

Mclnerney thought that over for a minute.

«A one-way mission, huh? Who are you going to find to fly it? More important, where will it go?»

«There's reliable information that a group of Americans is somewhere in the Gobi Desert, some of them Marines from the Legation Guard at Peking who didn't surrender. Most of these people are supposed to be retired from the Fourth Marines, the Yangtze River patrol, and the Fifteenth Infantry.»

«You're in contact with them?»

«Not reliably. We're working on that.»

«We're going to send decent radios to them, Mac,» Stecker said. «On camels.»

Mclnerney's eyebrows rose in either surprise or disbelief.

«We also have somebody who's been all over the Gobi desert,» Pickering said. «A gunnery sergeant who used to be in the Fourth in Shanghai. He tells us that a good deal of the Gobi Desert is not sand but flat rock. In other words, an airplane could land there.»

«Erring on the side of caution, how about 'crash-land'?» Mclnerney said sarcastically.

«Okay. Crash-land,» Pickering said. «As long as it delivers the weather station equipment in workable condition, we can write off the airplane.»

«If it gets that far, and I have serious doubts that it will, this weather station would be secret, right?»

«It would be better if it were,» Pickering said.

«If you sent an airplane on a one-way mission, the wreckage would stick out like a sore thumb in the desert,» Mclnerney said.

«Yeah, I guess it would,» Pickering said. «Let's fly an airplane there first, and then worry about concealing the wreckage. What should we use for an airplane?»

«That would depend on where the airplane is going to fly