The officer standing somewhat uncomfortably before Lieutenant Colonel Dawkins's desk had performed well in the Battle of Midway. His name was Captain Thomas J. Wood. He was young and newly promoted; he was wearing a fur-collared flight jacket and a collar clasp; and he was standing with his hands clasped together behind him in the small of his back.
But there was something about him-an impetuosity, an indecisiveness-that Dawkins did not like. Dawkins believed that a good officer made decisions slowly, and then stuck by them.
"It's time to fish or cut bait, Tom," Dawkins said, not unkindly.
"Uh... Sir, I decline to press charges."
"So be it," Dawkins said.
"Sir, I saw what I saw, but I can't..."
"That will be all, Captain," Dawkins said. There was now a hint of ice in his voice. "You are dismissed."
The captain came to attention.
"Yes, Sir," he said. He did an about-face and started to march out of the room.
"Ask Major Lorenz to come in, please," Dawkins called to him.
"Aye, aye, Sir."
Major Karl J. Lorenz, who was the Executive Officer of MAG-21, walked into the office. Lorenz looked, Dawkins often thought, like a recruiting poster for the Waffen-SS-in other words like an Aryan of impeccable Nordic-Teutonic heritage, blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, and lithely muscular.
"You wanted me, Skipper?" he asked.
"Close the door, please," Dawkins said.
Lorenz did so.
"After some thought," Dawkins said, "he declined to press charges."
"Huh," Lorenz said thoughtfully. "Probably a good thing, Sir. It would have been hard to make those charges stick."
"Not a good thing, Karl," Dawkins said.
"You think we should have tried him?" Lorenz asked, surprised.
"I think before young Captain Wood started running off at the mouth, he should have made up his mind whether or not he was prepared to carry an accusation of cowardice through."
"Oh," Lorenz replied. "Yes, Sir, I see what you mean."
"He doesn't really know any more than I do-and I wasn't there-if Dunn ran away from that fight or not. Cowardice in the face of the enemy... that's the worst accusation that can be made."
"I presume you told Wood that?"
"No. I didn't want to influence his decision, one way or the other."
"Can I ask what you think?"
"I already told you, I don't think Wood-really knows. Or, if you were asking, do I think Dunn ran?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I think we're going to have to give him the benefit of the doubt. He says he doesn't remember when, or under what conditions, he broke off the engagement. I don't think he does. He lost his windscreen and he was wounded. The question is, when did that happen? Before or after he started back to Midway? He didn't run before the fight. He got a Kate. There's no question about that. And then he got a Zero. Again, confirmed beyond any question. And then the next time he's seen, he's on his way back to Midway. Close enough to be recognized beyond any doubt, but too far away for anyone to be able to state with certainty that he had, or had not, already lost his windshield."
"I realize, Sir, I haven't been asked, but in those circumstances I would be prone to give him the benefit of the doubt."
"Ascribing Wood's charges to post-combat hysteria?"
"Something like that, Sir."
"Unfortunately, although he elected not to pursue them, Wood's charges are going to be remembered by a lot of people for a long time-made worse in the retelling, of course."
"What are you going to do with Dunn, Sir?" Lorenz said, after a moment.
"You and I are about to visit Lieutenant Dunn in the hospital; there I will express my pleasure that he will be discharged tomorrow, present him with his Purple Heart Medal, and inform him that he is now assigned to VMF-229. I think he will understand why it would be awkward for him to return to VMF-211. I hope he doesn't ask me for an explanation."
"Two-twenty-nine, Sir?" Lorenz asked, surprised.
Dawkins nodded. 'Two-twenty-nine."
"Sir, we haven't activated VMF-229 yet."
"It is activated," Dawkins said and paused to look at his watch, "as of 1300 hours today. Its personnel consists of one officer, absent in hospital, and one officer, en route, not yet joined. See that the order is typed up."
"Who did you decide to give it to, Sir?"
"A good Marine officer, Major," Dawkins said, "is always willing to carefully consider the recommendations of his superiors."
"Sir?"
Dawkins chuckled, opened a desk drawer, and handed Lorenz a sheet of yellow teletype paper.
ROUTINE
CONFIDENTIAL
HQ USMC WASH DC 1445 14JUNE42
COMMANDING OFFICER
MAG-21 EWA TH
CAPTAIN CHARLES M. GALLOWAY, USMCR, HAVING REPORTED UPON ACTIVE DUTY, HAS BEEN ORDERED TO PROCEED BY AIR TO EWA FOR DUTY AS COMMANDING OFFICER VMF-229. WHILE THIS ASSIGNMENT HAS THE CONCURRENCE OF THE COMMANDANT AND THE UNDERSIGNED YOU ARE OF COURSE AT LIBERTY TO ASSIGN THIS OFFICER TO ANY DUTIES YOU WISH. D.G. MCINERNEY BRIG GEN USMC
"I will be goddamned," Lorenz said.
"I thought you might find that surprising," Dawkins said.
"The last time I saw Charley, I thought they were going to crucify him," Lorenz said. "And I mean, literally. What the hell does that 'concurrence of the Commandant' mean?"
"I think it means that Doc Mclnerney went right to the Commandant. They had Charley flying a VIP R4D around out of Quantico." The R4D was the Navy designation of the twin-engine Douglas transport aircraft called DC-3 by the manufacturer and C-47 by the Army Air Corps. "What I think is that Mclnerney went to the Commandant and told him how desperate we are for people with more than two hundred hours in a cockpit. As furious as the Navy was with him, nobody but the Commandant would dare to commission him."
"The last I heard, they wouldn't let him fly-hell, even taxi-anything. He was still a sergeant, and they had him working as a mechanic on the flight line at Quantico. But this sort of restores my faith in the Marine Corps," Lorenz said.
" 'Restores' your faith, Major?" Dawkins asked wryly. "That suggests it was lost."
"Well, let's say, the way the brass let the Navy crap all over Charley, that it wavered a little."
"Oh ye of little faith!" Dawkins mocked, gently.
"When's he due in?"
Dawkins shrugged helplessly. "The TWX didn't say," he said. "And knowing Charley as well as I do, that means one of two things: He will either rush over here as fast as humanly possible, or else he will still be trying to find a slow ship the day the war's over."
Lorenz laughed.
Dawkins stood up.
"Let's go pin the Purple Heart on Lieutenant Dunn," he said.
(Two)
U.S. NAVAL HOSPITAL
PEARL HARBOR, OAHU ISLAND, TERRITORY OF HAWAII
1505 HOURS 19 JUNE 1942