There was a headline over the photograph:
PACIFIC HEROES COMPLETE WAR BOND TOUR;
'BACK TO THE JOB WE HAVE TO DO' SAYS
PURPLE HEART HERO OF GUADALCANAL.
"So?" Banning asked.
"Take a good look at the hero," Session said. "Macklin! I'll be damned." "I thought that would amuse you," Sessions said. "Nauseate me is the word you're looking for," Banning said. And then something else caught his eye.
NAVY SECRETARY KNOX 'EXPECTS
GUADALCANAL CAN BE HELD'
By Charles E. Whaley
Washington Oct 16 - Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, at a press conference this afternoon, responded with guarded optimism to the question, by this reporter, "Can Guadalcanal be held?"
"I certainly hope so," the Secretary said. "I expect so. I don't want to make any predictions, but every man out there, ashore or afloat, will give a good account of himself."
The response called to mind the classic phrase, "England expects every man to do his duty," but could not be interpreted as more than a hope on Knox's part.
One highly placed and knowledgeable military expert has, on condition of anonymity, told this reporter that the "odds that we can stay on Guadalcanal are no better than fifty-fifty." He cited the great difficulty of supplying the twenty-odd thousand Marines on the island, which is not only far from U.S. Bases, but very close to Japanese bases from which air and naval attacks can be launched on both the troops and on the vessels and aircraft attempting to provide them with war materiel.
"What are you reading?"
"Some expert, who doesn't want his name mentioned, told the Star it's fifty-fifty whether we can stay on Guadalcanal."
"You think he's wrong?"
"It's pretty bad over there, Ed," Banning said. "I don't even think it's fifty-fifty. The night before we left, they were shelling Henderson Field with fourteen-inch battleship cannon. Nobody can stand up under that for long."
"Is that what you're going to tell Secretary Knox?"
"I'm going to tell him what Vandegrift thinks."
"Which is?"
"That unless he gets reinforced, and unless they can somehow keep the Japs from reinforcing, we're going to get pushed back into the sea."
"Jesus."
Captain Sessions unlocked the door, removed the key, and then handed it to Banning. After that, he pushed open the door and motioned him to go in.
"I realize that this isn't what you're accustomed to, but I understand roughing it once in a while is good for the soul."
"I just hope there's hot water," Banning said, and then, suddenly formaclass="underline" "Good evening, Sir."
"Hello, Banning, how are you?" a slight, pale-skinned man in an ill-fitting suit said. He was Colonel F. L. Rickabee, of the Office of Management Analysis.
Rickabee was standing in a corridor that led to a large sitting room furnished with what looked like museum-quality antiques. Rickabee waved him toward it. Banning saw a Navy captain and wondered who he was.
"Gentlemen," Rickabee announced, "Major Edward F. Banning."
Banning nodded at the Navy captain. A stocky man in a superbly tailored blue pin-stripe suit walked up, removing his pince-nez as he did, and offered his hand.
"I'm Frank Knox, Major. How do you do?"
"Mr. Secretary."
"Do you know Captain Haughton, my assistant?" Knox asked.
No. But I've seen the name enough. "By Direction of the Secretary of the Navy. David Haughton, Captain, USN, Administrative Assistant. "
"No, Sir."
"How are you, Major?" Haughton said. "I'm glad to finally meet you."
"My name is Fowler, Major," another superbly tailored older man said. "Welcome home."
"Senator," Banning said. "How do you do, Sir?"
"Right now, not very well, and from what Fleming Pickering said on the phone, what you have to tell us isn't going to make us feel any better."
"Major, you look like you could use a drink," Frank Knox said. "What'll you have?"
"No, thank you, Sir."
"Don't argue with me, I'm the Secretary of the Navy."
"Then scotch, Sir, a weak one."
"Make him a stiff scotch, Rickabee," Knox ordered, "while your captain loads the projector."
"Yes, Sir, Mr. Secretary," Colonel Rickabee said, smiling.
"Sir, I had hoped to have a little time to organize my thoughts," Banning said.
"Fleming Pickering told me I should tell you to deliver the same briefing you gave him in Hawaii," Senator Fowler said. "And I thought the best place to do that would be here, rather than in Mr. Knox's office or mine."
Banning looked uncomfortable.
"You're worried about classified material?" Captain Haughton asked. "Specifically, about MAGIC?"
"Yes, Sir."
Haughton looked significantly at Secretary Knox, very obviously putting the question to him.
"Senator Fowler does not have a MAGIC clearance," Knox said. "That's so the President and I can look any senator in the eye and tell him that no senator has a MAGIC clearance. But I can't think of a secret this country has I wouldn't trust Senator Fowler with. Do you take my meaning, Major?"
"Yes, Sir."
Rickabee handed Banning a drink.
Banning set it down and took the photographs and the two cans of 16mm film from his bag. He handed the film cans to Sessions and the envelope of photographs to Secretary Knox.
"We brought these with us when we left Guadalcanal. The photographer handed them to Major Dillon literally at the last minute, as we were preparing to take off."
"My God!" Frank Knox said after examining the first two photographs. "This is Henderson Field?"
"Yes, Sir."
"It looks like no-man's-land in France in 1917."
"General Vandegrift believes the fire came from fourteen-inch Naval cannon. Battleships, Sir."
"I saw the After-Action Report," Knox said. It was not a reprimand.
Banning took a sip of his drink. He looked across the room to where Sessions was threading the motion picture film into a projector. A screen on a tripod was already in place.
"Anytime you're ready, Sir," Sessions reported.
"OK, Major," Frank Knox said. "Let's have it."
"Just one or two questions, Major, if I may," Frank Knox said after Banning's briefing was finished.
"Yes, Sir."
"You're pretty sure of these Japanese unit designations, I gather? And the identities of the Jap commanders?"
"Yes, Sir."
"They conform to what we've been getting from the MAGIC people in Hawaii. But there is a difference between your analyses of Japanese intercepts and theirs. Subtle sometimes, but significant, I think. Why is that?"
"Sir, I don't think two analysts ever completely agree...."
"Just who are your analysts?"
"Primarily two, Sir. Both junior officers, but rather unusual junior officers. One of them is a Korean-American from Hawaii. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT, and was first involved as a cryptographer-a code-breaker, not an analyst. He placed... a different interpretation... on certain intercepts than did Hawaii; and more often than not, time proved him correct. So he was made an analyst. The second spent most of his life in Japan. His parents are missionaries. He speaks the language as well as he speaks English, and studied at the University of Tokyo. You understand, Sir, the importance of understanding the Japanese culture, the Japanese mind-set..."