"I wasn't aware of this, Sir."
"Few people are," MacArthur said. "When I arrived here-you were here, Fleming; you know this-I learned that I had been misled vis-a-vis the materiel and troops that would be available to me here. But I kept my word to Sharp. I drew down on the limited materiel here and instituted resupply voy-ages to Mindanao. Unfortunately, very little got through to him: two small ships containing artillery and small-arms ammunition, and not much else. And then, when George Marshall diverted to Hawaii supply ships already on the high seas to Australia, on the grounds the risk of their loss was too great to bear, I had to terminate my efforts to resupply General Sharp's Mindanao Force-with the greatest reluctance."
"I understand."
"And then, of course, the question became moot. Bataan fell, and then Corregidor. General Homma bluffed General Wainwright. He would not agree to Wainwright's surrender unless Wainwright surrendered all U.S. troops in the Philippines. Wainwright had no authority to do that, but he thought he did. And, unfortunately, so did General Sharp. As soon as I heard what Wainwright had done, I radioed General Sharp to ignore any orders from Wainwright. But by then, it was too late. General Sharp, as a good soldier, obeyed what he thought were his orders to surrender. As a good officer, he destroyed all the war materiel under his command before hoisting the white flag. All the materiel, Fleming, which could, should, have been used to mount a meaningful irregular operation against the Japanese. And the officers who would have commanded such operations, God help them, entered captivity."
MacArthur paused, took the thin black cigar from the ashtray, relit it care-fully, and then met Pickering's eyes.
"At that point I was forced to conclude that the mounting of effective ir-regular, guerrilla operations against the Japanese in the Philippine Islands was militarily impossible. I so informed General Marshall."
"Yes, Sir."
"You do understand the problem here, don't you, Fleming?"
"I'm not sure I take your meaning, Sir."
"Faith!" MacArthur said dramatically. "Faith! At the moment, the Fili-pino people have not lost their faith in me, in the United States. They believe I will return. But realistically, that faith is not very deep. It would disappear if we suffered another humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese. If, for ex-ample, people flocked to this Fertig chap in the belief that he was in fact a general officer of the United States Army. And then, for example, he were to be captured by the Japanese and marched in chains through the streets of Ma-nila and executed as a common criminal. That would be playing right into the hands of the Japanese!"
"Yes, Sir."
Abruptly, MacArthur asked: "What are you going to do, Fleming, about this obnoxious intrusion of the camel's nose into your tent?"
The question surprised Pickering.
"Obey my orders, Sir. See that these people get into Mindanao and then get out."
MacArthur nodded his head solemnly.
"This headquarters, of course, and myself personally, stands ready of course to render any assistance we can to assist you in the accomplishment of your mission."
"I can't think of anything I need right now, Sir."
MacArthur looked at him for a long moment, then nodded his head.
"If something comes up, let me know."
"Thank you, General."
"Again, Fleming, I deeply appreciate your loyalty to me. But if there's nothing else?"
"No, Sir. Thank you for seeing me, Sir."
[THREE]
Naval Air Transport Command Passenger Terminal
United States Naval Base
Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii
1430 Hours 21 November 1942
The plump, bland-faced officer-his desk plate identified him as Lieutenant (j.g.) L. B. Cavanaugh, USNR, Officer in Charge Passenger Seat Assign-ment-was simply a typical bureaucrat who had put on a uniform for the dura-tion plus six months, Major James C. Brownlee III, USMCR, thought impatiently.
It was not at all hard for Brownlee to picture Lieutenant Cavanaugh stand-ing behind the Pan American Airways ticket counter in Miami offering the same argument he was offering here:
"I'm sorry, I don't make the regulations, and I have no authority to change them."
Lieutenant Cavanaugh had produced the rules with all the self-righteous assurance of Moses presenting the Ten Commandments on his descent from Mount Sinai: Here they are, God has spoken, there is no room for argument.
U.S. Navy Base, Pearl Harbor, T.H., Circular 42-2, "Standing Operating Procedure, Naval Air Transport Command Passenger Terminal," consisted of sixteen mimeographed pages, each protected by a celluloid envelope in a blue loose-leaf binder. From its battered condition, Brownlee concluded that the Lieutenant had found it necessary to produce the regulations frequently.
Section Six, "Conflicting Priorities," took two single-spaced typewritten pages to deal with the inevitability of two or more people showing up at the same time with on-the-face-of-it similar priorities to claim one seat.
The point was that priorities were really seldom absolutely identical, al-though Lieutenant (j.g.) Cavanaugh was willing to grant that the priorities of Major Brownlee and Captains Sessions and Macklin were more nearly identi-cal than was usually the case.
All three carried the highest-AAAAAA-priority classification. Some time ago, Lieutenant (j.g.) Cavanaugh said, an AAAAAA priority would al-most have guaranteed a seat on any plane going anywhere. But that had changed, as various headquarters realized the only way to be sure their travel-ers got on airplanes with the least possible delay was to issue them the highest priority possible.
In consequence of that, authority to issue AAAAAA air-travel priorities had been removed from lesser headquarters. At the present time, only Com-mander, U.S. Naval Activities, West Coast (COMNAVACTWEST); Com-mander, U.S. Naval Activities, East Coast (COMNAVACTEAST); CINCPAC (Commander-in-Chief, Pacific); and SWPOA (Supreme Headquarters, South West Pacific Ocean Area) had the authority to issue AAAAAA air-travel pri-orities. Plus, of course, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff and the Chief of Naval Operations.
Identical AAAAAA priorities issued by the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Chief of Naval Operations had priority over AAAAAA priorities issued by lesser headquarters.
But inasmuch as the AAAAAA priorities issued to Major Brownlee and Captains Sessions and Macklin had all been issued by the Chief of Naval Oper-ations, that was no help in determining who would occupy the one seat avail-able on the Coronado departing Pearl Harbor at 1615 hours for Supreme Headquarters, SWPOA, Brisbane, Australia.
The next selection criteria, given identical AAAAAA priorities issued by the same-or equal-level-headquarters, was the date and time of the issue. And this was the deciding factor here, Lieutenant (j.g.) Cavanaugh announced. Inasmuch as the AAAAAA priority issued to Captain Sessions was dated four days prior to the AAAAAA priorities issued to Major Brownlee and Captain Macklin, Captain Sessions was thus entitled to the seat.
Lieutenant (j.g.) Cavanaugh was deaf to Major Brownlee's argument that the three officers were all on the same mission, that he was by virtue of his rank the commanding officer, and thus had the authority to determine which of the three would travel first, with the others to follow.