“Get out of my way!”
“Whoa, there, buddy!” Tombstone felt a flash of anger at Bayerly’s
rebuff, but he contained it. Something was bothering Made It and now
was the time to have it out. “You’ve been running ballistic for weeks
now, and today you just missed buying the farm! What the hell is with
you anyway?”
Bayerly scowled. “Forget it, Magruder. Your fancy medal doesn’t cut it
with me.” He turned and continued down the passageway.
“Shee-it,” Dixie said wonderingly. “What gives with Made It,
Tombstone?”
“I don’t know, Dixie.” Worse, he didn’t know how to find out. The
problem was something personal, but what? Bayerly’s mention of the
medal suggested jealousy, but such petty motivation seemed totally out
of keeping with the man’s solid record for professionalism. Tombstone
watched Bayerly’s stocky form retreating down the seemingly endless
succession of cross-passageway frames and wondered how he could clear
the air between them.
Probably, what Bayerly needed most was time. Tombstone decided to
approach him again, but later, after things had settled out a bit. Maybe
after the Jefferson reached Thailand …
CHAPTER 4
1900 Hours, 14 January
CVIC, U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson
“Gooooood evening, Jeffersons!” Master Chief Raymond C. Buckley, Jr.,
beamed into the camera and delivered his best Pat Sajak imitation from
the lectern set up as his number-one prop in the television broadcast he
made twice each day to the carrier’s crew. The room, called
CVIC–pronounced “civic”–for Carrier (CV) Information Center, also
served as one of Jefferson’s television studios. Banks of lights glared
at him from three directions as he launched into the familiar patter.
“This is the Chief of the Boat, coming’ at you with another edition of
What’s the Gouge …”
The master chief of a modern supercarrier was the one direct link
between the enlisted crew and the ship’s officers, known by all,
respected by all, likely to turn up almost anywhere within Jefferson’s
two-thousand-plus compartments and passageways with a friendly word or
good advice. Captain James Fitzgerald, the ship’s Commanding Officer,
and Captain Vincent C.
Glover, the ship’s Exec, depended on Buckley to know how the crew was
feeling, could count on him for an honest assessment of a man up for
captain’s mast on some minor charge … or for word about unpleasant
racial tensions in the engine room. On the other side of the tracks,
enlisted men depended on Buckley for the straight word, the “gouge” as
it was known, on what was happening in a world where individual crewmen
had very little control over their own lives and destinies.
More often than not, the sheer, overwhelming uncertainty of a deployment
at sea was the worst part of the cruise. Would there be liberty at the
next port? Would families be allowed to visit next time the ship was
in Japan?
That was one of the reasons for What’s the Gouge. The ship’s
closed-circuit television programming was one of the best ways there was
to keep the crew informed.
“There’s been a lot of wild scuttlebutt going around about our next port
of call,” Buckley said, leaning against the lectern and staring into the
camera’s eye. “And there have been even wilder stories going around
about just what it is we’re supposed to do there!”
The red light on the camera winked off as a second camera picked up the
scene. A TV monitor to one side faded from an image of Buckley’s
smiling face to a map of Southeast Asia.
“You all know where we’re bound for, of course,” Buckley said. “Some of
you old hands out there know our next port of call real well. Bangkok!”
He grinned as he heard a distant, low-voiced murmur, almost a rumble
which echoed down Jefferson’s steel passageways. A few hundred men were
cheering and whooping in the TV lounge a deck down and several frames
aft …
and that cheer was being repeated throughout the ship. Bangkok had a
certain reputation …
“The rumors have been flying though as to whether or not there’s going
to be liberty in Thailand. The insurrection in the northern part of the
country has been getting worse, and in the past few weeks there have
been student riots and uprisings in Bangkok itself.