“Let me at the typewriter,” Pickering said. “It’s time for me to tell Washington how to run the war… yet again.”
Pluto stood up.
“And afterward, you and I will go have a drink, or three, at the Navy Mess. I need one.”
=TOP SECRET=
Eyes Only The Secretary of the Navy
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND TRANSMITTAL TO SECNAV
Brisbane, Australia
Monday 2 November 1942
Dear Frank:
I think I have gotten to the bottom of why El Supremo shows no interest at all in this fellow Fertig in the Philippines. I’m not going to waste your time telling you about it, but it’s nonsense. Admiral Leahy is right, there is potential there, and I think Rickabee’s people should be involved from the start.
If he encounters trouble doing what I think he has to do, I’m going to tell Rickabee to come to you. I suspect he will encounter the same kind of parochial nonsense among the professional warriors in Washington that I have encountered here.
I have been butting my head-vis-a-vis Donovan’s people-against the Palace wall so often and so long that it’s bloody; and I’m getting nowhere. Is there any chance I can stop? It would take a direct order from Roosevelt to make him change his mind. And then he and his people will drag their feet, at which, you may have noticed, they’re very good.
More soon.
Best regards,
Fleming Pickering, Brigadier General, USMCR
=TOP SECRET=
=TOP SECRET=
Eyes Only Captain David Haughton, USN
Office of the Secretary of the Navy
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
ORIGINAL TO BE DESTROYED AFTER ENCRYPTION AND
TRANSMITTAL TO SECNAV
FOR COLONEL F. L. RICKABEE
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS
Brisbane, Australia
Monday 2 November 1942
Dear Fritz:
Don’t tell him yet, or even Banning, but I want you to try to find a suitable replacement for McCoy for the Mongolian Operation.
And put him and Banning to work finding out about Guerrilla operations. I believe that this Wendell Fertig in the Philippines is probably going to turn out to be more useful than anybody in the Palace here is willing to even consider. I suspect that the same attitude vis-a-vis unconventional warriors and the competence of reserve officers is prevalent in Washington.
This idea has Leahy’s backing, so if you encounter any trouble, feel free to go to Frank Knox.
If you can do it without making any waves, please (a) see if you can find out where my son is being assigned after the war bond tour and (b) tell me if telling his mother would really endanger the entire war effort. She went to see Jack NMI Stecker’s boy at the hospital in Pearl and is in pretty bad shape.
Koffler is getting married next week, for a little good news. I decided I had the authority to make him a staff sergeant and have done so.
Regards,
Fleming Pickering, Brigadier General, USMCR
=TOP SECRET=
[FOUR]
Live Oaks Plantation
Baldwin County, Alabama
0700 Hours 2 November 1942
First Lieutenants William C. Dunn and Malcolm S. Pickering were waiting on the porch when the Marine-green Plymouth drove up. They were freshly showered and shaved, their uniforms bore a perfect press, and their shoes were brilliantly shined. The glasses of orange juice in their hands contained no intoxicants.
A 1940 Buick Limited sedan, newly polished, sat in the driveway, with its twin spare tires installed in their own gleaming shrouds in the front fenders.
“He’s got somebody with him,” Lieutenant Pickering observed.
“I hope he forgets the fucking hats,” Lieutenant Dunn replied.
He was to be disappointed. The individual in the passenger seat leapt out the moment the Plymouth stopped moving and opened the rear door for Captain Carstairs. He emerged holding a Cap, Brimmed, Officers, in each hand.
“I would rather face a thousand deaths,” Bill Dunn said, getting to his feet and placing his glass on the wide top of the railing.
“You’d rather what?”
“That is what General Lee said when he went to meet Grant at Appomattox Court House. ‘I would rather face a thousand deaths, but now I must go…’ ”
“The way I heard it, what he said was, ‘Win a few, lose a few, it all evens up in the end.’ “