Bill Dunn, who was visibly uncomfortable and clearly would have preferred to be anywhere but where he found himself, walked to the lectern.
Well, I’m sorry about that, Billy Boy. But better thee than me. And they don’t want to hear from me. All I have is the lousy DFC. This ‘II teach you to be a fucking Navy Cross hero!
As Dunn stepped before the microphone, he was racked by a coughing fit. This lasted a good thirty seconds. When he finally spoke, his voice was faint, harsh, and strained.
“Gentlemen,” he said. “It’s good to be back at P’Cola. And I want to say that I know the only reason I am back is because of my instructor pilots when I went through here. As you can hear, I’m in no shape to talk much. But Lieutenant Pickering would, I am sure, be happy to say a few words and answer whatever questions you might have. I don’t mind saying that he is the finest pilot I have seen, except for Captain Charles M. Galloway, our squadron commander. Would you come up here, please, Mr. Pickering?”
Chapter Fourteen
[ONE]
Corey Field
Escambia County, Florida
1025 Hours 2 November 1942
It turned out that First Lieutenant Malcolm S. Pickering, USMCR, was wrong about the tent to the side of the bleachers: It wasn’t there to provide the Admiral with a convenient place to void his bladder. Instead, in keeping with the general theatricality of the whole affair, it was a dressing room for the actors involved in the melodrama being presented for the fledgling birdmen. When he went inside, he saw that it contained three chairs, a pipe-iron rack from which hung three flight suits, and a full-length mirror.
Two of the Suits, Flying, Winter, were brand new; each of these had a leather patch over the breast, on which was stamped in gold representations of Naval Aviator’s wings. Above one of the wings, Pickering’s name was sewn, while Dunn’s name was sewn above the other. The other suit belonged to Lieutenant Colonel J. Danner Porter, USMC. It was not quite new, but it was spotless and holeless and shipshape.
They were accompanied into the tent by Captain J. J. O’Fallon, USMC. Captain O’Fallon, a heavyset redhead, was the squadron commander of VMF-289, which was based at the Memphis Naval Air Station, Millington, Tennessee. In exchange for flying four of his Wildcats (two of them suitably painted up for the occasion with meatballs and Pickering’s and Dunn’s names) from Memphis in the early-morning hours, Captain O’Fallon was going to be granted the great privilege of joining Colonel Porter in engaging the two aces in mock aerial combat.
Pick’s first thought when he saw the brand-new flight suits was to wonder if there were any more around here, and if so, how he could steal them. His fellow pilots of VMF-221 had been almost pathetically grateful when he returned with the boxes of RAAF flight suits he stole at Port Moresby, New Guinea; theirs were literally in tatters.
But then he realized that VMF-221 was no longer operating out of Henderson Field, and that he was at NAS Pensacola, where there were more than adequate supplies of flight suits and everything else. And after that, he recalled that VMF-221 was no longer his squadron… and that for all practical purposes it no longer existed.
Colonel Porter already had the script for the aerial melodrama firmly set in his mind: First he and O’Fallon would fly off somewhere out of sight. And then they’d attack Corey Field (representing Henderson Field) in a strafing maneuver. Dunn and Pickering, on patrol, would defend Corey/Henderson.
Since it would be impossible to actually shoot down Colonel Porter and Captain O’Fallon, they would next climb to 5,000 feet and get in a dogfight. (Pickering realized that he and Dunn would be allowed to win. How would it look to the student pilots if two heroic aces lost?)
In order to make this bit of theater possible, the Wildcats had been equipped with “gun cameras.” These were 16mm motion picture cameras mounted in the wings. When the gun trigger was pulled, the camera operated. Colonel Porter’s intention was to have the gun camera film developed immediately so that it could be shown to everybody after lunch.