VIA: SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA
TO: COMMANDING OFFICER
USMC SPECIAL DETACHMENT 14
1. ON RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE SGT JOHN M. MOORE IS DETACHED FROM USMC SPECDET 14, ATTACHED
HQ FIRST MARDIV, AND WILL PROCEED THERETO IMMEDIATELY.
2. YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO INFORM SHSWPA THAT AN URGENT REQUIREMENT FOR JAPANESE-LANGUAGE
LINGUISTS EXISTS WITHIN FIRST MARDIV AND REQUEST OF THEM HIGHEST POSSIBLE AIR TRANSPORTATION PRIORITY FOR SERGEANT MOORE.
BY DIRECTION: H.W.T.FORREST, BRIGGEN USMC
ACOFSG-2
URGENT
CONFIDENTIAL
HQ USMC WASHDC 2207 15 AUG42
TO: LT COL GEORGE F. DAILEY
CINCPAC LIAISON OFFICER
SUPREME HEADQUARTERS SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA
INFORMATION: CINCPAC ATTN: CHIEF OF STAFF
COMMANDING GENERAL 1ST MARINE DIVISION
1. ON RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE YOU ARE DETACHED FROM PRESENT DUTIES AND WILL PROCEED
IMMEDIATELY TO HEADQUARTERS FIRST MARDIV FOR DUTY AS ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF, G-2. THIS MESSAGE CONSTITUTES AUTHORITY FOR AAAA AIR TRAVEL PRIORITY.
2. YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO INFORM SHSWPA THAT THE EXIGENCIES OF THE SERVICE MAKE THIS
TRANSFER NECESSARY AND THAT A LIAISON OFFICER TO REPLACE YOU WILL BE ASSIGNED AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE TIME.
3. IF POSSIBLE, AND TO THE DEGREE THAT IT WILL NOT REPEAT NOT INTERFERE WITH YOUR
MOVEMENT TO FIRST MARDIV, YOU ARE DIRECTED TO FACILITATE THE MOVEMENT TO FIRST MAR DIV OF SERGEANT J.M.MOORE, PRESENTLY ASSIGNED USMC SPECIAL DETACHMENT 14.
BY DIRECTION OF BRIG GEN FORREST:
F L RICKABEE, LTCOL, USMC
"I called Townesville," Moore said. "They either don't know where Banning is, or he doesn't want it known."
"I wonder why Rickabee signed the one to Dailey?" Ellen said, thoughtfully, "and General Forrest the one about you? And the one about you is classified Secret, and the one to Dailey only Confidential?"
"What the hell difference does it make?" Moore asked, but he took the onion skins from her hand. "Probably because everything about the detachment is classified Secret but the name," he said.
"Obviously, you don't want to go," Ellen said. "Is that why you tried to call Banning?"
"I can't go, for Christ's sake," Moore said. "I'm privy to MAGIC."
"Not officially," she thought out loud.
"That's not the point," he said. "I know about MAGIC."
"The point is, they-Rickabee and Forrest-don't know that. That's why they're sending you to Guadalcanal."
She thought: And if it comes out that Fleming Pickering compromised MAGIC by letting you in on it, he's in trouble. I don't want to see that happen.
Banning is supposed to be clever. Let him see if he can find a solution to this.
"I think the thing for you to do is make yourself scarce until we can get in contact with Major Banning," Ellen said.
"Too late. That was the first thing I thought of. But Dailey's caught me."
"How?"
"His orders didn't have to go through crypto. So as soon as they came in, the message center gave them to him... Christ, that's why they classified them Confidential, so they wouldn't have to go through crypto..."
Ellen thought about that quickly, and said, "Yes. Probably."
"I had just run the radio to Banning through the crypto machine and was trying to get him on the telephone, when an MP came to the cell and said I had a visitor at Outer Security."
"Dailey?"
"Yeah. Pumped full of his own importance. You could practically hear the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps playing the Marine Hymn in the background."
She smiled, and their eyes met.
I'm going to miss him.
"What did he say?" she asked.
" 'Sergeant Moore,' Moore quoted sonorously, `I have been ordered to Guadalcanal by Headquarters, USMC. You are to accompany me. We leave immediately.' "
She smiled at him again.