"Sir," the crew chief said, "Major Finch wants you to come forward."
"OK," the young Captain said, stretching and then getting to his feet.
He followed the crew chief back up the cabin to the cockpit door. The crew chief opened the door, held it for the Captain, and then motioned him to go first.
The Captain went as far forward as he could go, then squatted down, placing his face level with the Major's in the pilot's seat.
"You wanted to see me, Sir?"
"Oh, I got curious. I sort of expected you would come here on your own to say thank you."
"I am surprised the Major has forgotten what he learned in Gooneybird transition: `Unauthorized visitors to the cockpit are to be discouraged." The Major laughed.
"Speaking of unauthorized, Charley, how much trouble can I expect to get in for giving you this ride?"
"None, Sir. I'm still assigned to the squadron. I'm just going home."
"Why does that sound too simple?" the Major asked. He looked at the copilot, a young first lieutenant. "Mr. Geller, say hello to Captain Charley Galloway, of fame and legend."
"How do you do, Sir?" Lieutenant Geller said, smiling and offering his hand.
"You may have noticed, Mr. Geller, what a superb R4D pilot I am..."
"Yes, Sir, Major Finch, Sir, I have noticed that, Sir," Lieutenant Geller said.
"The reason is that my IP was Charley here."
"At Fort Benning," Galloway said, smiling, remembering.
"We drove the Air Corps nuts," Finch said. "Here I was, a brand-new major, and Sergeant Galloway was teaching me and ten other Marine officers-how to fly one of these. The Army doesn't have any flying sergeants." Lieutenant Geller dutifully laughed.
"I think maybe I should have busted my check ride," Finch said. "Then maybe I would be flying fighters instead of this."
"But tonight you will be back on Espiritu Santo," Galloway said, "drinking whiskey with nurses and going to bed in a cot with real sheets."
"I understand creature comforts are a little short at Henderson," Finch said.
"You haven't been there?" Galloway asked, surprised.
"This is my first trip."
"Creature comforts are a little short at Henderson," Galloway said. "Let me give you a little protocol: Nice transient copilots, Mr. Geller, pump their own fuel out of the barrels into the tanks."
"No ground crews?" Finch asked.
"And no fuel trucks. What gas there is comes in on High Speed Transports..."
"What's a High Speed Transport?" Geller asked.
"A World War One destroyer with half its boilers removed and converted to troop space," Galloway explained. "High Speed only in the sense that they're faster than troop transports.
"Anyway, gas comes in fifty-five-gallon barrels lashed to the decks. The Navy either loads them into landing barges, or, it' time is short, throws them over the side-they float, You know-and then the Marines take over-getting it to shore, off the barges and to the field. The heat and humidity are really nasty. You don't have to move many fifty-five-gallon barrels of, Av-Gas very far before your ass is dragging. So please, Mr. Geller, don't stand around with your finger up your ass watching somebody else fuel this thing up."
"No, Sir," Geller said.
"How come there's no Navy shore parties to handle supplies?" Finch asked.
"You've been in The Corps more than three weeks, Jack," Galloway said. "You should know that the Navy doesn't give The Corps one goddamn thing it doesn't have to."
"That sounds a little bitter, Charley," Finch said. There was just a hint of disapproval in his voice.
"Sailors I get along with pretty well," Galloway said. "It's the Navy I have problems with." Finch chuckled, then asked, "Are you going to tell me why you needed this off-the-manifest ride to Henderson?"
"Because some Navy two-striper on Espiritu decided that I should get back to Guadalcanal on one of those High Speed Transports."
"What's wrong with that?"
"I get seasick," Galloway said.
"Bullshit."
"My executive officer is a brand-new first lieutenant with maybe 350 hours' total time. And he's one of my more experienced pilots."
"Now that we're telling the truth, are you all right to fly? Or did you just walk out of the hospital?"
"I'm all right. I didn't get hurt when I went in. I got sunburned and dehydrated, that's all."
"Is that straight, Charley?"
"Yeah, I'm all right."
"What happened, Charley?"
"I really don't know. I never saw the guy who got me. A Zero, I'm sure. But I didn't see him. The engine nacelle started to come off, and then the engine froze. And caught fire. So I remembered what my IP had taught me about how to get out of an F4F and got out."
"How long were you in the water?"
"Overnight. A PT boat picked me up at first light the next morning."
"Jesus!"
"God takes care of fools and drunks," Galloway said. "I qualify on both counts." Geller, Finch noticed, is looking at Galloway as if he was Lazarus just risen from the dead.
"Tell me about Henderson," Major Finch asked, sensing that Galloway would welcome a change of subject.
"It's not Pensacola," Galloway replied. "The Japs started it, and had it pretty well along when we took it away from them which is obviously why we went in half-assed the way we did.