while dealing with the Hollywood Marines.
“Send for Major Macklin, please, Sergeant Major,” Dawkins ordered.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
In the forty-five minutes it took to notify Major Macklin that the deputy commanding general wished to speak to him personally, and for Macklin to reach Dawkins’s office, Dawkins had a little—very little—time to ruminate on his decision.
He was aware that he was not one of those who thought the Richard Widmark cinematic opus was a great thing for the Marine Corps. He was further aware that he had heard somewhere that this Macklin character was a three-star asshole. He was forced to draw the conclusion that he had allowed his personal feelings to color his decision; that he had sent an asshole to deal with the Hollywood assholes.
That was not the thing to do. The Marine Corps had decided the movie was in the best interests of the Marine Corps, and that being the case, it behooved him to support the movie as best he could, which obviously meant he shouldn’t send this asshole major to deal with the Hollywood assholes.
He would have to find some really competent officer, on a par with Major L. K. Winslow, to assist the Hollywood people in their production.
Just about at the time he had reached this conclusion, Sergeant Major Neely stuck his head in the door and reported that Major Robert B. Macklin, USMC, had arrived.
“Send him in, please,” Dawkins had ordered. Since he had summoned him, courtesy required that he at least talk to him.
Major Macklin—who was, Dawkins was somewhat surprised to see, a good-looking, trim, shipshape Marine officer—entered the office, walked to precisely eighteen inches from General Dawkins’s desk, and came to attention.
“Major Macklin, Robert B., reporting as ordered, sir.”
“At ease, Major,” Dawkins said.
Macklin stood at ease.
“This may sound like a strange question, Macklin, but do you have any public relations experience?”
“Yes, sir, I do.”
That’s not what I expected to hear.
“In the Corps?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell me about it,” Dawkins ordered.
“Sir, when I returned from the ’Canal—”
“You were on Guadalcanal?” Dawkins asked.
I’ll be damned.
“Actually, sir, I was on Gavutu.”
“Then why did you say ‘Guadalcanal’?”
“I’ve found, sir, that it’s easier to say Guadalcanal than have to explain that Gavutu was a nearby island.”
That’s true. Gavutu is not well-known.
“What were you doing on Gavutu?”
“Actually, sir, I didn’t get a chance to do much on Gavutu. I went in with the ParaMarines and took a hit before I reached the beach.”
The ParaMarines were decimated—literally, they lost ten percent of their men—landing on Gavutu.
“I see,” Dawkins said. “And?”
“I was on limited duty, sir, and the Corps assigned me to a war bond tour. It had several aces from Guadalcanal.”
“Oddly enough, I’m familiar with that tour. Several of those aces were mine. And you were the public relations guy for that tour?”
“Yes, sir, and—I was still on limited duty, sir—for others that followed.”
“And that’s how you spent the war? On public relations duties?”
“No, sir. When it became obvious that I wasn’t going to be able anytime soon to pass the full duty physical, I volunteered for the OSS. I was sent on to Mindanao, which the Japs then held—”
Goddamn it! I don’t need a spy. I need somebody to deal with the Hollywood Marines and Richard Widmark.
Well, at least he has some public relations experience.
“Major,” Dawkins interrupted, “the Marine Corps is cooperating with a Hollywood motion picture company. They’re making a movie to be called Halls of Montezuma, which will star Richard Widmark.”
“Yes, sir?”
“The coordinating officer was assigned to the 1st Marine Provisional Brigade, and I have to find someone to take his place, and do so right now—the Hollywood people have already begun to arrive here. Do you think you could handle something like that?”
“Sir, if I have a choice between going to Korea or this, I really would prefer going to Korea.”
“Most of us would prefer to be going to Korea, Major,” Dawkins said. “My question was do you think you could handle something like that?”
“I’m sure I could, sir, if that’s what the Corps wants me to do.”
“Okay. Just as soon as you can wind up whatever you’re doing now, report to Colonel Severance in public relations. ”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
“That will be all, Major. Good luck.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
Before Major Macklin was out of the building, General Dawkins got Colonel Severance on the horn and told him that he was sending him an experienced public relations officer to take the place of Major Winslow.
He also told Colonel Severance that he wanted “the Hollywood project” to go smoothly—that the