WAR, SAYING THE CREDIT BELONGED ENTIRELY TO THE YOUNG MEN WITH RIFLES IN THEIR HANDS AND THE OFFICERS WHO ACTUALLY LED THEM ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
END NOTHING FOLLOWS
[EIGHT]
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER UN COMMAND/ALLIED FORCES IN JAPAN THE EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES TOKYO, JAPAN 2030 29 SEPTEMBER 1950
“Thank you for coming with me today, Fleming,” General of the Army Douglas MacArthur said to Brigadier General Fleming Pickering.
“My God, I was honored to be there,” Pickering said. “Thank you for taking me.”
“You made your contribution to this campaign,” MacArthur said. “You had every right to be there.”
“That’s unjustified, but thank you,” Pickering said.
“I didn’t see General Howe there,” MacArthur said.
“He was there, sir.”
And he said, “Liberated city, my ass. They’re still shooting in the city limits,” but somehow mentioning that doesn’t seem appropriate.
The steward handed Pickering a glass of whiskey.
And it’s now incumbent upon me to offer some kind of a toast. But I really can’t think of one. This war’s not over, and if the Chinese come in, which seems more likely every day, we’ll be up to our ears in a worse mess than we were before Inchon.
He raised his glass nevertheless, and said,
“I propose—”
The door opened and Colonel Huff came in.
“Sir, there’s a Lieutenant Colonel Porter to see you.”
“Ask him to be good enough to call upon me in the morning, ” MacArthur said. “Sid, I told you I didn’t wish—”
“He’s carrying a personal from General Ridgway, General. ”
“And I’ll look at it in the morning. Thank you, Sid.”
“Sir, the colonel is under orders to put General Ridgway’s personal into your hands as soon as possible,” Huff persisted.
“Ask him to come in, please,” MacArthur said impatiently.
A tall, good-looking young officer marched in, saluted, said, “General Ridgway’s compliments, General,” and handed him a squarish envelope.
“Thank you, Colonel,” MacArthur said. “Please be good enough to attend me tomorrow after ten at my headquarters. ”
“Yes, sir,” Colonel Porter said, saluted again, did an about-face, and marched out of the room.
MacArthur tore the envelope open, glanced at it, then read it carefully again. Then he held it out at arm’s length and sort of waved it until his wife had taken it from him.
Then he turned his back on Pickering and his wife, took a handkerchief from the hip pocket of his soft-washed khakis, and rather loudly blew his nose.
If I didn’t know better, if anyone but Douglas MacArthur did that, I’d say he was crying. I wonder what the hell was in that note?
As if reading his mind, Jean MacArthur handed Pickering the note, went to her husband, and put her arms around him.
“Douglas,” she said. “Darling, that’s simply beautiful!”
Pickering looked at the note.
WASHINGTON, 26 SEPTEMBER 1950
BY OFFICER COURIER
MY DEAR GENERAL MACARTHUR:
UNDER GOD’S GUIDANCE, THE FULL FRUITS OF THE INDOMITABLE COURAGE AND UNSHAK-ABLE PERSEVERANCE OF OUR FORCES SEEM ABOUT TO REACH HARVEST.
THEY WILL ATTEST AGAIN TO THE INCOMPARABLE BRILLIANCE OF YOUR UNSURPASSED LEADERSHIP AND JUDGMENT.
THEY WILL DEMONSTRATE AGAIN THE UNFAILING RESPONSE OF AMERICAN FORCES TO TRUE LEADERSHIP, REGARDLESS OF ODDS.
WHAT A TRIBUTE, TO BE RECORDED IN OUR MILITARY HISTORY TO OUR DEAD AND MAIMED.
“Thank you, Fleming,” said MacArthur. There was a slight waver in his voice.
Jesus, I was right. MacArthur actually was crying!
Pickering read the note through again: “indomitable courage,” “unshakable perseverance,” “true leadership.” He thought of McCoy and Zimmerman and Taylor and the South Koreans who had gone with them to the islands, and smiled. All these words applied there, too.
“Regardless of odds.” He hadn’t heard from McCoy since they’d said goodbye on the Mount McKinley. He’d tried to put Killer’s words out of his mind, but he’d failed miserably. “They might know where he is.”
Goddamn him. I’m not sure hope is what I want right now.
Pickering felt a slight sting at the corners of his eyes.
Jesus Christ! Two generals, blubbering like babies.
He noticed the glass in his hand and raised it. “I never finished my toast, General,” he said.
MacArthur looked at him.
“I’d like to do that now,” Pickering went on. “To our men in Korea—wherever they are. God watch over them all.”
“I’ll drink to that,” MacArthur said, and raised his glass to Pickering’s.
For a moment, both men were silent. Then they drank, and their talk turned once more to war.
Afterword
There really was a major general, a friend of President Harry S. Truman since their service as captains, whom the President sent to the Far East immediately after the Korean War began, in a role very much like the one the fictional Major General Howe plays in this book. He landed at Inchon on D day, and immediately hooked up with the legendary Colonel “Chesty” Puller, USMC.
And there really was a naval reserve lieutenant, Eugene F. Clark, a Mustang like my fictional character Lieutenant David Taylor, USNR, in this book, who did in fact seize the islands in the Flying Fish Channel with the assistance of a handful of Marines, and Korean national policemen.
I learned of Lieutenant Clark’s exploits from my friend Ed Ivanhoe, who is the historian cum laude of the Special Operations community, and who was himself involved in Korean War Special Operations. And some others, in other places.
The exploits of the real naval hero also came to the attention—from other sources—of the distinguished historian Thomas Fleming. He published an article based on what he had learned. Shortly after it was published, Lieutenant Clark’s family got in touch with Mr. Fleming and told him that on his return from Korea, Lieutenant Clark, now deceased, had written a book about the Flying Fish Channel operation but never submitted it for publication.
Would Mr. Fleming have a look at it to see if a publisher might be interested? They thought it was a good story. When he read it, so did Mr. Fleming.
Several weeks later—as he was actually editing the segment of this book that put my fictional character David Taylor on Tokchok-kundo Island—Lieutenant Clark’s manuscript landed on the desk of Putnam’s publisher and editor in chief, Neil Nyren.
Putnam published Lieutenant Clark’s memoirs of the Flying Fish Channel Operation, titled The Secrets of Inchon .
W. E. B. Griffin
Pilar, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
August 23, 2001
1 Temporary Additional Duty.
2 Field equipment—for example, web belts, harnesses, canteens, helmets, etc.
3 Graduation from the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College is a prerequisite for promotion to colonel and being given command of a regiment.
4 The military crest of a hill is just below the actual crest, and therefore is not under enemy observation.
5 Standard M-1 rifles that demonstrated especial accuracy, and were fine-tuned by master gunsmiths, were set aside for use in the annual National Matches rifle competition.
6 H for Helicopter; X for Experimental.
7 The Grumman TBF- and TBM-series aircraft (most of which were actually built by the Eastern aircraft division of General Motors) were single-engine torpedo bombers with a three-man crew. Powered by a 1,900-horsepower Wright engine, it had a top speed of 275 mph, and could carry 2,000 pounds of bombs or torpedoes, etc. It served in that role throughout World War II. Some Avengers were COD (Carrier On Board Delivery) modified to serve as small transport aircraft able to operate from aircraft carriers, by the addition of seats in the torpedo/bomb bay.
During World War II, the youngest aviator in the U.S. Navy was forced to crash-land his combat-damaged Avenger in the sea. Rescued almost immediately by a submarine improbably in the area, Ensign George Herbert Walker Bush, USNR, survived to become the forty-first President of the United States and father of the forty-third.
8 Time On Target. All artillery pieces fire their tubes at the same predetermined instant. Among other things, this takes the enemy by surprise, and keeps him from seeking shelter before more shells land. It also has an often terrifying psychological effect.