Line of Fire W E B Griffin

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Pickering's view was their handling of the Royal Australian Navy Coastwatcher Establishment.
When the Japanese began their march down the Solomon Islands chain toward New Guinea, Australia,
and New Zealand, the Australians hastily recruited plantation managers, schoolteachers, government
technicians, shipping officials, and even a couple of missionaries who had lived on the islands.
They hastily commissioned these people as junior officers in the Royal Australian Navy Volunteer
Reserve and left them behind on the islands, equipped with shortwave radios and small arms.
They were in a position to provide-at great risk to their lives-extremely valuable intelligence regarding
Japanese Army and Navy movements, strength, location, and probable intentions. But the Navy
arrogantly judged that information coming from natives who were not professional Navy types couldn't
possibly be genuinely valuable.
Later, when the value of the Coastwatcher-provided intelligence could no longer be denied, the Navy
brass decided that it was now far too important to he left to the administration of the lowly Royal
Australian Navy Reserve Lieutenant Commander who was in charge. The U.S. Navy would take over
and do it right, in other words.
Pickering heard of the situation from an old friend, Fitzhugh Boyer, who had been Pacific & Far East
Shipping's agent in Melbourne and was now a Rear Admiral in the Royal Australian Navy. Fitz Boyer
introduced him to Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt, who was running the Coastwatcher Establishment,
and who cheerfully confessed to being a little less than charming to the detachment of U.S. Navy officers
who had shown up in Townsville to take over his operation.
Fitz Boyer told Pickering that it was unfortunately true that Feldt did indeed tell the captain who led the
detachment that unless he left Townsville that very day, he was going to tear his head off and stick it up
his anal cavity.
That same day Pickering fired off an URGENT radio to Frank Knox, recommending that a highly
qualified intelligence officer be sent to Australia as soon as possible, with orders to place himself at
Feldt's disposal, and with the means to provide Feldt with whatever assistance, especially financial, Feldt
needed.
Nine days later, Major Edward J. Banning, USMC, former Intelligence Officer of the Fourth Marines in
Shanghai, got off a plane in Melbourne carrying a cashier's check drawn on the Treasury of the United
States for a quarter of a million dollars.
He was accompanied by a sergeant. Within days the balance of Marine Corps Special Detachment 14,
along with crates of the very best shortwave radios and other equipment, began to arrive by priority air
shipment.
Banning and Feldt were two of a kind; they hit it off immediately. Not only that, Banning and his
detachment proved to be precisely what Pickering had hoped for but thought he had little chance of
getting.
Soon after a pair of U.S. Marines was parachuted onto Buka Island to augment the Coastwatcher
operation there, Pickering confessed to Banning that he was astonished at the high quality of the people
Frank Knox had sent him; and he was equally surprised that they'd arrived so quickly. And Banning
replied that the man responsible was Rickabee.
"Mr. Knox is a wise man," Banning said. "He gave this job to Colonel Rickabee, together with the
authority, and then let him do it."
That was the first time Pickering heard of Rickabee. But before he was ordered home, he'd had many
other dealings with the man; and each contact confirmed his first impression: Rickabee was a man who
got things done.
"Colonel Rickabee and you have many things in common, Fleming," Roosevelt said, smiling. "For
instance, some people-not me, of course, but some people-think you both have abrasive personalities."
Roosevelt waited for a reply, got none, and then went on.
"Another way to phrase that is that neither of you can suffer fools. As I'm sure you've learned, fools find
that attitude distressing. That doesn't bother you, I know, but it does affect Rickabee."
"I don't think I follow you, Mr. President."
"When Admiral Leahy let the word out that the promotion of Lieutenant Colonel Rickabee to brigadier
general was being considered, it was not greeted with enthusiasm. Quite the reverse."
"I think he would make a splendid general officer," Pickering said.
"So do I," Leahy said. "I've known him for a long time.
Even before I was Chief of Naval Operations, he did special jobs for me.
And he has done special jobs for me since."
"We have reached a certain meeting of the minds vis-a-vis Colonel Rickabee," Roosevelt said. "General
Holcomb, the Marine Commandant, has recommended his promotion to colonel. Though I was prepared
to send his name to the Senate for confirmation as a brigadier general without the approval of The Marine
Corps, Admiral Leahy tells me that would have been counterproductive... and not only because it would
have caused a lot of talk, which is exactly what Rickabee and the Office of Management Analysis does
not want or need."
Jesus Christ, what bullshit! Pickering fumed. A damned good man can't get promoted because of the
prima donnas!
"Colonel Rickabee's promotion doesn't solve the problem," Admiral Leahy said. "Which is, in
rank-inflated Washington, that a general officer is needed to head up the Office of Management
Analysis."
"Yes," Pickering thought out loud, "I can understand that."
"Good," Roosevelt said. "That's where you come in, Fleming."
"Sir," Pickering said, surprised, "I wouldn't have any idea whom to recommend for that. Nor would I
presume to make such a recommendation."
"That's been done for you," Roosevelt said. "What Leahy and I have concluded is that the man in charge
of the Office of Management Analysis should be someone who not only has experience at the upper
levels of the Navy Department, say working closely with the Secretary of the Navy..
Christ, he's not talking about me, is he?
"... but who has also had firsthand experience with the war in the Pacific, and most importantly..."
Jesus H. Christ, he is!
"... is a Marine with extensive combat experience, say someone who won the Distinguished Service
Cross in the First World War, and who in this war has been awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart,
and the Legion of Merit."
What's he talking about, the Legion of Merit?
"Are you beginning to get the picture, Fleming?" Roosevelt asked.
"Mr. President..." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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