A. TWO (2) KATE

GALLOWAY, CHARLES M CAPT USMCR ONE (1)

PICKERING, MALCOLM S 1/LT USMCR ONE (1)

B. ONE (1) ZERO

PICKERING, MALCOLM S 1/LT USMCR ONE (1)

3. VMF-229 LOSSES:

A. ONE (1) F4F4 DAMAGED, REPAIRABLE.

B. ONE (1) F4F4 CRASHED ON LANDING, DESTROYED.

C. VMF-229 LOSSES REDUCE OPERATIONAL AIRCRAFT AVAILABLE TO VMF-229 TO THREE (3) F4F4.

PLUS TWO (2) POSSIBLY REPAIRABLE F4F4.

4. MAG-21 LOSSES:

A. HENDERSON AND FIGHTER ONE RUNWAYS CRATERED BY ENEMY BOMBS. REPAIRS UNDERWAY.

B. AVGAS FUEL DUMP STRUCK BY ENEMY BOMBS AND SET AFIRE. ESTIMATED LOSS OF AVGAS

FIVE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED (5500) GALLONS.

C. LIGHT TO SEVERE DAMAGE, EXTENT NOT YET DETERMINED, TO ELEVEN (11) USN, USMC AND USAAC AIRCRAFT ON HENDERSON FIELD.

5. THE UNDERSIGNED HAS, ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF CO, MAG-21, AUTHORIZED THE EVACUATION OF USAAC B-17 AIRCRAFT FROM HENDERSON TO ESPIRITU SANTO UNTIL SUCH TIME AS STOCKS OF AVGAS AND SPARE PARTS, NOW ESSENTIALLY EXHAUSTED, CAN BE REPLENISHED. ALL REMAINING STOCKS OF AVGAS NEEDED FOR F4F4 AND P39 AND P40 AIRCRAFT. B17 AIRCRAFT WILL DEPART

AS SOON AS REPAIRS TO RUNWAY ARE ACCOMPLISHED.

VANDEGRIFT MAJ GEN USMC COMMANDING

[TWO]

VMF-229

Henderson Field

1330 Hours 13 October 1942

"You had a blowout is what it looks like, Mr. Pickering," Technical Sergeant Oblensky said.

They were in a maintenance revetment, an area large enough to hold two Wildcats. It was bordered on three sides by sandbag walls. Sheets of canvas, once part of wall tents, had been hung over it to provide some relief from the heat of the sun, and from the rain. "A blowout?" Pickering asked bitterly.

"If I had to guess, I'd guess you run into a bent-up piece of pierced steel planking. But maybe a piece of bomb casing or something."

"Jesus Christ!"

"Put you out of control. And then the gear collapsed. It won't handle that kind of stress, like that. You're lucky it wasn't worse."

"The airplane's totaled, right?"

"Yeah. Not only the gear. When that went, there was structural damage, hard to fix. And then the engine was sudden-stop. Probably not even worth trying to rebuild, even if we had the stuff to do it with. I'll pull the guns and the radios and the instruments and whatever else I can out of it and have it dragged to the boneyard."

"How many aircraft does that leave us with?" "Three. Plus I think I can fix what Captain Galloway was flying. He lost an oil line, but he shut it right down, maybe before it had a chance to lock up. I'll have to see."

Galloway at that moment walked in.

"I blew a tire," Pickering said.

"Blew the shit out of it," Oblensky confirmed. "Have a look."

"Thank you, Mr. Pickering," Galloway said.

"Thank me for what?"

"You know for what. I couldn't have gotten away from that Zero."

"You were doing all right," Pickering said.

"When I say 'thank you,' you say 'you're welcome.' "

Pickering met his eyes. "You're welcome, Skipper."

"I just saw Colonel Dawkins. There were witnesses to both of yours. Both confirmed. What does that make, seven?"

"Eight. I'll confirm yours. I saw it go down."

"They confirmed that, too," Galloway said, and turned to Oblensky. "Did you have a chance to look at that engine?"

"I'm going to pull an oil line from this," Oblensky said, gesturing at Pickering's F4F4, "and put it on yours and then run it up and see what happens. You said you shut it down right away."

"I don't want anyone flying it but me, understand?"

"If I didn't think it was safe, I wouldn't let anybody fly it."

"Just say 'aye, aye, sir,' for Christ's sake, Steve," Galloway said.

"What happens now, Skipper?" Pickering asked.

"What you do now is run down all your friends-they're scattered all over-and bring them here. As soon as the runways are fixed, they're flying the B17s off to Espiritu Santo. They can go with them."

"What about the R4D?"

"It took a hundred-pound bomb through the wing. It didn't explode, but that airplane's not going anywhere. Mr. Pickering will need your jeep, Steve."

"It was over by the AvGas dump when that went up," Oblensky said. "No jeep, Skipper."

"Well, Mr. Pickering, you said you were thinking of joining the infantry. The infantry walks, so that should be no problem for you."

For a moment Lieutenant Pickering looked as if he was about to say something obscene. But he thought about it, and what he said was, "Aye, aye, Sir."

[THREE]

VMF-229

Henderson Field

1535 Hours 13 October 1942

When Captain Charles M. Galloway Walked in, Majors Ed Banning and Jake Dillon, Lieutenant Ken McCoy, Sergeant George Hart, and Corporal Robert F. Easterbrook were sitting on the bunks and wooden crates of the Bachelor Officers' Quarters-a tent with sandbag walls. Galloway was trailed by Lieutenant Bill Dunn.

Galloway looked at Banning.

"Major, the B-17s can't get off today. That last raid cratered the runway again."

There had been a second Japanese bombing attack at 1350, a dozen or so Kates and slightly fewer Zeroes.

"I saw fighters take off," Banning replied. It was a question, not a challenge.

"You saw two fighters get off," Galloway replied. "Joe Foss and somebody else. They took a hell of a chance; dodged the craters and debris."

"I saw one Japanese plane go down," Major Dillon said.

"Foss again," Galloway said. "He got a Zero. But that was all the damage we did."

"What the hell happened to the Coastwatchers?" McCoy asked.

Galloway looked at him. He had not yet got a fix on this semilegendary Marine. A lot of what he'd heard about Killer McCoy had to be bullshit, yet he'd also noticed that Major Ed Banning (a good professional Marine, in his view) treated McCoy with serious respect.