“I had to make the entry of marriage in Lieutenant Richards’ service jacket, sir. I noticed that her place of residence before enlistment is Chicago.”
“Do I understand that there is room on the fifteen hundred flight to Chicago for Lieutenant Richards?” Hinman asked.
“Yes, sir, there is.”
“I do want to see some people here,” Hinman said slowly. “I don’t see how I can do that and still pack and make that flight to the West Coast in one hour.”
“I can understand that, sir. Very hard to do.”
“Is it possible to get orders cut to ride that courier flight to Chicago?” Hinman kept his voice neutral.
The Chief Yeoman opened his desk drawer and took out two thick envelopes. “Here are your orders and Lieutenant Hinman’s orders for the courier flight to Chicago, sir, and for the flight from Chicago to the West Coast and your orders for Pearl. Lieutenant Hinman’s orders to report to Mare Island Navy Yard for assignment are included in the Lieutenant’s orders.”
He grinned. “Appreciate.what you said to that dope out in L.A., sir. We’ve got quite a few of that kind here in Washington. They’ve been pretty quiet since you sounded off!”
“You’re a good man, Chief,” Hinman said. “Do you miss the Boats?”
“Yes, sir, I do. I had to put in for shore duty four years ago. My wife had a bad heart attack. Hell of a place for a submariner to be, in an office ashore. My battle station used to be the bow planes.” His face became wistful. “I was a very good bow planesman, if I do say it as shouldn’t.”
“I’m sure you were,” Hinman said.
The Chief Yeoman stood up in back of his desk. “I don’t want to keep you from your appointments, sir.” He grinned. “Have a good honeymoon!”
“Are all submarine men like that?” Joan said to Hinman as they walked down the hall of the Navy Department building. “I mean, that whole thing was like a charade! He had the orders cut all along, in his desk!”
“I know,” Hinman said. “But you have to follow the rules, you know. Are all submariners like that? Pretty much so. They take care of each other, they stick together. It’s a camaraderie you won’t find anywhere else in the service except maybe in the aviation branches. Have we got a place to stay in Chicago?”
“Any hotel will do,” she said happily, squeezing his arm. “I’ve got to store up enough memories of you to last me until I see you again!”
Captain Bob Rudd met Hinman at the airport in Pearl Harbor. Hinman nodded at the gold eagles that were pinned to Rudd’s shirt collar tabs.
“On you they look good, sir. Congratulations.”
“War is no respecter of ability, Art,” Rudd said. “They make anyone who’s alive and breathing a Captain. Or an Admiral. Severn got his big stripe. He’s gone back to Washington after some quote unquote well-earned leave. I’ve got his job. How about that, hey?”
“I want a ship, sir,” Hinman said. “With all due respect, I want a ship and the sooner the better!”
“We have to talk about that,” Rudd said. “Later. Right now there’s something I want you to see before we talk about giving you a ship. Things aren’t like they used to be, you know.” He motioned to his driver who opened the rear door of the Staff car.
“Son,” Rudd said, “take us to where I told you to take us.” The car stopped at the land end of a pier in the Submarine Base and the car’s driver half-turned in his seat.
“Can’t go down on the pier, Captain. That sign warns us off. Cranes are working down there, sir.”
“We’ll walk,” Rudd said. He got out of the car and with Hinman walked down the length of the pier to where two cranes were trying to pull the periscope out of a submarine. Hinman looked at the faded number painted on the submarine’s battered Conning Tower.
“My God, it’s Mako!”
“Yup,” Rudd said. “Got in day before yesterday. Mealey had himself one hell of a patrol run! Dove under a screen of twelve tin cans with aircraft overhead and slammed seven fish into a Kongo class battleship. Took an awful pasting! Japs just kicked the shit out of them! Propeller shaft on one side, port I think, is bent a little but the Yard has a spare. You can see what happened to the attack ‘scope. After Trim tank is ruptured and a lot of little stuff, busted welds, things like that. They ain’t got one light bulb left in that thing, not one gauge glass that wasn’t shattered! Come on aft, here, look there! Damned five-inch twenty-five deck gun got blown right off its mounts! The Yard people can’t figure out how that could happen without tearing a hole in the hull but it did.”
“Did he sink the battleship?”
“Not quite. Battleship’s skipper beached the thing on the reef at the Northeast Entrance of Truk. Intelligence intercepted the damage reports on the battleship. Her ammunition lockers for the forward turrets exploded. Killed about three hundred of their people. The ship’s out of commission for two, three years. He only gets credit for severely damaging the ship. But old Stoneface Mealey got himself rightly pissed off because they were dropping so much stuff on him that he went up during the attacks and sank a Fubuki, busted it right in two with one shot! You know, that cold-blooded old bastard went in to seven-hundred yard range on that wagon? I never liked old Mealey very much before but he’s one hell of a submariner!”
They walked the length of the submarine along the pier and Hinman noted the torn wooden decking, the deep dimples in the submarine’s pressure hull.
“God, she took a beating! Any casualties on our side?”
“One man, youngster, machinist mate named Richards, that the right name? You should remember, he was part of the original crew. Got thrown against the engine in the Forward Engine Room and fractured his skull. He was buried at sea.”
“Anyone write to his parents?” Hinman asked.
Rudd nodded. “Joe Sirocco took care of that. Wrote a hell of a nice letter. Joe took Mike Brannon’s place as Exec Hell of a man! Reservist but just one hell of an Executive Officer. Old Mealey said he’s one of the best men he ever sailed with and when Mealey says that about a feather merchant that is one hell of a feather merchant! You’ll like him.”
“Like him?” Hinman’s voice faltered slightly.
“By golly, I forgot to tell you.” Rudd’s face wore a broad grin.
“Mealey got his fourth stripe, he’s a Captain now. They posted him as my Number One Boy, my assistant. I had to find someone to take the Mako, son of a bitch of a ship is all busted up and no other officer would want her so I figured on giving her to you!”
Hinman wiped the tears from his eyes with no attempt to conceal the act. “Don’t you ever gig me again about playing jokes on anyone! You dragged me away from a bride and a honeymoon, you canceled my leave and you never said anything about this!”
Rudd shrugged. “Makes up for some of the lousy jokes you played on me when I was your Skipper,” he said happily. “Now I suppose you want to go through her, check everything?” Hinman nodded eagerly.
“Okay, let’s get that over with,” Rudd said. “Then I’ll drop you at the BOQ with your bags and you’ll have time enough to get a shower and get into your dress canvas before I come by to pick you up. We’re eating at Captain Mealey’s house. Tomorrow or the next day you can go out to the Royal Hawaiian and see the crew. They got word out there today that you were coming back as the Skipper. I’d make a bet that the biggest beer bust in the history of the United States Navy is going on out there right now!”