Hq Co, 1st Bn, 4th Marines

1. Reference is made to cable message, Hq, USMC, Washington, DC, subject, "McCoy, Kenneth J., Transfer Of', dated 4 June 1941.

2. You are detached effective this date from Hq Co 1st Bn, 4th Marines, and transferred in grade to 47th Motor Transport Platoon, USMC, U.S. Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Penna.

3. You will depart Shanghai aboard the first available vessel in the Naval service sailing for a port in the United States. On arrival in the United States you will report to nearest USMC or US. Navy base or facility, who will furnish you with the necessary transportation vouchers to your final destination.

4. You are authorized the shipment of 300 pounds of personal belongings. You are NOT authorized the shipment of household goods. You are NOT authorized delay en route

leave. You will carry with you your service records, which will be sealed. Breaking the seal is forbidden.

5. You will present these orders to the officer commanding each USMC or USN station or vessel en route. Such officers are directed to transmit by the most expeditious means to Hq, USMC, Washington, D.C., ATTN Q3-O3A, the date of your arrival, the date and means of your transportation on your departure, and your estimated date of arrival at your next

destination.

BY DIRECTION:

J. James Gerber Major, USMC Adjutant

"What the hell is all this?"

"I guess the Corps wants to get you out of China, Killer, before they run out of people for you to cut up or shoot," the first sergeant said.

"Jesus Christ," McCoy said.

" "The first available vessel in the service of the U.S.'," the first sergeant quoted, "is the Whaley' (The US.S. Charles E. Whaley was a fleet oiler that regularly called at Shanghai to replenish the fuel supplies of the vessels of the Yangtze River Patrol and the half dozen small pigboats of SUBFORCHINA (US. Navy Submarine Force, China). She sails Friday morning. You will be aboard. You know the Whaley, McCoy?"

"I know the Whaley," McCoy said. "Fucking grease bucket."

"It's going to Pearl Harbor, not the States," the first sergeant said. "They'll put you aboard something else at Pearl. With a little bit of luck, you could spend two, three weeks in Pearl," the first sergeant said.

"Top, I don't want to go home," McCoy said. The first sergeant's reaction to that was predictable: "You don't want to go home?"

"You know what I mean, Top," McCoy said. "I just shipped over to stay in China."

"McCoy, I don't know how you got to be a corporal without figuring this out for yourself… I don't know, come to think of it, how you got be a corporal, period… but this is the Marine Corps. In the Marine Corps the way it works is the Marine Corps tells you where you go, and when."

There really wasn't any point in arguing with the first sergeant, and McCoy knew it, but he did so anyway, thinking that maybe he could get an extra few days, an extra two weeks.

If he had that much time, maybe he could think of something. "For Christ's sake, Top, I got stuff to sell. I'll have to give it away if I have to get rid of everything by Friday. How about letting me miss the Whaley and catch whatever is next?''

"Like what, for instance, do you have to get rid of cheap? I'm always on the lookout for a bargain." "Come on, Top, you could fix it if you wanted to." "Fuck you, McCoy," the first sergeant said. "A little time on a tanker'll be good for you."

"Can I tell Captain Banning about this?" McCoy asked. "You go tell him, if you think it'll do you any good," the first sergeant said. "And then get your ass back here and start packing. When the Gunny tells me your gear is shipshape, then maybe I'll think about letting you go into town and see about selling your stuff."

Captain Banning waved him into his inner office as soon as he saw him coming through the door.

"I guess you've just got the word from your first sergeant?" he asked. "Yes, sir."

"Before you start wasting your breath, McCoy, let me tell you that not only is the colonel overjoyed at your departure, but he has told me to make sure, personally, that you get on the Whaley."

"I'm on his shit list, am I?"

"Let us say that you have been the subject of considerable cable traffic between here and Headquarters, Marine Corps, following the Shootout at the O.K. Corral. If you plan to make a career of the Marine Corps, Killer, you're going to have to restrain your urge to cut people up and shoot them."

"That's unfair, Captain," McCoy said.

"Yeah," Captain Banning said. "I know it is, McCoy. You didn't start that fight, and according to Sessions, you handled yourself damned well once it started. For what it's worth, I argued with the colonel until he told me to shut my face. But he's still getting crap from the Italians, and the Consul General's been all over his ass about you. I was there when he asked whether you were just a homicidal maniac, or whether you were trying to start World War II all by yourself."

"So for doing what I was told to do, keep Sessions and Macklin alive, I get my ass shipped home in disgrace."

"That's about the sum of it," Banning said. "But you don't have everything straight. First of all, the colonel's not shipping you home in disgrace or otherwise. I think underneath, he sort of admires you. You were ordered home by the Corps. I suspect that the Consul General had something to do with it-raised hell about you through the State Department, or something like that-but the colonel didn't do it. And you're not going home in disgrace. Not only do you get to keep your stripes, but your company commander is going to give you an efficiency report that makes you sound like Lou Diamond, Jr. (Master Gunnery Sergeant Diamond was a Corps-wide Marine legend, the perfect Marine). I know, because I wrote it."

McCoy was obviously puzzled by that, and it showed on his face.

"It doesn't say anything about your working for me, McCoy," Banning said. "You understand that you can't talk to anybody, in or out of the Corps, about that?"

"Aye, aye, sir."

"But it should impress the hell out of your new commanding officer," Banning said.

"I'm going to a truck company," McCoy said. "A goddamned truck company. I'm a machine-gunner."

"I'm going home in a couple of months myself," Banning said. "You keep your nose clean in the truck company, and when I get settled, I'll see what I can do for you. Either working for me, or doing something else interesting. Or, if you really want to, getting you back in a heavy-weapons company."

"Thank you," McCoy said.

"What are you going to do about the stuff in the apartment?"

"As soon as my Gunny decides my gear is shipshape, the first sergeant said I could go into town."

"I'll call your first sergeant and tell him I'm sending you into town," Banning said. "Take whatever time you need to do what you have to do. And then go back to your company. I want to put you aboard the Whaley first thing Friday morning. If you're not on her, McCoy, the colonel will have my ass."

"I'll be aboard her, sir," McCoy said.