Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward L. Beach

Author:Edward L. Beach
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682471678
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Published: 2016-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Midway, although listed as one of the Hawaiian Island chain, is actually a coral reef containing two small islands, the larger of which is also known as Midway. Its chief inhabitants, until the Navy came along, were hundreds of thousands of gooney birds. People who had to spend time on Midway were known for their perverse refusal to appreciate the beauties of nature to which they were being exposed. After a man had been a while on Midway, the story goes, he both thought and acted like a gooney bird.

But we were to be spared this after all. Two days out of Midway, as flights of the albatross circled lazily about overhead, orders arrived directing us to stop only long enough to pick up our mail, which had already been forwarded there, and continue on to Pearl. Our consumption of fresh water for bathing purposes instantly tripled.

As we entered Pearl Harbor I looked over the scene with interest. Battleship row was minus one battleship: West Virginia had at last been towed away for repair. California would be next. I searched the Navy Yard as we passed it. At the far end, next to an empty dry dock, looming among the forest of cranes in all her battered majesty, bulked the unmistakable silhouette of a carrier. I gasped. She could only be the Enterprise. Her presence in Pearl Harbor must be a huge secret. Saratoga, I knew, was undergoing repair in Puget Sound. Lexington, Wasp, Yorktown, and Hornet had all been sunk in action. The Big E was our last effective flattop.

We put into the same dock from which we had set forth, almost exactly two months before, and this time the crowd and the band and the welcoming committee were all for us. Among the throng I soon spotted Admiral Small and Captain Blunt, watching us gravely as Jim warped us alongside. Nearly everyone looked at our battle scars with awe, but my old skipper gave me only a few moments to get used to their questioning glances. “Rich,” he said almost as soon as we had shaken hands, “where’s your patrol report?”

“Down below, Commodore—I mean, Captain,” I said, clumsily retracting the courtesy title which had gone with his old job. “It’s ready for the mimeograph machines.”

“Give it to me right away, will you? I’ll read it right off the stencil, if your Yeoman didn’t put a carbon back-up in his mill.”

I sent Dave for the stencils. Blunt took the parcel and turned immediately to leave the ship. “Rich, we’re very interested in the dispatch you sent after you got near enough to Midway to transmit. I can see why you weren’t able to before.” There was something like respect in his rasping voice. “I want to talk to you right away. Come up to my office in the administration building as soon as you can.”

The Admiral approached, with Eddie Holt behind him. “Congratulations again, Rich,” said ComSubPac. “You took quite a beating out there. I’m surprised you were able to remain on station.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.