“I don’t know,” he said. Then he said, “Jesus, when I saw you there I thought I was dreaming!”
She walked to him and took his hand and guided it inside her bathrobe.
“No dream,” she said. “Flesh and blood.”
After that he forgot that he smelled like a horse. And she didn’t mind.
• • •
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1Gunnery Sergeant. A senior noncommissioned officer.
1The U.S.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 (U.S. Navy Submarine Force, China).
2Master Gunnery Sergeant Diamond was a Corps-wide Marine legend, the perfect Marine.
1Oblong bars, one for each four years of satisfactory service, worn on the lower sleeve of outer garments.
2The tales—amplified in the retelling—of houseboys to clean billets, of custom made uniforms, of exotic women available for the price of a beer, of extra retirement credit, et cetera, tended to cause some resentment toward China Marines among their Stateside peers.
3The Disciplinary Code for the Governance of the Naval Service.
1No Middle Initial.
1A gasoline-fired water-heating device inserted into a fifty-five gallon garbage can. Mess kits are sterilized by dipping them into the boiling water.
1Bullet holes in rifle targets are marked with circular cardboard disks, white if the hole is in the black of the bull’s-eye, and black for holes elsewhere on the target. A peg in the center of the disk is inserted in the bullet hole. The bullet strike is thus visible from the firing line.
2One inch at 100 yards. Two inches at 200 yards, etc.
3When the action fails to eject a fired cartridge case properly and jams it in place with the open end erect, it is known as a “stovepipe.”
2The U.S.S. Panay, a gunboat of the Yangtze River Patrol, was attacked and sunk, with many Americans killed and wounded, by Japanese aircraft in 1937.
4A red flag waved before a target to show a complete miss.
5Sanding decks (cleaning them with sand and a brick) went back to the days of wooden-decked sailing ships. Now it was used as a punishment.
6A board of officers charged with determining whether or not a platoon leader candidate had proved himself unfit or unworthy of being commissioned.
7Platoon Leader Candidates wore brass insignia, the letters OC (hence “Ox”), standing for Officer Candidate, on shirt collar points and fore-and-aft hats in lieu of insignia of rank.
8Until December 1941, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the third Thursday of November.
1Flight training for Marine aviators is conducted by the U.S. Navy. Marine aviators wear the same gold wings as Naval aviators.
2Tiger.
1Supply.
2Neckties.
3Noncommissioned Officer In Charge.
4The Japanese Security Police.
5A device that keeps the brim of the felt campaign hat from curling.
1PAK38: Panzerabwehrkanone, caliber 5cm, Model 1938.
2Prior to 1948 the Universal Code of Military Justice included the offense “Silent Insolence.” Among the offenses therein embraced was a “mocking attitude” to military superiors.
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