Dave Dawson on Guadalcanal

by Robert Sidney Bowen

"Trouble!" Dave snapped. "Let's go. Hey! It's light! We must be past the Solomons!"

"There's one way to find out!" Freddy shot back at him, and grabbed up his helmet and goggles.

Dawson, also, had slept in his clothes so as to be ready for any emergency. So he grabbed his helmet and goggles and followed Freddy out of the cabin. When they reached the flight deck it was to find that all the commotion was caused by the carrier's early patrol getting off for a quick look-see ahead. There was no sign of enemy planes in the dawn-tinted heavens. In fact, as Dawson took a good look toward all four points of the compass he realized that there was no sign of anything save the flock of ships that made up the task force, and countless square miles of rolling blue-green ocean. He turned to Freddy to make some remark about the situation, but checked the words as Donald Duck blared out an announcement.

"All pilots assigned to special duty will go below for breakfast, and then report to the Ready-Room for briefing!"

"That's us, Freddy, old—" Dave began, and stopped short.

The English youth was already on his way down to eat. Dave chuckled, gave a little shake of his head, and followed his pal. And just thirty minutes later all of the special assignment pilots were gathered in the Ready-Room. Colonel Welsh and the executive flight officer were there, and the colonel started talking as soon as the last pilot to arrive had seated himself.

"Well, we made it, we think," he began. "Nothing was sighted last night, and right now we are on the edge of the area to be searched. The searching patrols are to be made in relays. That is, all of you will go out and fly your patrols, and as you are returning to refuel the Hawk will launch her planes to take up where you left off. Here on the table in front of me are envelopes containing patrol courses and instructions for every flying team. Your names are printed on the outside, so before you leave come up and get your envelope. Well, I guess that's all, except this. We feel, now, that the Jap snooper business late yesterday afternoon didn't do us any harm. At least we hope and pray that it is like that. However, there is just a chance that the Japs have managed to trail us somehow, and will attempt to cross us up by launching a land-based attack. For that reason, keep your radios open all the time you are in the air. You may get the call to come back here in a hurry."

The colonel paused, started to make a gesture of dismissal, but checked himself.

"Now, there's one more thing I'd better mention, though you'll find it included in your sealed orders," he said. "And it is this. The safety of this task force is of prime importance. At least, until we have found this unknown Jap force and are engaging it. I mean by that, if any of you get into any personal trouble, such as being jumped by surprise by Jap planes, or something goes wrong that forces you down into the drink, don't count on any help from this task force. You will be strictly on your own. In short, as you will learn when you read your individual orders, you are not to make radio contact with this task force unless you sight Jap surface units of three or more ships in number. One reason for that is to prevent any Japs from listening in on your wave lengths, and learning of the force's existence in these waters by taking a bearing to locate our position. And the reason it must be three or more Jap ships that you sight is because the Japs might possibly try to decoy us into a favorable position for them. Well, that is all, now. Good luck, and Godspeed to all of you. We have two days and one night in which to accomplish this mighty difficult job. If we don't sight that Jap force today, then we've absolutely got to do it tomorrow. The attack on Guadalcanal and Tulagi will begin on the morning of the third day—whether we succeed, or fail. And so it's up to you pilots. And I know you'll make the grade. Good luck, again."

As the colonel stopped talking there was no burst of applause, or anything like that, from the pilots. Each man simply nodded gravely and then went up to the table to collect his sealed orders. Dave got the envelope for Freddy and himself, and without stopping to open it the pair hurried top-side to where their aircraft was waiting with prop already ticking over. Settling themselves in the aircraft, they took out their orders and read them over carefully. The course they were to fly extended out over the water for some three hundred and fifty miles in a dead northwest direction. They were to keep at an altitude of eight thousand feet, unless clouds or storms interfered, and their code call was to be Tiger, just as it had been yesterday.