The Corps I - Semper Fi

Her powerful character, he sometimes thought, was one of the reasons he was afraid he was in love with her. And sometimes he wondered if she wasn't playing him like a fish (she was also the most intelligent woman he had ever known) and nobly living up to her end of the bargain because she had figured that was the one way to get him to break it.

But what he nevertheless knew for sure was that if he married her, he could kiss his Marine career good-bye; and that he could not imagine life outside the Corps; and that he could not imagine life without Milla.

For the first time in his life, Ed Ba

Ba

The picture they painted of McCoy was the one reflected by his records. He had joined the Corps right out of high school (in fact, several months before; his high school diploma had come to him while he was at Parris Island and was entered into his record then), had served for three months with the Fleet Marine Force at San Diego, and then been shipped to the 4th Marines in Shanghai, where they'd made him an assistant gu

He had by and large kept out of trouble since arriving in China. And he got along all right with his corporal and his sergeant, who both described him as "a good man."

But there were several things out of the ordinary: He didn't have a Chinese girl, for one thing. But he had had a Chinese girl, so there didn't seem to be reason to suspect he was queer. He didn't have a buddy, either, which was unusual.

But some men were by nature loners, himself included, and this McCoy seemed to be another of them. There was nothing wrong with that, it was just a little unusual.

What was most unusual, though, was his skill as a typist and his language ability. Ba

Ba

When he was convinced he had learned all he could about PFC Ke

McCoy's medical records showed that he had been admitted to the dispensary at 2310 hours 2 January 1941 suffering cuts and abrasions and a penetrating wound of the upper right thigh possibly caused by a small-caliber bullet. A surgical procedure at 0930 hours 3 January 1941 had removed a lead-and-brass object, tentatively identified as a.25-caliber bullet, from the thigh. The prognosis was complete recovery, with return to full duty status in ten to fifteen days.

Captain Ba

"As you were!" Ba

Ba

Captain Ba

There was no question that there were two dead Italian marines or that McCoy had killed them. Neither was there any question that they had been killed with his knife. Ba

There were two lesser included offenses, Ba

"I haven't discussed this with Major DeLaney, who will serve as prosecutor, McCoy," Captain Ba

PFC McCoy did not respond.

"If you did plead guilty to either of the lesser included offenses," Ba

"Sir, it was self-defense," McCoy said.

"Let me try to explain this to you," Ba

"Sir, it was self-defense," McCoy repeated doggedly.

"You don't have any witnesses," Ba

"There was the rickshaw boy and twenty, thirty Chinese that saw it."

"How do you plan to find them?" Ba

McCoy shrugged his shoulders. "Ask around, I suppose."

There was no sense arguing with him, Ba

"Let me tell you what I think is going to happen," he said. "I think I can get Major DeLaney to accept a plea of guilty to a charge of manslaughter. You will be sentenced, and you might as well understand this, the sentence will be stiff. Maybe twenty years to life."

"Jesus Christ!" McCoy said.

"That will satisfy the Italians," Ba

McCoy gave him a cold look but said nothing.

"The sentence is then subject to review by the colonel," Ba

"To what?"

" 'To what, sir,' " Ba

"To what, sir?" McCoy repeated, dutifully.

"The maximum punishment for involuntary manslaughter is five years."

"I've heard about Mare Island and Portsmouth," McCoy said, grim faced.

He had not appended "sir" as military courtesy required, but Ba