Ghost Carrier: They Died to Fight Another Day (5 page)

Joe felt a little ashamed of trying to end his life, but also ashamed of being unsuccessful in the attempt. He shook his head in disgust.

“As I was sayin’, most of us is already dead.”

Joe nodded.

“Me, I bought it topside. I ran up from the galley to help put out some of the deck fires. One of those Wildcats blew apart – this propeller came spinning, sliced me right in two. Never even felt it.” Then he grinned wider.

Joe shook his head, “Well, you seem pretty darn happy about it.” Then he recognized the man, “Hey, aren’t you Theo Akins? You’re the guy who took out all those Jap dive bombers at Pearl. I saw you on those recruiting posters.”

“Yessir. Got the Navy Cross, too. Now I’m a mess attendant on this here carrier.”

“A messman? They need you back on a damn .50 cal.”

Theo smiled and Joe realized segregation was a barrier even during war.

“You know, sir, you know why I’m happy. I figure I gotta second chance. Maybe in this world they treat us coloreds a little better. Ya know?”

Joe nodded sympathetically.

“Well, Theo, I need to get back to that other world – my other life. I had a son. I was going to raise him, watch him grow up, teach him how to play ball.”

“I don’t know how you gonna get back, but lotta guys round here feelin’ the same as you.”

“How do you know that?”

“We got like this secret club. Don’t talk much about it to nobody outside, but we gotta a sign if we think you is one of us.”

“Sign, what sign?”

Theo laughed and brought a finger to his massive neck and sliced across it, still grinning.

Joe laughed.

“If they give us the sign back, they’s in the club.”

Joe laughed, “I guess that gets right to the point.”

“Yes, sir, yes it do. Now let me feed you some of this here soup. They won’t let me take the straps off.”

Joe relented, “Hey, could you introduce me to some of the other guys?”

“In the secret club? Hell yeah. We got meetins’ of the Deadman’s Club ever’ other Wednesday, but we don’t call it that. Kinda unspoken. You get better and you come join us.”

FRANK’S CAR

Frank was pensive. He stared out the passenger side window at the passing homes as Katie drove them back across town to their home. He turned to Katie, “Thanks for driving, hon.”

“Sure, Frank. Maria gave you a lot to think about.”

“I’m just sick to my stomach.”

Katie looked over again, “Are you going to follow her advice?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know about all this mumbo jumbo.”

“Maria did say she wanted to help. And your Mom wants you to help and obviously your Dad needs your help.”

“Katie, don’t you see, that’s the thing. If Maria can somehow bring him back to this world, he’ll be dead in a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean. What’s the point?”

“Now, Frank, I’ve been thinking about that.”

“Oh boy, here we go,” he said as he brought a hand to his temple.

“No, no, hear me out. Maria said there were infinite parallel realities or possibilities and we’re living in a reality based on our choices. You and I decided to get married, have a family, live in Dayton.”

“Right…”

“We don’t know what the future holds. We hope we stay healthy, active. We know we’re going to die someday. We just hope it isn’t today or tomorrow or next week. We know it’s going to happen, but we don’t know how or when.”

“What are you getting at?”

To Frank’s surprise, Katie swung the car to the right and came to screeching halt at the curb, nearly giving Frank whiplash.

“Jesus Christ, Katie, what the hell ya doing?”

“Making a point. You didn’t expect that did you?”

“Expect it? No, I didn’t!” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“And if you knew I was going to do that, you would have tried to brace yourself or avoid it, right?”

“Damn right! I knew I shoulda kept the keys.”

“Frank, your Dad never expected to die on that carrier in 1943.”

“Of course not. How could he know?”

“Exactly. How could he know?”

Frank’s mind was starting to lock on Katie’s unfolding logic.

“But he does know, Frank. In that other dimension, he’s aware he had another life, that he had a son, and that he went down on that ship with 650 other men.”

“Yeah?”

“If Maria could bring your Dad back in time to before the ship got hit, maybe he would know about the danger, know what was about to happen.”

“And he would do everything he could to avoid it.”

“Right!”

Frank’s mind raced.

“Frank, imagine if she could do that. Your father would be alive. He would’ve watched you grow up. Can you imagine that?”

Frank didn’t have to imagine it. It was the secret desire he had longed for his entire life.

Chapter 7

USS LISCOME BAY
– MOTION PICTURE PROJECTION ROOM

Joe was released after several days of tests and evaluations, but he was reassigned to duty away from anything to do with the pilots or their safety. Theo had been true to his word, and he was escorting Joe down to the Motion Picture Projection room and his first Deadman’s Club meeting. Joe didn’t know what to expect, but at least now he would be in the company again of other guys who remembered.

“I’ll introduce you. You’ll probably know some of the guys already.”

Theo entered first through the cabin hatch. Men were standing around chatting in small groups. Many were smoking.

“Guys, I want to introduce a new member to the club.”

Everyone quieted down and turned.

“Seaman First Class Joe Rusk. Drowned right here on deck two.”

“Hey, I was on this deck,” a lanky, pale, red-headed guy called out. “You there when the deck breeched?”

Joe acknowledged with a nod and a sigh that he was.

Then a man seated with his back to Joe said, “I was on deck two also, directing fire crews.” The man stood up and turned around.

“Admiral Mullinnix!” A stunned Joe snapped to attention holding a crisp salute with eyes locked forward. Rear Admiral Henry Mullinnix, fifty-one years old with thinning hair, was an over achieving MIT and Naval Academy grad. His no nonsense Midwestern demeanor endeared him to the men.

“Relax, sailor. There’s no rank in this club.”

“Yes, sir,” Joe responded as he slowly brought his hand down.

“Where you from, son?”

“Dayton, Ohio, sir.”

“Dayton. I did some training at Wright Field. Those were some great times in a great town.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Welcome aboard, sailor. Glad to have you with us.” The Admiral turned to one of the ranking officers and said, “I guess we should get started.”

Men put out their cigarettes and found seats. Theo pointed to two chairs on the aisle.

Joe grabbed the one on the end.

Admiral Mullinnix stepped to the front of the room and looked around at his men for a moment.

Joe looked around the group and noticed all had bowed their heads. He caught the Admiral’s eye and Mullinnix said, “Ah, Joe, we always like to say a few words to the Almighty before we get started.”

Joe nodded then quickly bowed as Mullinnix continued.

“Now this isn’t exactly a prayer. It’s more of a kind of blessing for us sorry sons of bitches who find ourselves here.”

Joe smiled.

“Dear Lord, help us to understand why we have continued to live when we have all rightly died. Comfort our loved ones left behind in the other world who have had to endure the grief of our passing. Give us the strength to put one foot in front of the other each day and let us never, ever, ever forget who we truly are and where we really come from. Amen.”

“Amen.” the men responded in unison.

Joe looked up and saw that Mullinnix was momentarily choked up and struggling with his emotions.

“Ok, men, war report. And before I get started with our current situation here in the Central Pacific, I had my Chief of Staff pull some newsreels from last year. Now I am not going to say much. I just want you guys to take a look at this. It’s Midway. Charlie, roll the film.”

The projector beam lit up the front wall as the clatter of the film entering the gate filled the room. A round emblem against a blue background appeared with the words “Official United States Navy.” Music began but it was not that rousing music Joe was so used to in these patriotic newsreels.

The voice began, “4 June 1942 was a black day for the United States Navy. We shall never forget the loss of our brave American sailors on the
Yorktown
,
Enterprise
, and
Saratoga
and their escort ships. President Wilkie offered comfort to a grieving nation with this message: ‘My fellow Americans, our resolve will never waver, will never extinguish. We will fight the enemy on the beaches at California, at Oregon, and Washington State. Americans will never surrender our soil to the evil Empire of Japan, so help us God.’ ”

The room fell stone silent.

“Okay, okay, Charlie, shut it off.” Mullinnix said over the whir of the projector.

Men remained staring at the now blank motion picture screen where the images had flickered.

“Seventy ships lost in the greatest naval disaster in the last two hundred years.
Saratoga
,
Enterprise
,
Yorktown
all at the bottom of the Pacific.” The Admiral said grimly.

“Admiral, that can’t be,” a voice shouted from the back. “We broke their code. We knew that bastard Yamamoto was coming! We sunk four of their carriers--
Akagi
,
Hiryu
,
Kaga
, and
Soryu
!”

“We sank none of their carriers, son. Midway was overrun. And another thing you should know. Pearl, the Hawaiian Islands, the Aleutians, have all been lost. They’re under Japanese control. Japan is now the dominant naval power in the Pacific.

“Jesus.” Joe said as he swung his head down.

“And if that isn’t bad enough, I’ve got more bad news. What was it – maybe a month ago we hit Tarawa? Do you guys remember what battle we were in before that?”

Guys looked at one another puzzled.

“Admiral, we were commissioned in August. We weren’t in battle before Tarawa,” Joe offered. “We only left Pearl what three weeks ago, guys?” He said looking around for nods of confirmation.

“I’m afraid not, Joe. We never made it to Pearl. We were engaged in the battle of San Diego Harbor when the Japs attacked 16 September. The
Liscome Bay
was twelve miles down the coast on a training run when the first Jap bombers attacked.”

“Bombers? What kind of bombers?”

“Carrier launched. Our base at San Diego is gone. Our repair facility at Bremerton is destroyed. What I’ve been able to decipher from combing the after action reports is that we put up a quite fight and didn’t allow them too far inland. But what’s left of our San Diego naval facility is now held by the Japanese.”

Men put their heads in their hands.

“My Chief of Staff has been very helpful in gathering information for me on this, but I’ve had to watch what I say with him.”

Theo spoke up, “Why’s that, sir?”

“Can you believe the damn bastard made it? Lucky son of a bitch survived in our world. The one here was never part of our world.”

“Lord have mercy.”

“You can say that again, Theo. And I hope you guys realize what this means. What our situation is here in the Pacific.”

Guys looked again to one another for answers.

“We’re cut off. Trapped. The Japs control the entire west coast of the United States. I had to read our latest orders from Admiral Nimitz twice today so that I understood them correctly. This task force is now on a one-way mission west, fellas, to Japan.”

“Japan!” almost all the men said in unison.

“We’re gonna fire everything we got and wreak as much havoc and destruction on the Japanese mainland as we possibly can. That is if we even make it that far. The Navy, I suspect, doesn’t expect us back.”

Silence echoed as men retreated into private thoughts while Mullinnix continued.

“Face it, we’re already dead, fellas. As of right now we’re a goddamn ghost carrier on a suicide mission to certain destruction. Thirty days or so from now, as sure as the sun rises in the east, we’re gonna die all over again.”

Chapter 8