A Glibertarians Exclusive – Too Many Goodbyes III
The hospital ship USS Charity, December 1943
Lieutenant Sally Neal looked up as her replacement entered the “ward” full of wounded men, mostly Marines from the fighting on Cape Gloucester. “Shift change, already?” she asked.
“You got it, girl,” Lieutenant (j.g.) Ann Foxworthy agreed. “Go get something to eat and some rest.”
“You talked me into it.” She looked around the compartment, a hospital ward in name only, really just row after row of steel cot frames hanging from the ceiling of what otherwise would have been a cargo bay in the converted transport ship.
Sally walked to the ship’s wardroom, ate a something sandwich without paying too much attention to what it was – her burps tasted like ham – and collapsed into her hard, narrow bunk in the hard, narrow ‘stateroom’ she shared with five other nurses.
Sleep didn’t come easily. The fighting on Cape Gloucester had been brutal. Sally had spent as much time simply consoling the wounded men as treating them, including only an hour before holding the hand of a seventeen-year-old boy who had lost a leg, reassuring him that he was going to be all right, he was going home, yes, his mother will have been told that he’s hurt but he’s alive.
“What an awful business this is,” she muttered to herself.
She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until a tapping at the steel door woke her. She sat up, still in her shipboard nurse’s uniform; she had only removed her shoes before lying down. She took the one long step to the entrance and opened the door.
“Doctor Frank!” It was one of the ship’s doctors, a specialist in abdominal surgery.
“Lieutenant…” The doctor looked at a folded paper. “Lieutenant Neal, is that right?”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“I need you to come with me. A CPO on one of the light cruisers in TF74 came down with acute appendicitis. The cruiser is coming alongside now, I’m going over to remove his appendix. The Pharmacist’s Mate on that ship isn’t up to it. I need you to come assist.”
There was only one reply Sally could give. “Yes, Doctor. Let me get my shoes on.”
“You have any dungarees? Your whites won’t be very good on the crossing – we’ll be using a high-line transfer. You’re liable to get soaked.”
“I do,” Sally replied. “They issued some to us in case we have to go ashore – I haven’t worn them yet.”
“Good. Get changed, meet me in the Wardroom as soon as you can be there.”
“I’ll be there. Which cruiser is it?”
“It’s the Chippewa Falls.” The surgeon turned and walked down the corridor without another word.
Sally froze for a moment. The Chippewa Falls, she thought.
That’s Tom’s ship.
She had seen Tom only once in the two years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, when his cruiser had come into Pearl to have some extra AA installed, late in 1942. She had wangled three days off from the hospital, Tom had managed 48 hours away from the ship. They had spent two glorious days together, and then Tom had gone back to his ship, and Sally had been sent to the Charity.
“That’s our story,” Tom had told her when he left to rejoin his ship. “Love – temporarily postponed on account of war.”
When Sally followed the doctor out on the Charity’s deck, some sailors had already fixed the line between the ships. The narrow, sleek, menacing form of the light cruiser had pulled as close to the hospital ship as prudence allowed, even with the seas fairly calm for the moment. The crossing was uneventful, with no unscheduled dunkings. The surgery was, likewise, uneventful. That’s why they needed a real doc, Sally reminded herself, so it would be uneventful.
Sally waited until they were washing up after the surgery to ask her question.
“Sir,” she said to the doctor as they were drying their hands, “How soon do we need to go back to the Charity?”
“Why?”
Sally looked at the deck. “Well, the XO on this ship, Lieutenant Commander Braxton. He’s my fiancé. I haven’t seen him in almost a year.”
Doctor Frank tossed his hand towel into a laundry bin. “Well,” he said, looking at the clock on the bulkhead, “It’s 1305 now. I need to make sure that Pharmacist’s Mate knows what to do now that I’ve removed that appendix – that old seadog of a CPO refuses to leave his ship. And I wouldn’t mind talking to their captain about a few things. We could go back, oh, say at 1500?”
Sally’s smile lit up the compartment. “Thank you, sir! I’ll meet you on deck at 1500!”
“Fine. One moment.” The doctor stuck his head out into the corridor. He halted a sailor coming along the passage. “You, sailor, hold up” he said. “Son, do you know where your XO is?”
“Yes sir,” the sailor replied. “Most likely, anyway. Probably on the Bridge.”
“Can you ask him to come to the wardroom? There’s someone here who wants to see him.”
The sailor looked at the doctor, then at Sally, still wearing her smile, then back at the Doctor. He grinned. “Sure thing, sir.” He reversed course and pounded down the corridor.
“Come on,” Doctor Frank said. “I think we passed the wardroom on the way down here.”
Somehow the doctor found his way; Sally knew she was hopelessly lost. When they entered the wardroom, three ensigns and a lieutenant (j.g.) were seated at a table, cards and cash in front of them. The doctor spoke to them quietly; they got up, nodded to Sally, and quietly left.
“I’ll see you at 1500,” Doctor Frank said, his tone gentle. “Enjoy your visit.” He left, and Sally was alone in the compartment. She sat down, suddenly and unaccountably nervous.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and Tom walked in.
Sally stood up. Tom stood there, smiling. “Somehow,” he said, “I figured when I saw you again, it would be in a field of flowers, with the wind blowing that red hair of yours around. But this is pretty damn good, too.” He held out his arms.
Sally burst into tears. She walked to Tom, hugged him fiercely, covered his face with kisses. When she stopped for a moment, and looked at him…
“That’s a scar,” she said. “A scar. On your head.” A patch of his close-cropped brown hair bore a streak of white. Under the white was a jagged, pink seam in the skin of Tom’s temple.
He raised a hand to his head. “Oh, this? That’s nothing. We got strafed by a Zero. Barely got through my helmet. Good thing I had it on, huh? My head’s hard, but not that hard.”
“You could have been killed!”
“There’s a lot of that going around, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“I’ve hardly had time to notice anything else.”
“You’ve been dealing with the Cape Gloucester mess, then.”
They talked about the action the Chippewa Falls had seen, the capabilities of the Brit admiral commanding TF74, Sally’s duties aboard the Charity, the horrible casualties from New Gloucester. “Who knows where it will be next,” she said, sadly.
“Well, I hope Admiral Nimitz and General MacArthur know,” Tom pointed out. “But aside from them?” He shrugged. “We’ll go where we’re told to go and do what we’re told to do.”
“And it’s 1500. I have to go back to the Charity. And you, my love, need to go back to work.”
“Never seems like long enough, does it? I’ll walk you to where they strung up that Mickey-Mouse contraption you came over on. But before we leave here…” He kissed her thoroughly. “Would rather do that now, instead of on deck with a bunch of horny sailors catcalling. You spoiled me with this visit, dear. It’s going to be hard to go back to work.”
Sally smiled. “You’ll manage. So will I. It’s what we have to do.” She kissed him back.
It wasn’t until she was in the chair, suspended over the roiling water between ships, watching Tom wave, that the loneliness crashed in on her again. This damn war, she thought bitterly. When the hell are we ever going to be able to start a normal life?
***
Purple clover Queen Anne lace
Crimson hair across your face
You could make me cry if you don’t know
Can’t remember what I was thinking of
You might be spoiling me too much love
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go.
As always, amazing, Animal.
Like ships passing, in the daylight. Great stuff Animal, I hope my sense of foreboding is needless.
At least Tom’s not on the Indianapolis.
Good stuff, Animal.
Great work, Animal.
One question: I’ve always understood that the proper way to refer to a ship is to call it by [Name], not [The Name].
Am I wrong about this? I know it is extremely common in normal usage, but for some reason it doesn’t sound proper to me.
I honestly don’t know. I was Army, not Navy, so don’t know the correct form; if any of the former squids around here could clarify, maybe we could prevail upon the Edit Fairy to fix it.
Thanks for firmly confirming we’re in an alternate universe, I can stop trying to figure out exactly which CL Tom would be serving on from the hints. 😉
Didn’t expect the time skip over all of ’42, hopefully Tom and Sally will make it through. At least she isn’t trying to pull him away from his hunting tribe or anything…
Or in other words – enjoying the story, Animal. Thanks again.
A real US Navy ship will be referred to later.
My Dad was in the Navy–he always referred to his boat as “Halibut,” not “The Halibut,” when he did refer to it. I’ve heard similar from other Navy types.
And a ship is always a her, even when named after a man. The Navy, where bending gender is a tradition!
Except Russian ships, which I understand their crews refer to with the masculine pronoun.
Except for Kamchatka, which based on accounts of the 2nd Pacific Squadron, should always be “That crazy bitch”.
The Russian noun корабль (korabl’) is masculine.
Smaller boats get the feminine noun лодка (lodka).
Another enjoyable installment.
How the armed forces have fallen.
You’ve clearly never gone five rounds with a Hate Bird…
Where was their air support?
The AF hates flying close air support.
Speaking of close-in air operations, a C-17 was just doing low approaches, gear down, at our local airport about 2 mi from my house–I got a decent view of it. I don’t think our pavement would hold up to the weight, but supposedly the C-17 can use runways as small as 3500’x90′.
They had one at Oshkosh that showed off the short takeoff. It can also back into a parking space!
Cool plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1SByImzjmA
That’s why we built the interstate system.*
Just ignore the street lights, bridges, median dividers and exit signs and it almost seems plausible.
*urban legend fanatic.
There’s a well-used assault strip at my airport… It’s 3500’x90′. KMWH
“I do not like the cobra-chicken”
I keep expecting the worst in this story. This time I was worried, since the sailor was just told “your XO” and not Tom’s name, that it was going to turn out that something had happened to him and the letter notifying Sally had gotten misplaced. I thought when the XO arrived that it would be a stranger. Glad to be wrong.
#metoo X2
Seems like this is the pattern that modern stories have adopted, and to a fault.
Now we expect the rug to be pulled out, for something horrible to happen, and are always feeling like we’re being setup, even when we’re not.
Maybe it has always been thus? Not saying that reversals or twists have not always occurred, but the everybody-dies-haha-we-got-you style of storytelling wears on me.
(glad that it hasn’t happened yet here, but yes, I feel that dread a bit, too)
Not even trying to hide it, a little.
Utter disdain for the little people.
I guess Epstein’s Lolita Express would count as a pleasure flight.
Cargo.
Why should they care if we know? After all, what are you gonna do about it?
Good stuff Animal!
Like ships passing in the night…
A preview of SugarFree Wednesday?
Morale inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is plummeting amid growing fears that the parallels to Jimmy Carter, another first-term Democrat plagued by soaring prices and a foreign policy morass, will stick.
Parallels? They should be more worried that they’re making Carter look like blooming Eisenhower at this point.
???
Carter at least deregulated a few things.
Making? At this points, it made.
I haven’t read he’s gotten involved in scheduling the WH tennis courts, but otherwise…
Wut?
Come on. It’s right there, in the 0th Amendment.
Tbf abortion is a “right” granted by the court in the first place.
The comparison will be complete once the rabbits start going after him.
Or this perspective…
“Senile but he’s still my President!
Yeah, it’s things he shouldn’t have said out loud not the things themselves.
My guess is it’s the truly batshit staffers that are tired of being shot down that are pushing this.
parallels to Jimmy Carter
This admin. makes Jimmy Carters look it was run by Friedrich Hayek.
Jimmy is a fucking genius compared to Brandon.
Carter was smart, and honest. Those are two things Biden never will be.
One termer, not first termer.
I’ve gotten 2 emails from my senator in the last week. The first one talked about the Texas shooting and then asked a poll question on whether you support common sense gun control. After the poll, there were several paragraphs where said senator went on about how they were looking to sponsor common sense gun control and they would not be silenced or stopped by the gun lobby this time.
Second email was the same on abortion.
I don’t understand the purpose of the poll if they have already determined that “polls be damned, I’m fighting for what I believe on this issue.”
I sincerely hope that the NRA and other gun lobbies are encouraging members to flood the poll with “no to gun control” responses.
GOA has sent me several email campaigns about it. I usually participate.
Funny, I’m a member but I haven’t got anything from GOA in the last month or so.
https://pennsylvania.gunowners.org/05312022/
You’re in PA, right?
yes
That fucker Toomey won’t accept an e-mail unless you provide your phone number.
https://pennsylvania.gunowners.org/06032022/
thanks for the links. Not sure why I’m not receiving stuff from GOA
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/06/06/gun-control-misfire-trudeau-pistol-ban-sees-stores-sell-out-of-handguns/
Surprise!
“Shelves are empty, no one can get any, Winning!” – Trudy.
Whoops!
In unrelated news, canoe sales have spiked throughout Canada, and there appears to be a PVC pipe shortage in the making.
Walked through Palmetto State Armory last weekend and was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t a rush going on. There was still ammo on the floor and guns, including lots of ARs, behind the counters. I think there have been so many gun control scares since Obama that people are either ignoring it, or they have what they think they need to survive. Even had a barrel of $10 30-round Pmags by the register.
Well, I can tell you that there’s a shortage of 16-gauge Winchester Model 12 Pigeon Grade guns, because I haven’t managed to find a really nice original one yet.
I forgot to look for that.
Wonderful story, Animal.
Laughed out loud at the bullet through the helmet line.
President Joe Biden and his aides have grown increasingly frustrated by their inability to turn the tide against a cascade of challenges threatening to overwhelm the administration.
Soaring global inflation. Rising fuel prices. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A Supreme Court poised to take away a constitutional right. A potentially resurgent pandemic. A Congress too deadlocked to tackle sweeping gun safety legislation even amid an onslaught of mass shootings.
In crisis after crisis, the White House has found itself either limited or helpless in its efforts to combat the forces pummeling them.
He’s a victim of circumstance.
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
It wasn’t my fault!
Administration spokesman Jake Blues.
Plus ça change
Plus c’est la même chose
limited or helpless, incompetent and bumbling…..potayto, potahto
“A lot of things are out of his control and we are frustrated and all Democrats — not just the White House but anyone with a platform — need to do a better of job of reminding Americans of how terrible it would be if Republicans take control,” said Adrienne Elrod, a senior aide on Biden’s transition team and aide to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Good gravy, who would would want to turn the clock back to 2018?
If every single person in the US were presented irrefutable evidence of the current situation in the world in 2022, do you think it would have changed anything about the outcome of the 2018 elections?
Seriously wondering.
Not meant as a challenge to TLPB but as a thought experiment.
The subscriber written headlines at the Bee are pretty good:
Miracle: Jesus Turns Water Into Gasoline
Uvalde To Replace Entire Police Force With Kyle Rittenhouse
Hasbro Announces Release Of New Trump Edition 4D Chess Set
New Evidence Suggests That Cain’s Offering Rejected By The Lord In Genesis 4 Was Mostly Kale And Brussels Sprouts.
Is this like getting an endorsement from David Duke?
OTOH, Chesa Boudin absolutely believes in accountability — which sometimes includes incarceration when necessary. That’s about as left-handed a compliment you can offer – and this dumbshit is making it sincerely!
Joe Biden declares an Energy Emergency!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/06/declaration-of-emergency-and-authorization-for-temporary-extensions-of-time-and-duty-free-importation-of-solar-cells-and-modules-from-southeast-asia/
The solution is… cheap solar panels from Asia.
“Southeast Asia…”
*checks map*
You mean China? Say it – “Chai Na”.
Cause that will get me gas bill down
Create and/or prep the battlefield and then declare an emergency to empower the government. Why do I get a feeling this is not going to stop here…
Fantastic
In order to ensure electric resource adequacy, utilities and grid operators must engage in advance planning to build new capacity now to serve expected customer demand. Solar energy is among the fastest growing sources of new electric generation in the United States. Utilities and grid operators are increasingly relying on new solar installations to ensure that there are sufficient resources on the grid to maintain reliable service. Additions of solar capacity and batteries were expected to account for over half of new electric sector capacity in 2022 and 2023.
They’re really going for it. They are going to further energy problem by artificially creating an actual crisis by forcing a switch to an unreliable, expensive alternative that does not have a prayer of working at any point in the foreseeable future.
Who the fuck is the plaintiff?
This is why you just show up to random bars and buy the lady a drink and its all on the up and up.
Great writing again, Animal.
Depressing and uplifting all at the same time.
Yep. Always great reads on Mondays
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/U.S.-waives-tariffs-on-solar-panels-from-Thailand-Vietnam
Meant as a reply in Drake’s thread.
https://www.spartanarmorsystems.com/theyre-trying-to-ban-body-armor-again
NY did it.
Effective Juneteenth.
Looks like possession to be legal (IANAL). Order fast.
This is all going to get much uglier.
Good reason to have some armor on hand, no?
You certainly don’t want your lungs exploded out!
Why, in God’s name, does anyone need body armor? The deer only get Kevlar for God’s sake!
Got mine last year
Signs You Might Be A Woman
If every single person in the US were presented irrefutable evidence of the current situation in the world in 2022, do you think it would have changed anything about the outcome of the 2018 elections?
Seriously wondering.
They wouldn’t believe it.
“Gas five bucks a gallon? You’re nuts.”
“Baby formula shortage? Not in America.”
“Joe Biden as President? GTFO”
They might have wanted to rethink the timing of this one. The “Best of Us” might not sit on our asses and let kids die… just sayin’.
The solution is… cheap solar panels from Asia.
Solar powered rickshaws, FTW!