Close combat [antikvár]

[ONE]Henderson Field Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands 0515 Hours 11 October 1942First Lieutenant William Charles Dunn, USMCR, glanced up at the Pagoda through the scarred Plexiglas windshield of his battered, mud-splattered, bullet-holed Grumman F4F4 Wildcat. The Henderson Field control tower didn't look like a pagoda, but Dunn had never heard the Japanese-built, three-story frame building called anything else.A tanned, bare-chested Marine stepped onto the narrow bal-cony of the Pagoda, pointed his signal lamp at the Wildcat on the threshold of the runway, and flashed Dunn a green.Captain Bruce Strongheart, fearless commanding ojficer of the Fighting Aces Squadron, carefully adjusted his silk scarf and then nodded curtly to Sergeant Aychie O'Malley, his happy-go-lucky, faithful crew chief. O'Malley saluted crisply, and Captain Strongheart returned it just as crisply. Then, ad-justing his goggles over his steel-hlue eyes, his chin set firmly, not a hair of his mustache out of place, he pushed the throtile forward. His Spad soa red offthe runway into the blue. Captain