Captain Edward J. Banning is a staff Intelligence officer with the 4th Marines. He is thirty-six years old and graduated from the Citadel, a South Carolina military college. He is romantically involved with a White Russian named Ludmilla Zhivkov. Banning is appointed to be the Defense Counsel for the court-martial of Ken McCoy. When the charges against McCoy are dropped, he has McCoy assigned to his motor pool Banning catches Macklin filing a report based on falsehoods and promises Macklin a very bad efficiency report and a long time to a promotion. He is true to his word and writes a very bad efficiency report for Macklin.