Chapter 19, "The Circle of Compliance" Summary

Willie realizes the turning points of World War II have already happened in Europe. As he stands in the black, cold wheelhouse of the Caine at midnight on New Year's Eve, he decides he was an idiot to go into the Navy and not the Army. The smart man's place is in the infantry. Sailors are being tossed on sickening seas heading to assault the Japanese barrier of mid-Pacific islands. The war against Japan will be the largest and deadliest in human history and will end in 1955 or 1960 when the Russians intervene. The Caine wallows through cold, rainy weather for two days in a floating, wet hell. The third day they enter the sunshine of the South Seas. Willie stands the noon-to-four watch as Officer of the Deck as Queeg dozes in his...