Chapter 3 Summary

Major Jack Stecker awakens on Guadalcanal and gets dressed. He is called to a breakfast meeting with Vandegrift.

The Americans had decided to invade Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Gavutu to halt the Japanese. They needed to recapture New Guinea to prevent a Japanese invasion of Australia. A few days after the successful invasion, the US Naval fleet sailed from the area, leaving the Marines to fend for themselves.

Stecker felt there would be a Japanese attack on Hunderson Field soon. At his breakfast with Vandegrift, he learns he has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Easterbrook is there to take pictures. After the breakfast, he watches as reinforcements arrive. He meets Ken McCoy on the beach. McCoy tells him how he worked with Pickering to replace the Coastwatchers on Buka. McCoy is going home via Pearl Harbor and says he will stop to see Stecker's...