Chapter 1 Summary

Line of Fire, by W.E.B. Griffin, is one of the series of books in his continuing story of the United States Marines Corps. In this book, he looks at the lives and activities of a variety of characters during the early years of the war in the Pacific. Line of Fire is the fifth book of the series.

In early 1942, the freighter John T. Rogers Jr. docks at Melbourne. The crates that are unloaded are not looked at for two weeks. They contain twenty thousand calvary sabers. An Australian firm is hired to convert the sabers into matchetes.

One hundred of the machetes are requisitioned by First Lieutenant Joseph L. Howard for use in a parachute drop on Baku Island. Sub Lieutenant Jakob Reeves is on Buka, reporting on the Japanese. He is a Coastwatcher and his radio goes off before...