Chapter 2 Summary

George Hart is a police officer before he enters the Marine Corps. In boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, he hates his assistant drill instructor, Corporal Clayton C. Warren, who causes bodily injury to many of the recruits.

Lieutenant Commander Eric Feldt is the commanding officer of the Coastwatchers in Queensland, Australia. He is talking to Colonel Lewis R. Mitchell and Major Ed Banning. A message arrives informing them that Mitchell does not take orders from Feldt or Banning. Banning does not like Mitchell because he is always butting in and Banning considers him to be dangerous.

In Washington D.C., Senator Richmond Fowler is in his suite in the Foster Lafayette Hotel when Fleming Pickering arrives with his arm in a cast. He tells Fowler that he wants to get out of the Navy. He thinks he can make a better...