dy-Room
again. Nobody said anything. Nobody even so much as moved. They all just
sat there in their seats waiting patiently for the colonel to continue.
He did, with a grin and a little hunch of his shoulders.

"See what I mean?" he said. "Just a waste of time finding out if you
fellows _want_ a crack at this thing. Incidentally, I'm very proud of
all of you, and very grateful in the name of your country. But to get on
with this thing. As you've probably come to realize by now, we've not
only picked crack pilots for this job, but also crack flying teams. By
selecting pairs that have had considerable experience together against
the enemy, we believe that we will get far better results than if we
had simply picked a crack pilot from one squadron, a crack pilot from
another squadron, and put them together in the same plane. There isn't
enough time for you to get to know one another in the air. And so we
have selected teams instead of individuals."

The colonel paused, half turned to glance at the commander of the task
force, and then faced the pilots again.

"You will probably not take off on the first phase of this vitally
important Jap hunt until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest," he
continued. "However, I want all of you pilots to remain on constant
alert, just in case the unforeseen does happen. Right after I finish
this little talk you will be assigned to your planes, and you will also
be given instructions about take-off orders, take-off rules and signals,
and communication code-words to be used while in flight. And, of course,
before each patrol the team of each plane will be given complete
instructions as to the patrol course to be flown, _and_ exactly what is
to be done in the event any units of the enemy are sighted. Admiral
Jackson, here with me, and the executive flight officer, will have
charge of those details. My job--"

The colonel paused and half grinned.

"Call me the team coach, if you wish," he said. "I'm the coach giving
you the old pep talk before the big game. And believe me, it _is_ the
big game. If we don't find this Jap force reported moving southward;
don't find it and do something about it, our initial offensive against
the Japs in the Southwest Pacific can easily be turned into a most
disastrous defeat for our forces. That possibility you must not forget
for a single instant, and act accordingly."

The Chief of Combined U.S. Intelligence took another couple of moments
out, and Dawson,