8 JUNE 1940

USS ENTERPRISE

HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA

The door to the cabin opened and a Marine’s head appeared in the crack. The guard respectfully called out, “Captain Ponwall, sir. Just got a message. Our, um, delegation is coming aboard sir.”

“Thank you son, that’ll be all,” Charlie Ponwall told the guard. When the door was shut Charlie grunted in frustration. He had known it would not be long. The stupid bastards had not even waited for the Big E to tie up along side a pier. They had not even waited for him to get in the ship yard! When he was up on the bridge, earlier, Ponwall had seen them motoring out into the channel to meet him. The radio room had received a message to expect them as well.

Despite what Hollywood showed of life aboard ships, there was not much personal space for anyone and that also included her Captain. That was even true for a ship that was as large a Yorktown class carrier. Ponwall’s cabin, despite being roomy by the standards of seafaring, was a tight squeeze even when it was just Ponwall. Currently he was not alone so he had to almost trip over his ‘guest’ just to reach the mirror and check his uniform.

As Ponwall did, he asked the man that was sitting, relaxed, and with his feet up on another chair, “you got some of that milk you’re famous for?”

The man in the pull down chair still had his aviators glasses on despite the fact that he had not flown an airplane since long before they decommissioned the Langley. That they ever let him fly in the first place was enough to boggle Ponwall’s mind. The man was anything but what you would expect of an officer. The way that he sat, walked, and even stood around lacked military bearing. He did wear his regulation uniform most of the time but, it often looked wrinkled like he had slept in it and, Ponwall figured the guy probably did.

The reason that this sorry excuse for a sailor, Lenny Hess, could get away with it to the point of even doing it in the Captains quarters, without even so much as an invite, was because he also happened to a medical Doctor. Currently he was the only one on the Big E because they had sailed from Pearl with only a skeleton crew, as ordered.

The man looked at the nervous captain over the top of his sunglasses and said, “ulcer problems again Charlie?”

Ponwall was having problems with his top button. It was probably due to his shaking hands, “no not that milk crap. I mean the good stuff.”

“Oh I see,” Lenny replied, “you mean the stuff that causes ulcers.”

The captain didn’t reply so Lenny, in his usual dead pan, told the man, “you’re making a big ado about nothing here Charlie. Nobody said anything about putting you ashore. They just said bring the Big E back and that’s what you did. You‘re not going to get fired for it.”

Ponwall was quite nasty when he replied, “you didn’t see Halsey or Kimmel’s face when they handed me the orders. Hell, Halsey never liked me in the first place.”

Lenny snickered, “I heard they weren’t too happy about it. I think that’s all you were sensing. It’s not like they can blame you.”

Ponwall stopped what he was doing and looked at Lenny, “they can’t? You don’t know Bull Halsey all that well, apparently.” He went back to fiddling with his ribbons, “besides. I can’t blame them for being mad. This is all just one big snafu. We’d only just gotten out there. Now that the war in Europe is over our biggest threat,” Ponwall thought about that for a minute and then continued, “hell, even before Hitler lost his balls it was our biggest threat.”

“The Japs,” Lenny replied unenthusiastically. “Yeah I know.” It wasn’t like he had not heard that same line before, multiple times. It was not so much that Lenny disbelieved it. He figured anybody with common sense could see that Japan was becoming a pain in the ass. Lenny’s problem was, he just didn’t care. What was going to happen would do so without his opinion and, his only concern was in cleaning up the mess. That was the curse of being a military doctor.

Lenny quite often regretted getting that damn M.D. He was pretty sure it was one reason why the navy clipped his wings. At the time they had plenty of young strapping boys wanting to jump in a cockpit while, on the other side of the coin, all their best medical people were running for the private sector to make more money. It was all a big joke to those guys who decided who should go where. They had even told Lenny he’d make more rank, along with more pay, if he just started practicing medicine for them. His rank, even if he wore eagles on his collar just like the ships captain, was largely a joke to other officers. His pay, even if it was more than that of a Lieutenant, was pathetic compared to his colleagues who decided to drop their navy whites and dawn lab coats of the same color.

After finishing with his own uniform, Ponwall looked to his doctor and displayed the almost magical capacity of reading Lenny’s mind. Ponwall pointed at the doctor and said, “why aren’t you in your whites?”

After taking a sip of his coffee, extra strength, Lenny replied, “I thought I’d save them for Marlene Dietrich.”

Ponwall had to think about that for a minute. Then he actually seriously asked, “she’s not coming aboard too, is she?” It was hard to tell when Lenny was joking and when he was being serious. It was also well known that Charlie had a grapevine of information that quite often proved to be true. When Ponwall put that together he decided that, in the end, he really did not want to know. He just stepped over Lenny’s legs, reached the door, and then in a brisk manner told his doctor, “well just try and look like you’re a mechanic or something. Maybe they won’t notice you.”

The small assembled group of officers were already standing in formation on the hangar deck when their captain arrived. Lenny did not bother to formally join them, as was often the case. He simply found a stack of bags, within earshot, and made himself a comfortable chair. Ponwall took over command of the formation from his Executive Officer and then turned to face the arriving delegation. Only then did Ponwall see who was leading it. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that it was none other than the Secretary of the Navy, Charles Edison, in the flesh.

The Secretary’s first comment to Ponwall was not enthusiastic, “you all right Captain? You’re looking a little sea sick.”

Ponwall gulped, “never better sir.”

“I see,” replied Edison, obviously not believing it, but also, not caring. The man introduced a couple of military officers who were trailing him, “this is Colonel Groves and Commander Rickover. They’re going to be with you on your trip up to Philly. You…”

Ponwall blinked and interrupted his bosses, bosses, bosses, boss, “Philadelphia sir? You’ll have to excuse me Mister Edison but.. Well, nobody told us much of anything.”

Edison did not seem alarmed by this. He simply replied, “with good reason Captain.” The secretary went right back to what he was saying, “you give Colonel Groves and Commander Rickover everything they need, short of sinking the ship. Is that clear?”

Ponwall nodded, “sir.” He was also somewhat confused. He had heard of Hyman Rickover even if he had never met the man. If memory served, Ponwall thought the guy had commanded a minesweeper or something equally as obscure but, at least, Rickover had the virtue of actually being Navy. It was this Groves character that bothered Ponwall the most. Why were they putting an Army guy on his ship and giving the guy such broad sweeping authority? It rankled Ponwall at the core.

When the formation was dismissed the two guest officers went off to do whatever to his ship. Most of the other VIP’s dispersed for other unknown reasons. Ponwall took that moment to question Edison and, offer at least a feint protest. “Mister Edison, it is my right, as commander of this vessel, for the safety of both her and her crew, to know what it is they are doing,” as an afterthought he added, “sir.”

It would seem as if Edison found it amusing. He smiled politely, even gave a short chuckle but, then he became all business once again. “Duly noted Captain Ponwall. You have a right to know that and, at the proper time, you will.”

Another man, a civilian in a slick suit, had been near and overheard everything. Up till this point, the only thing Ponwall had noted about the man was that he bore a strong resemblance to a used car salesman. The guy slid right in next to Edison and extended his hand for a shake. Edison actually made the introduction, “this is Doctor Trevor Grant. He’s a physicist and he was personally recommended by Einstein. You know who Einstein is, right, Captain? The smartest guy on the planet?”

All that Ponwall could say to that was, “recommended for what?”

Grant played it cool and responded in that slick, almost English sounding, accent, “I can assure you Captain, we aren’t going to harm your vessel one bit. In fact, we’re going to make her the most amazing vessel in…”

Edison cleared his throat and Grant shut up at that point. Then Edison smiled and looked back to Ponwall, “now that you’re fully briefed Captain, may we please get underway. Philadelphia is waiting.”