Chapter 20

It took quite a while ... but ... eventually ... someone remembered the Austin's and the tent and the high bluff looking over Pearl. The 'quite a while' was early 1943 ... the war was getting organized. Production was up. Men were training, new aircraft were coming off the lines ... yeah.

The MP Lieutenant ... newly Captained ... was finally returned to the islands. Immediately after the attack, he had been called to Washington ... lots of officers had been called to Washington ... the REMF's were looking for someone to blame and shit rolls downhill ... unless it floats to the top. In this case, it was the upper crust that got flushed.

That's what happens when the Admirals and Generals in charge don't believe anyone or anything but their own sacred opinions ... and their toadies. One can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, nor can you make a general listen to a major even if the major knows the enemy's secret code.

The next thing that happened was to send the poor ensign and lieutenant bastards off to a combat outfit and pray they got killed. Photographs are great but it takes live witnesses to make it stick. The army Captain was on his way to McArthur and Australia but while he was at Schofield he happened to remember the rich but eccentric Austin's.

"Did anyone hear anything from the campers?"

Of course nobody had ... very few of the people who were there before the 7th were there two months later ... let alone two years. So ... maps were drawn, men were assembled, trails were found and feet were tortured. The tarp was full of holes that could be construed as bullet holes ... no trace of the newlyweds was ever found. Death by misadventure was the verdict and everybody was happy again. By the time the war was over not only did nobody care but nobody even looked.

When it came up for printing ... if it came up for printing ... a book by Andrea Koenigsknecht Slagle Austin Ph.D., possibly entitled The Pacific War, The Enlisted Mans View was going to have "Newly discovered photographs previously unpublished" ... and that would be so cool.

Andrea and David were actually spending most of their time during the week on the Penny ... gotta love those watches. David supervised the new cable drive installation inside the mast and looked for crew the rest of the time.

The Sanchez girls had all written up their adventures and delivered the papers to teachers in assorted high schools and colleges ... like anyone was going to believe that any of it actually happened.

To combat the scoffers and general assholes, Andrea gave guided tours ... explained patched bullet holes, gave lectures ... complete with photographs ... displayed the National Geographic press and exposed the stupidity of overbearing teachers. Grades were changed and David suggested that a class in seamanship, archaeology and history would make a nice curriculum for a Junior/Senior educational sabbatical ... but it wouldn't be free.

Word of mouth advertising spread the fame of the Nevis and St. Kitts Armed sailing vessel and ... well ... you know.

Rich people with problem children and money in hand, flocked to enroll their precious monsters in a years slavery aboard a sailing ship. There was even the possibility of death ... that pleased the trophy wives no end.

Yes ... the off chance that the ex wife might lose her child and make way for the New wife's child to inherit ... well ... that's just too good an opportunity to pass up. Thirty-five thousand for the privilege of learning genuine mathematical navigation was also something a son or daughter could learn that daddy couldn't do ... navigation is damn simple with GPS and hard as hell with a sextant, a stub of a pencil and a sheet of paper ... even if you have Bowditch's Tables.

And then there's the history of the thing ... and the geography. It takes a big world to make one feel small.