Chapter 4

Our tour lasted almost four months. It was early April before we returned to Hawaii. By that time Jenny and Clair were so deeply a part of me that General Wilson took me aside to ‘discuss’ it one afternoon.

“Phil ... You have a very distinguished career ahead of you ... IF you don’t screw it up by the way you behave. Those two women are so totally in love with you, even my wife commented on it, and she only saw you three at the medal ceremony. If she is aware of your... ‘special’ ... relationship with those two, then others are already making connections about your lifestyle.”

He appeared deeply conflicted about whatever was coming.

“The War Department has ordered me to send you along with a small contingent of assistants on an efficiency mission covering most of the Pacific Theater. The task is to visit and examine our smaller operations and outlying bases. See what they are doing that can be done better and find out the things they do well and see if those things can be reproduced elsewhere. Find ways to bring them up to an operational status that exceeds their current state and maintain a watch over them for as long as we remain at war with Japan.

“It was not put in writing, but it was implied that you are to be placed in charge of that mission and promoted to full colonel at an early date. It looks like you will receive a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel before you and your team leave here, and my sources tell me that you will be elevated to full bird before you return. At your age, earning the full bird is nearly impossible but you are ticketed for stars and a place in the Pentagon.

“Please be careful. Don’t ruin your rise to General by parading your relationship with two female officers under anyone’s nose. You can take them with you. I want you to take them with you because the three of you are far more efficient as a team than as individuals. This mission looks to be long term.” He smiled at whatever was coming.

“When you suggested that we bulk up at the bases you picked out on my map, we did. What you don’t know is that the damage our boys inflicted on Yamamoto’s fleet was devastating. The Empire can’t begin to crank out replacements for all the bombers and fighters we’ve shot down. Forget about them coming up with enough pilots to replace their dead ones. Once we trapped their carriers at Borneo and Hong Kong, their ability to stage a large operation sank with them.

“Japan is done as far as the war is concerned. They will continue to try whatever they think of and also build, steal, borrow, or beg for more. It won’t make a bit of difference. Without their airpower and carriers, they are finished. Take the girls and be VERY careful how you behave. Do not give anyone cause to gossip. Do this for the next year, or two and watch how quickly you are recalled to Washington to receive your first star.”

An aide met me in the General’s anteroom and handed over a sealed packet of orders. General Wilson was standing at his doorway watching, so I walked back into his office, closed the door and asked him if he would examine the packet with me, to make sure I didn’t miss anything. His smile and nod were enough to convince that he was dying to know what was in that sealed file.

We found two medals, one notice of promotion, four citations for bravery and several assorted awards, shirt front salad and a very sealed envelope that instructed me to open it in the presence of General Wilson, in the file. The general whistled and said, “Whatever is in that envelope is going to be something very serious, so let’s get to it, Colonel.”

I used his letter opener to slit the seal and carefully unfolded the letter.

14April1942 Private Communication to: Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Rasmussen Specific and Confidential Communiqué – Eyes Only – Addressee and Superior Officer Subject: Enemy Agents Pacific Operation

Lt. Colonel Rasmussen,

You are ordered to begin a secret examination of ALL active personnel and Civilians currently stationed at all Pacific Theater Bases, searching for potential saboteurs, enemy spies, or persons intending to do harm to American forces.

Examination is to be done in utmost secrecy using Cover of an alternative mission which will be communicated by your Commanding Officer, General Wilson.

Your Commanding Officer has full operation authority to oversee your mission and the cover mission. He is to be your ONLY contact in matters of potential traitorous activities. General Wilson will arrange extra-ordinary communications procedures and no other form of communication shall be employed unless it is impossible to comply.

All information as to suspects, suspect operations, and known or potential enemy agents will be shared with you verbally. Do not write, telegraph, radio, or carry any documents, notes, suspicions, or other forms of communication on your person, or maintain such in your private quarters.

These orders are the only record of your formal mission due to operational secrecy and the risk of compromise on either end.

The orders were signed by the Secretary of Defense.

What had I gotten myself into?

General Wilson smiled to let me know he understood the mission. “We will have to set up another way to meet and talk where there are no ears. This sounds like the real thing to me. A file of potential suspects is in my safe, and I have set up a secure area where it can be kept.

“You may not remove it from this building, no matter what.

“Find the people selling our soldiers out and either hand them over, or interrogate and dispose of them. If you choose to hand them over, we will execute them as soon as we are confident they have shared everything possible about their mission. Should you execute any traitor, do so privately if possible, or write a report indicating that you caught them stealing from the base and when they were confronted, they chose to attempt to kill you.

“We have a secret radio frequency that we will use at specified times, only. You will use it only to inform me of your location and next destination. All communication about the actual mission will have to be coded and flown back here by you, or your two women, traveling together.

“They are not to be briefed on the codes. All coded documents will be sealed and hidden inside of a special piece of luggage that I have for you. Anything I need to send you will come by that method, only.

“Do you have any questions?”

I had thousands. “No sir. You have been crystal clear. I will do everything in my power to find and deal with the traitors.” The general searched my eyes for confirmation of my seriousness and apparently found it, because he clapped me on the back and wished me luck.

The next week was crammed full of memorizing the potential traitor list, putting together a suitable plan for our cover mission, and getting us ready to go. Each suspected traitor had a resume that jumped out at you - once you decided to become suspicious.