Honor Bound

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I would like to thank Mr. William W. Duffy II, of the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires, and Colonel Jose Manuel Men?ndez, Cavalry, Argentine Army, Retired, who both went well beyond the call of duty in helping me in many ways as I was writing this book.

W.E.B. Griffin

Buenos Aires 10 August 1993

Chapter One

[ONE]

Henderson Field

Guadalcanal. Solomon Islands

0645 1 October 1942

Three Grumman F4F Wildcats approached Henderson Field from the west in a shallow descent from 15,000 feet.

These three single-engine fighters represented one hundred percent of the aircraft available to Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-221—which put them at thirteen planes short of the sixteen they were authorized. The Cactus Air Force, and ultimately the United States Marine Corps, obviously had to do something.

The remaining pilots of VMF-221 had heard two fairly credible rumors about what they would do.

According to the most pleasant rumor, any day now they would return to Henderson and find the taxiways and sandbag revetments crowded with sixteen glistening, new, well-maintained Wildcats of a Marine fighter squadron flown in from an aircraft carrier to replace VMF-221.

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