Little Joe Appears, Listens and Disappears

I greeted Little Joe, told him what had happened, and then we both went to the tank, which had absorbed the shot; showed him the spot where the bullet hit. Then both sets of eyes took in the angle of the bullet and I showed him where we all thought the bullet came from. I used a sweeping hand motion to show where I thought the Japanese were. Little Joe took this all in, without saying a word. I left him at the tank and went to talk to some of the other guys and when I turned to look back at Little Joe I discovered he had left just as he had come - silently. I really don't remember thinking any more about L.J. All of us told the new Lt. who, by now, had taken off all his ranking insignia, that we needed to talk about this business of leaving 2 men, alone, for about an hour. He simply said that we should split 50-50 and no more 2 men left...period! He agreed that the area was becoming more dangerous. He said he would take care of it, and he did. Now there would be about 4 men leaving for chow and an almost immediate return for the other four. We were all satisfied with the new arrangement. This new Lt. had "seen the light" and made some good decisions, which is all that we wanted. I also remember he never wore that style hat again. We saw him some more, but when he came he looked very much like us and had unobtrusively hidden his ranking bars, but we could see them. I liked him, and so did the rest of the guys. We respected his decisions, plus he was likable.