Same drill. We generally get thirty minutes' notice from the Coastwatcher people, via either Pearl Harbor or Townsville. That gives us enough time to get off the ground and to altitude. By then the radar can usually give us a vector. We shoot them down or they shoot us down. That will go on until one side or the other runs outs of airplanes. (Chapter 1, pg. 26)

On the one hand, going to MacArthur could raise more problems than it solved: MacArthur believed in the chain of command. Since colonels are de facto smarter than majors, majors do not question what colonels do. (Chapter 2, pg. 44)

Colonel Carlson talked to enlisted Marines—not just the senior staff noncoms, but the privates and the corporals, too—like they were people, not enlisted men. Like he was really interested in what they had to say. (Chapter 3, pg. 55)

In Stecker's opinion...