The Fury Four

Hank Murphy scanned the sky for the hundredth time in the last fifteen minutes. The sky was clear except for the four North American FJ-4 Fury jets far below and in front of his plane. He scanned the sky again, then concentrated his search to the north. That is where any playmates were likely to come from. He saw a slight glimmer out to the north, low.

He clicked his mike button twice for the clock position where he saw the flash, then after a pause, he clicked again three times to indicate the bogie was low. The flight of Marine jets below him started a slow turn to the left. They were in the condensation level at thirty two thousand feet and were leaving a beautiful vapor trail behind them. Then the four jets climbed a few hundred feet and were out of the condensation level and the contrails stopped.

They flew above the condensation level for a few minutes then eased back down and left a trail for a few seconds before climbing above it again.

Hank caught sight of the "enemy" flight climbing up behind his four jets. He was in the sun from the Japanese Self Defense Force F-86F Sabres climbing up behind his decoy flight. He clicked his mike button six times then paused and clicked twice telling his guys that the enemy was behind them at, or close to, their altitude.

Murphy rolled his aircraft inverted, pulled back on the throttle and extended the speed brakes. He dropped the nose and let his speed bleed off until he was just a bit above cruise speed then added power as he retracted the brakes and rolled back upright. He set up for the gun camera and double checked his cannon on SAFE.

A closed rapidly on the last F-86 and squeezed the trigger to activate his gun camera for a perfect shot, then slipped behind the section leader and got a line up on him and squeezed the trigger again. He dropped lower and eased in behind the flight leader's wingman. After he got film of the flight leaders wingman then moved over and took the shot at the lead plane it snapped off to the right in a tight turn.

Hank followed him and keyed his mike, "Blue Flight, Break left and engage." The North American F86 continued his turn into a barrel roll trying to get behind Hank. When Hank saw his intention he yanked the throttle back, hitting the brakes, then retracting them and going to full power as he rolled to follow the other jet. He managed to stay behind the other plane but was now a bit slower. The F86 ahead of him went in to a hard left turn. The Jap was about thirty degrees ahead of him in the turn and if the F-86 could out turn him it would eventually get behind him.

Hank smiled softly, that wouldn't happen. He had never seen an 86F he couldn't out turn in the Fury 4. The pilot ahead of him was very good as were most of the JSDF pilots he had played war games with. Many were WWII Japanese Navy pilots. Lots of them were aces. Hank had never fired his guns in anger.

They continued their turns then suddenly the Sabre reversed his turn. Hank smoothly followed, slightly closing the gap. Hank's G-suit was fully inflated and he grunted hard to keep his vision from going gray. The Jap plane snapped back in another reversal. Hank gained a few more degrees on the plane in front of him as the dogfight continued. He knew that they were losing altitude and took a quick glance at the altimeter. 19,000 feet. He could feel the slight vibration of the airframe that told him he was on the edge of a high speed stall. He could pull the turn just a hair tighter.

His nose was on the plane ahead of him but he couldn't get enough of a lead ahead of the 'enemy' to take a shot. Suddenly the F86 ahead of him snapped out of the turn to the outside and Hank knew he had stalled. Hank slowed and drifted off to the side and watched as the JSDF plane went straight down. He saw it's speed brakes were extended and he pulled a tight turn away then reversed back and dropped in behind the other plane and pulled the trigger. It looked like his sights were perfectly aligned and it was a clean kill. He saw they were at only 5000 feet and were still in a pretty steep dive. The other plane was a bit faster than he was now because the speed brakes on the FJ-4 were larger and more effective. As he followed the other plane he wasn't positive the other plane could pull out in time. It was well ahead of Hank by now. Hank went to full throttle and closed on the 86 as it pulled level just above the tops of the buildings below.

As the other plane climbed straight ahead he tucked in on it's wing and flew formation on it. He wrote the side number of the F-86F on his kneepad. The other pilot turned and looked at him. The Japanese pilot pulled hisoxygen mask off and turned and smiled at Hank. Hank gave him a thumbs up and turned away while he checked his fuel state and his position on the TACAN device in the plane.

The TACAN was the only navigational device installed in the FJ-4. The only TACAN stations in the Far East were aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. He was tuned to the station aboard the carrier docked in Yokahama. He flipped to the chart on his kneepad and plotted his position and plotted a heading back to his home base at Atsugi. When there were no carriers in port at Yokohama, the FJ-4 had no useable navigation equipment aboard. Under those conditions they had to rely on a radar controller on the ground. He was in good shape. He called the Marine Air Control Squadron 10 controller and was identified and given a vector home. The vector matched the heading he was already on.

The rest of his flight was already on the ground and he joined them in the squadron ready room. They all gathered around him grinning. "Did we ever sucker that guy in." They laughed. "It looked like you got all of them!" Hank grinned back, "Yeah, I think I got pictures of all of them. You guys set them up perfectly. I couldn't miss."

"Bull shit! Hank, that last guy gave you fits, did you ever get a shot?"

"You're right about that, he was damned good. In equal planes I never would have got him." He was damned good, the best I have run across."

The Squadron First Sergeant entered the ready room. "Lieutenant Murphy, the Colonel would like to see you in his office as soon as you have changed clothes, Sir."

"Be there in five, Sergeant."

Murphy knocked on the door to the Colonel's office."

"Come in please Hank. Have a seat. I would like you to meet General Suhiro Sakajima. General this is Lieutenant Henry Murphy. We call him Hank."

The general held his hand out and took Hanks hand and shook it.

"I am very pleased to meet you again Lieutenant."

"Have we met before sir?"

"Yes, an hour or so ago at about thirty two thousand feet above Tokyo."

"Were you the flight leader Sir?"

"Yes, I was. You are a very good pilot young man and I just had to meet you. I have never been bested in the air before. I want to congratulate you. And I heard that your general is on his way here to chew you out for flying too low over Tokyo. There were many complaints."

"We were pretty damned low, Sir."

"I couldn't believe you had wiped out my whole flight. I was very angry at myself and just had to try to get a reversal on you but I couldn't shake you no matter what I did."

Hank smiled at him, "You fell for the oldest trick in the book, Sir. If the flight had been three instead of four planes you would have been suspicious and not jumped on them so fast."

"You are right young man, I have never heard of you Americans flying a flight of five."

"I haven't either, Sir. That's why I thought it might work."

There was a knock on the door. The Colonel went to the door and opened it. An U.S. Air Force Major General entered the room and looked around. He looked at General Sakajima, "Suhiro! What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you, Bob, I knew you were on your way."

The Air Force officer grinned, "Your intelligence people are way better than ours."

"No, we got the same complaints as you did and I knew you would be down here looking for some ass to chew. I guess you are looking for Lieutenant Murphy here."

"Is he the guilty party?"

"Not really, he just got the blame for it."

The General grinned, "How did that happen?"

"Well, Bob, he was chasing the plane that flew so low. By the time anyone heard it and looked up, he was who they saw. The actual culprit is here also."

"Who?"

"Me."

"How in the hell can I ground you?"

"Before you get into this too far I want you to know that for the first time in all my years of flying fighters I lost to a better pilot and tactician in the air. That was Lieutenant Murphy."

"Really?"

"Yes, I was outwitted and out flown."

The Colonel and the two Generals stared at the Lieutenant. After a moment or two the Air Force General asked the Lieutenant if he knew who General Sakajima was."

"No Sir."

"The General is the Commander of the Japanese Self Defense Air Force. He is the highest ranked active ace from WWII. He had 54 kills on American Aircraft. He flies as much as you do. If you really beat him you did a hell of a feat. I wish I could have been able to see that."

General Sakajima smiled at the Marine First Lieutenant, "Lieutenant Murphy, would you do me the honor of spending the weekend at my country home north of Tokyo this weekend. I want to get to know you better. I know you Marines are not permitted to have your families with you here in our country while all of the rest of your services do have their families with them. I guess that is what makes the Marines so mean." He smiled.

"Sir I would be delighted. Thank you."

"Then my driver will pick you up Friday afternoon about five at your BOQ if that suits you."

"That will be fine Sir."

The Air Force General held out his hand and shook hands with the Lieutenant and the Japanese General, "This is going to require a great deal of study. Did you get gun camera film?"

"I believe so, Sir."

"Have copies made for General Sakajima and I, please." He looked at the Colonel, "Send them by courier please."

"Yes Sir!"

The Colonel looked at the Generals and said, "If you gentlemen have nothing further for Lieutenant Murphy I will dismiss him so he can make Happy Hour at the Club.

The Generals looked at each other. They shook their heads and both smiled at Hank as he left. When he was out side he leaned against the door and closed his eyes. "Sumbitch! that was a close one."

Friday afternoon the Japanese staff car, with the rank flags covered, drove up the long drive to the General's country estate. The grounds were beautiful and immaculate. The house was huge and appeared to be English Tudor in style. Hank was surprised to see the General standing waiting for him to arrive. General Sakajima smiled as he opened the car door for Hank. Hank climbed out and turned to get his bag when the general said, "Just leave it, it will be taken to your rooms. Please come with me to meet my wife and my daughters."

Hank followed the shorter man and was ready to remove his shoes, as per Japanese custom, when the general smiled at him, "Please leave your shoes on young man, we observe Western Customs in this house, we are more comfortable that way."

Hank was led to a lovely enclosed porch where he was introduced to a beautiful woman, who stood to greet him. "Darling, this is Lieutenant Henry Murphy, Lieutenant, my wife Betty." The woman smiled broadly and shook his hand. Her smile was dazzling. She grinned and said, "We may be related, my maiden name was Murphy. Please be seated, our girls will be along in a moment."

She looked in his eyes and said, "Where is your family from young man?"

"Ma'am, I was born and raised in north Florida, my family has been there since 1820, they migrated there from Virginia."

"Oh! What a shame, we are not related then. My Great grand father came from County Cork, Ireland in 1861. It would have been fun to be distant cousins."

"Ma'am, forgive me, but we must be distant cousins, we just have to go further back, maybe to Adam and Eve, but some where in-between, we both come from the same blood." He smiled as she clapped her hands and said, "Yes, you are right. We are cousins."

The General stood grinning at both of them. "My wife and I met in Washington, D.C., when I was there attending classes at Georgetown University in 1934. We were married a year later. Then we lived in the States for four years at Dayton, Ohio while I was at test pilot school and doing development work on the F-86F. So you can see we are very westernized. We still observe Japanese customs from time to time when we are in town, here we live completely western."

Hank smiled at them and they talked for a long while. They asked about Hank, if he were married and things like that. He was not married, he had been engaged when he first was ordered to Japan. He had only been in country a few months when he got a 'Dear John' letter. He laughed and said he was really happy he hadn't married the girl. He said he was not really religious but that he believed in the Catholic views on marriage.

Hank heard laughing and giggling as two young girls entered the room. He stood and was introduced to the daughters, Elsie and Joan. Joan appeared to be about eighteen and Elsie was a few years older. They were both very lovely. He shook their little hands and smiled delightedly.

Dinner was announced shortly there after and they all went to a large dinning room. During dinner he learned that Elsie was attending the Duke University School of Medicine. He was very impressed and told everyone so. Joan asked if he had a degree. He said he had a BS in Electrical Engineering. And he was working on his Masters in correspondence and extension courses, he just needed to write his thesis.

Elsie smiled at him and said if he was ever anywhere near her in the states she would love to help him, she said she had a minor degree in Creative Writing.

He grinned at her. "Beautiful lady, You may be very sorry you volunteered. My next duty station is at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. About one hundred and fifty miles from Durham."

"That is something to think about." she smiled. He couldn't help staring at her. She was a very beautiful girl. She wore a Emerald green Mandarin style dress with a high collar, short sleeves and the skirt was split midway on her thigh. She wore hose and high heels. Both sisters were about five feet tall. Neither of them was near a hundred pounds. Their mix of Japanese and American blood was exotic. Hank had to force himself to tear his eyes away from Elsie. Whenever he looked at her he found her watching him.

The general asked him if he would care to go flying in the morning. He said he kept several light planes on a grass strip behind the main house. Hank smiled and asked if the two girls were pilots too. They both were. He smiled and asked what planes they flew. The General told him they both flew his Piper Cub Aircraft and were current in the Beechcraft Bonanza.

"You own a Bonanza, Sir? I have one too. I love mine. I had to put her in storage while I am over here."

General Sakajima smiled, "I am impressed, not many young Marine officers can afford a Bonanza."

Hank laughed, "Sir, I couldn't either except that not being married gives me the money and time to care for a plane. And a trust fund I inherited from my Grand parents helps a lot."

Elsie smiled at him, "Can you cuddle up to a plane on a cold night?"

"I have never tried that. I live in the Bachelor Officer's Quarters and have a small one room apartment with a shared bath. They keep the rooms toasty warm. I thought I would be living in the Married Officer's Quarters when I got back but my girl found a guy she liked better. She married another fellow a few months ago. It made both of us very happy." He laughed.

"Me too!" said Elsie, blushing.

"ELSIE!" Said her mother, with a smile.

Elsie smiled sweetly at her mother, then turned to Hank. "When do you return to North Carolina?"

"In August, two months from now."

"Wonderful, me too."

"Are you home for the summer?"

"Yes. I try to come home every other year. I miss Mom, Daddy, and Joanie. I am in the States on a student visa and it helps if you go home every now and then."

"Have you chosen a specialty in medicine as yet?"

"Yes, I want to be a Pediatrician. I love children."

"Do you want to have a lot of children when we get married?"

Elsie looked wide eyed at him and covered her mouth and giggled. Joan giggled too. The General and his wife looked shocked.

"What? What did I say?"

"You asked me how many children I wanted when we got married."

"OH NO!" That's not what I meant to say. Please forgive me, Please. I am so embarrassed, I meant to ask how many children you wanted when we get married. Oh My God! I did it again."

Hank covered his mouth with both hands and closed his eyes. He opened them wide and looked at four gently smiling faces.

"I am unable to explain what has just happened. I am really not that way. I just met you. I have never felt this way before. Please forgive me. I promise I will behave."

Elsie stood and walked to Hank. He stood and she reached out and took his hands, they looked into each others eyes. He was trembling. She smiled softly at him. "Will you please kiss me."

Hank looked quickly at her mother and father. Their faces were expressionless. He leaned forward and slightly parted his lips as he pressed them to hers. He felt her arms move around his neck pulling him closer. His hands were on her hips. She stepped back.

His legs went weak and he dropped to his chair. He looked and felt dazed. He watched as she returned to her chair. She smiled at him and a shiver went down his spine. She turned and looked at her mother. She smiled, nodded, and said, "He is the one."

Her mother smiled, "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

She turned back to Hank, "Hank, would you like to take a walk with me and see the gardens, they are quite lovely at dusk like this?"

"Er, uh, yes, oh yes, I would love to see the gardens."

He followed her out the French doors and took the little hand she offered as they slowly walked down the gravel path. She looked up at him and smiled, he knew he had never in his life seen anything as lovely as her smile.

They turned a corner in the path and saw a pond with ducks and geese. She led him to a white bench and told him to sit for a moment. She stepped a few feet away and opened a bin and removed a cup of pellets and returned to set beside him. She threw a handful to the quacking ducks then handed the cup to him. He threw some feed to the birds and looked at her.

"Throw them the rest in the water and they will leave us alone." She slid closer to him and felt him tremble. "Are you cold?" she asked.

"No, are you?"

"A little bit." He stood and slipped his blazer off and put it around her shoulders then sat back beside her and put his arm around her. "Is that better?"

"Yes, much better." She reached over and loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar. She grinned at him, "Now you look more comfortable. Relax a bit."

"I can't. I am too excited. I am afraid I will do something to scare you away. May I kiss you again?"

"Yes, please do."

She turned towards him and they pressed their lips together. He felt her lips part and the tip of her little tongue brush his lips. His tongue met hers and rubbed around it. A little hand went behind his head and pulled him tighter. He pulled back a bit and looked in her big brown eyes, "Elsie, I think I .." Her small finger pressed against his lips. "I know just how you feel. Don't say it until you are sure." Her eyes searched his. "I have never felt like this before."

She stood. "We better go back before Daddy comes looking for us with his shotgun."