Word: wardrooms
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...Navy then was fighting a desperate holding war. Most of the O'Bannon's crew were green hands. MacDonald, who was graduated from the Academy in 1931, was only 34. Her wardroom was filled with fresh-faced reservists. They had scarcely got their sea legs under them before they were under fire...
...aerial bombs, plus 1.500 tons of shellfire, on Betio's crowded, scant square mile (see cut). But they could not be sure that even this tremendous pre-landing bombardment would wreck the defenses built by the Japs. On the night before battle, sweat-drenched men packed the wardroom, spilled into the passageways to pray with their chaplains...
...with steam and his inflated face slick with sweat, owed $8 to a sharp-eyed little captain. He asked: 'Do you want it now, or will you take it off the corpse?' One by one the men drifted off to the narrow, airless bunks assigned them. The wardroom was empty...
...clock the colored mess attendant had turned on the wardroom lights and got the table ready for breakfast. The troops somnambulated in. A few had already made themselves ready, had melted pellets of green dye and smeared their faces. One of these had applied an imaginative swirl of green across his face, leaving an eerie eye and half a mouth. 'I want them to die laughing,' he explained...
...After breakfast men drifted together in the corner of the wardroom. One of them softly began to sing. Shyly others cleared their throats and chimed in. As the singing finally died down, one officer smiled a funny smile and broke into Just Before the Battle, Mother...