A Separate Peace (Part II) - 117

Admiral Nash relieved Boone of his command and his men all saluted (indoors and uncovered) as sign of respect. The SECNAV pontificated angrily about public relations and threatened Mac (M), Bud (B) and Harm(H). He said that he didn't trust Hs judgment and demanded assurance that he would consider the good of the service as prime. H stood his ground and refused such that Chegwidden (C) had to point out that Hs job was to Boone. None-the-less the SECNAV flounced threateningly that if H "made the navy look bad he would cut him off at the knees." Stuart Dunston began dogging them and Singer (S), sitting 2nd chair, said that she knew him and would see what she could do. H told her "don't trust him" and S replied that she wouldn’t tell him anything that was true. H chastised M for her dislike of Boone as she refused any bargaining. Boone refused to tell H the full story in his defense. H challenged for cause every potential witness who had ever disliked Boone. M then began asking "if they thought they could be fair" and the judge overruled Hs objections. Gunny (G) struck out finding anyone who was at Tan Dien but said that there was a marine deserter, Cpl Owen Branson, who was there but couldn't be found. M gave an excellent opening statement and Boone said he "underestimated her. She would slit your throat on a dark night and not twice about it." H replied that "she would think about it before she did it!" H reserved his opening statement for later and M called Gen Parker who told of the decapitated head photograph. H him into support of Boone and he shook hands with Boone as he exited the courtroom. Coffin claimed that Boone used a child as a shield and shot Tam as she was going to hide. Dunston glibly thrust an interview at H and asked if he'd ever seen Boone smile. H told him "you're an idiot" on live TV. S offered to talk to Dunston off the record but he had to share. When H cross examined Coffin he brought up the alcohol treatment and delusions that S had discovered from Dunston. M began objecting to everything H was asking so he let S take over. She brought up that Coffin had been paid $50 thousand for his story.

Hs opening statement was eloquent asking the panel not to "make Boone the last casualty of the Vietnam war." Webb (W) testified that his father, Neville, had been head of Phoenix program and that Harry Drax hadn't followed orders and told his men to shoot on site. Congresswoman Latham came to tell H to go to the Dew Drop Inn, which is where the deserter Owen Branson, now know as Jed Howe, was. Branson told H he didn't know anything but H saw a tattoo on his arm that he recognized so called W for further information. H told Boone that he needed to take the stand because M had made her case and his "silence would convict him." Boone said "I can live with that," so H argued him into testifying. During his testimony W brought Branson into the room having threatened him with removing his retirement. Boone said that he had taken the girl, who had been standing in the middle of fire, to safety and saw Tam going for a weapon so shot her. He then saw the PRU killing non-combatants so ordered them to stop. Drax came up and shot them all anyway then threatened to kill Boone before he walked away. Boone called to him then had to shoot him in the back before he started killing again. H called "Harry Drax" to the stand and M, finally, had no objection. Drax told Boone "if you are going to kill someone do it right." He said that his only regret was "we didn't kill them all" and that Boone had no part in it. Neville W changed his name and "retired him" to avoid publicity. The real Branson was killed in Vietnam. Boone was acquitted but forcibly retired by the SECNAV.

S was able to help C get custody of his SUV back after seven weeks and three days since it had been confiscated. Tiner (Ti) retrieved it but it had been shot with "six holes of varying caliber." Narcotic officers had "borrowed" it for a "sting" which failed. S said "we can sue." B was still studying books relentlessly about his baby's death. He ignored Harriet's (Ht) statement that he couldn't bring the baby back. Ht came to Hs apartment the faked that "she shouldn't be there" and talked about AJs birth and baby Sara's death. Apparently she didn't like that the doctors had taken the baby into another room to try and save her so had "died without me there." She also didn't like that B wasn't making time for her to talk. H saw B berating himself over failing to warn M of Coffin's hospitalization etc. H told him that he "didn't know what it was like to loose a child but did the woman you love." He advised "don't let one cost you the other."