26
The River Styx
Billy Martens
Billy had hoped to grab some shuteye the day after the night attack, but waves of Japanese aircraft prevented that, their bombs bursting on Henderson Airfield and all around it, hour after hour. Henderson fighters, the Cactus Air Force, swarmed into the air after them, like furious wasps, and the gunnys cheered every time they flamed a Zero. To the bombs, the j**s added naval shelling, so that by nightfall, the Marines were calling it “Dugout Sunday.” Billy noticed that Over Easy Brian managed to sleep, despite the roar of explosions and aerial combat, and did so with an inexplicable smile on his face. The rest of the squad swapped jokes and tall tales while they were bunkered down in their holes, and Johnny won a tin of K-rations in a bet with Leon Levy
