#4 - Whatup, Dawg?

The Happenings

We meet again, and the tales I have to share with you regarding this 3^rd section is mind blowing. I can feel how intense the situation in the book is coming down to, so much is going on! There’s so much symbolism but I’ll go into that a bit later. To start off where we left, the narrator and the crew are in an airplane headed to their next destination. It happens to be the Mississippi Gulf Port, and to be met by the ocean and warm salty air proved to be an amazing relief. The boys are dragged to a pier and met by Leroy the skipper. He is the man responsible for providing transportation to and from destinations needed by the narrator and crew. What I began to notice, was the amount of caution and disrespect given to the narrator and everyone due to the fact that they were Japs. As the crew was dropped off and walked to the pier, there were MPs around that hid from them (still not too sure on what MPs are, from context I am guessing they are locals/civilians/etc). The boat that Leroy owned and the crew hopped into to leave for the next island was called the Sugar Babe. As they got on and left, the MPs slowly came out and watched eerily as the boat sailed off, carrying the “Japs”. They than move onto the island known as Cat Island, which got its name from huge raccoons that explorers mistook as cats. Ironically, this island is a training ground for military dogs. Once here, the crew met a Swiss lieutenant named Franz, and Lieutenant Parrish. It’s ironic how the one man the narrator has grown to like due to the kindness and respect he shows (Parrish) has the name ‘perish’. Later on this ironic name is explained to me. Not only does Parrish explain the crew’s task, but he delivers it as if it is no big deal. The reason why the narrator and everyone else is here, is because they are going to help train military dogs. Train them to hunt and KILL Japs. The crew is looked at, in such a way that they are nothing but bait.

            After the crew is debriefed, they head back to their island which will be home to them for the months to come. The island, is small and was once occupied by Fort Massachusetts. The fishy thing is, this island was also used as a quarantine for those who had yellow fever. Which, to me is totally disrespectful and unacceptable, these are American soldiers. Not some prisoners… But it can’t be helped that they were treated as if complete foreigners. Everyone then goes back to Cat Island and is paired up with a handler and dog. The Narrator is paired with a guy named Smith, and a German Shepherd who went by Kooch. The dogs were to maintain a relationship with the handlers ONLY. While the narrator and his crew was to be the “enemy Japs” or “training bait”. The basic procedure was that the “Japs” would get 10 minutes to run out and hide anywhere on Cat Island, while a piece of horse meat was attached to them. As they ran and hid, when the dogs found them, the handlers would shoot an air pistol up and the Japs would “die”. After they fell to the ground, they were supposed to take the horse meat and put it on their throats. As this was done, the dogs would then eat it off them, potentially playing the act of training the dogs to bite and kill to the throat.

            This was done multiple times before a new rule was implemented. The dogs and Japs were getting too friendly, which made Franz establish something the narrator especially disagreed with. After they were found and “killed”, to stimulate anger and hate within the dogs, they were to inflict pain on them. The narrator had to slingshot rocks at Kooch every time, which killed him inside and slowly caused Kooch to go insane with anger. As the days go by, the crew is forced to inflict more severe pains to the dogs. It ended up with the dogs being slashed in the face with sacks. This was a truly hard scene for me to read, due to the fact that this was “for America” training dogs to protect soldiers on the battlefield; yet being so wrong.

Since the training is supposed to be done with the crew of “Japs” as the enemy, they were to go back to their island of Fort Massachusetts upon day’s end. One day, as the crew and Leroy were heading back the engine dies and they are forced to drift helplessly. A flare gun is shot out in hopes of help and a while later, it arrives. The US Coast Guard shows up, but very cautiously. As PeeWee flings himself over the boat to puke due to the rocking and sea sickness, the Coast Guards shoot and as the bullets hit the ship, splinters fly up and lodge into PeeWee’s face. PeeWee is okay, and the Coast Guards find out their thoughts on the crew being Jap Sabotages were wrong. As they are towed back to shore, the narrator is in disbelief. And so the section ends…..