Free Meet Me at the Morgue by Ross MacDonald

desire, Miner states, was to become a fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy. Being unable to meet the educational requirements, he elected instead to become a ground crewman in the Naval air service. After a period of boot training at Norfolk, Va., he served at various Naval air bases on the West Coast, and rose, through diligent work and regular study, to the rating of Aviation Motor Machinist’s Mate, First Class. While stationed at the Naval Air Station, San Diego, Miner met and married Amy Wolfe, daughter of a small businessman in San Diego, on Sept. 18, 1942. Their marriage, although childless, has been marked by steady and devoted companionship
.
       
In the summer of 1943, Miner was ordered to Bremerton, Wash., to join the crew of the
Eureka Bay,
an escort carrier then in the final stages of construction. Mrs. Miner followed her husband to Bremerton, and remained near him during the training and shakedown period. It was during this period, she states, that Miner “took his first drink,” and discovered that he was unable to “hold his liquor.” This fact is confirmed by Dr. Levinson, who describes Miner in his attached report as “a potential alcoholic, that is, a man who is psychologically and/or physiologically abnormally susceptible to the intoxicant and depressant effects of alcohol.
”
       
Miner’s first drinking episode, he frankly admits, was responsible for the only black mark on his Naval record. Failing to return aboard ship at the assigned time after a weekend pass, he was reduced to the rating of Aviation Motor Machinist’s mate, Second Class. Within a year, however
,
Miner had recovered his First Class rating, and before his Naval career ended, he achieved the rating of Chief Aviation Motor Machinist
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Miner’s contribution to his country’s defense, a factor to which the community attaches some weight when the kind and degree of a man’s punishment for a crime is in the balance, is sufficiently attested to by the attached letters from Captain Angus Drew, C.O. of the
Eureka Bay,
1944–1945; Commander Julius Heckendorf, Executive Officer; and Lieutenant Elmer Morton, First Lieutenant and Damage Control Officer. “His diligence and devotion to duty,” Comdr. Heckendorf writes, “were remarkable even in a branch of the service where such qualities are a normal expectation. His work was an inspiration to the men under him, and a source of satisfaction to his superiors.” During Miner’s service aboard the
Eureka Bay,
the vessel participated in the Iwo Jima, Luzon, and Okinawa invasions
.
       
Towards the conclusion of the Okinawa campaign, Miner’s Naval career was terminated in what Lieutenant Morton calls “a burst of glory.” The
Eureka Bay
was struck by a Japanese “suicide” plane, which tore a hole in the flight deck and plunged through to the hangar deck. In the confusion that followed, Miner assumed responsibility for fighting the ensuing fire on the hangar deck, and the crew that he rallied was successful in bringing the blaze under control. Unfortunately, a bomb exploded in the wreckage of the “Kamikaze” throwing Miner against a bulkhead and fracturing his skull and spine. Flown to Guam and ultimately to the Naval Hospital in San Diego, Miner spent the greater part of the next year in a hospital bed. He was released from the service on a fifty-per-cent-disability pension in March 1946
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Immediately upon his release, Miner was offered a
position as chauffeur with Mr. Abel Johnson, at that time the head of a San Diego real estate firm. He has been employed by Mr. Johnson since that time and has, to quote his employers words, “served us loyally and efficiently.” Mr. Johnson is willing, if the Court sees fit to grant probation, to continue Miner in his present position and to assume reasonable responsibility for his future good behavior (See memo. #8). Dr. Levinson is of opinion that: “Miner in particular, and the community in general, need have nothing