Artistic License
Gilder D. “Chick” Jackson 1942
My father was in command of the Pearl Harbor Marine Barracks at the time of the attack. The night of December 7th, Mr. Lefferts called me over to his upstairs study in the headmaster’s house and said that he feared the unsettling effect upon the students of unchecked rumors sweeping through the school in those early days of war. Therefore, he wanted me to listen to the most reliable news broadcasts (on the masters’ radios) first thing in the morning and at other times of the day, so that I could deliver to the school, at assembly, meals, and other such occasions, a factual summary of what had actually happened. There being a good deal of ham in my makeup, I hastened to accept the assignment.
All went well for a couple of months. The students and faculty got used to, if not enamored of, my popping up and sounding off at least once a day in my anchorman roll. But I got somewhat bored with straight reporting and thought to flirt with the editorial function. I got away with it the first time or so, but then came the morning at assembly when I stood up and brashly began: “Naval intelligence, if I may be pardoned the oxymoron, has confirmed that…” out of the corner of my eye I saw the impressive bulk of Mr. Lefferts rear up from his chair at the desk in the front of the main schoolroom where assembly was held, and start in my direction. My strong impulse was to turn and run right out of the room and probably the building. By the narrowest of margins, I found the resolve to stand still and hear myself berated by the headmaster at some length, and with complete justification, for smart-aleck editorializing beyond the limits of my brief.
Like a line squall, Halleck Lefferts’ ire was intense but short-lived, and when it had passed, he told me matter-of-factly to continue my report, returned to his throne, and never mentioned the incident again. In later years, if I had brought it up, he probably would have been hard put to remember what I was talking about. I shall never forget it.
