At War44-01-2533Condition Red

Condition red, condition red, condition red. We had been six weeks crossing the Pacific, eternally on the alert, always on the watch for the enemy. But we had met no opposition and force until today. Then we received a report that a Japanese carrier was within 300 miles of us.

A stone's throw, as distances are measured in the Pacific, planes are taken off from the carrier of our own task force, of which our destroyer, which I shall call the G, was a part. They would do back now and following them we're sure to be Jap Zero's spent on revenge.

Condition Red is an expression used to indicate that we're about to engage the enemy. Whenever it blared out on the ship radio we ran to General Quarters and prepared to greet the Tokyo Express or the zeros or Mitsubishi's as soon as they came into view.

Condition Red. The Division of the Red. Words at War, presented by NBC in cooperation with the Council on Books and War Time, is bringing you another radio adaptation of an important war book, Condition Red, the story of Destroyer Action in the South Pacific, written by Captain Frederick J. Bell of the United States Navy.

We moved in closer to our carrier, ready for action. Within the steel walls of our destroyer, the G, 300 officers and took a last-minute inventory of their tools of war. In the wardrobe, the surgeon opened out his equipment on the office's dining table.

On the bulkhead, he hung up a square canvas fitted with pockets and pouches for kits of medical hardware. He laid his bottles along the leather seats to cushion them against the shattering concussion of gunfire.