The best reward is getting out alive. Captain Tumble MacFarland is flying a Marine Corps KC-130 Hercules aerial tanker aircraft carrying 36 marines and has plenty of fuel over a dark and storm tossed South Pacific Ocean until a desperately low fuel Navy Hornet fighter arrives. Risk everyone so no one is left behind? The requirements for success are perfection in calculations, airmanship, nerve, and luck. Christmas and marines are on liberty in Brisbane, Australia and the Gold Coast. If only half the truth is told of how good it was the marines will still be called liars when they return to Okinawa. Peacetime does nor preclude casualties. A non-combatant evacuation southeast of the Strait of Malacca turns to war for a handful of marines. Can a marine send another marine to a wrongful court martial but not leave that marine to die on the battlefield? This is a military procedural. The duties, demands, and procedures described in this novel are factual within the realm of literary license.