Ken has a great affinity for languages and in China learns Japanese, Wu, Mandarin, and Cantonese, which leads to his being assigned to intelligence-gathering convoys by Captain Edward Banning, USMC, the Fourth Marine Regiment's intelligence officer.
While on a courier run just after Pearl Harbor, he manages to make it into the Philippines shortly before the Japanese invasion and reunites with Captain Ed Banning while assisting in the defence of a landing beach.
McCoy is next assigned to evaluate Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, whose unorthodox methods caused concern among his superiors.
[1] Following the success of Operation Gobi, McCoy is promoted to the rank of Major and is ordered to attend the U.S. Army Command and General Staff course, a desirable course which usually is reserved for officers destined for great things, by direction of President Roosevelt.
After C&GS School the only other assignment specifically mentioned was his accompanying General Pickering on the first flight of Americans into Atsugi Air Base in August, 1945 prior to the formal Japanese surrender.
[5] During the period between his graduation and General Pickering's involvement in the Japanese surrender, Ken and Ernie were stationed at the Marine base at Quantico, VA, where his duties were not specified but it may be assumed he was an instructor of some sort, possibly teaching guerrilla operations behind the enemy lines.
[6] Based on the fact that when the story picks up in June, 1950 McCoy is once again a captain, it is clear he was caught up in the reduction-in-force that happened to the armed services after World War II.
Due to his lack of a college degree, at some point after World War II ended he was reduced in rank to captain despite having graduated from the Command and General Staff School and having more than enough time in grade to make his promotion permanent.
Among other things, McCoy conceives and with the approval of General Pickering carries out the seizure of islands in the Flying Fish Channel in the Inchon approaches without tipping off the North Koreans that enables Douglas MacArthur to successfully land two divisions there.
Unlike the majority of pre-World War II regular Marine Corps officers, Banning is a graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.
When orders come down transferring the Fourth Marines to the Philippines, Banning marries his longtime lover Ludmilla Zhvikov, a stateless person (a genuine White Russian countess and daughter of a Tsarist general) traveling on a Nansen passport.
At the beginning of the Korean War in Under Fire, he is a colonel in charge of Marine Barracks in Charleston, South Carolina, near retirement, and contemplating a future in real estate development on islands his wealthy family own.
Later, the two and their children become part of a caravan of American soldiers, sailors, and Marines both active duty and retired, who intend to escape the Japanese by crossing the Gobi Desert to India.
He is sent back to the States to participate in a War Bond tour, following which he is promoted to captain, qualifies as an F4U Corsair instructor pilot, and is made the executive officer of VMF-262, serving under his friend William "Billy" Dunn, with whom he had flown at Guadalcanal.
Flying combat missions off the escort carrier USS Badoeng Strait, he is shot down over enemy territory after busting yet another locomotive but survives, evades capture, and returns to friendly lines, rescued by Killer McCoy.
Following the war, he went to sea and worked his way up to an unlimited Master's license and several ship commands before his father's unexpected death propelled him to the position of Chairman and CEO of P&FE when he was 26.
During this period of his World War II service he was awarded the Silver Star and his fourth Purple Heart after taking command of a destroyer when her skipper was killed in an air attack.
Pickering establishes Special Detachment 16 of the Marine Corps to deal with secret missions in the Southwest Pacific Ocean Area that are not entirely supported by Supreme Commander MacArthur.
When McCoy's report turns out to be right on the mark, Pickering is recalled to active duty as a USMC Brigadier General and is named the CIA's Deputy Director for Asia, essentially the same position he had held in the OSS.
He supports McCoy in establishing a secret intelligence and operations group generally similar to Mac MacMillan's Task Force Able in the Brotherhood of War series.
A Marine major who did not know Macklin's record arranged for him to be promoted to captain, and because he was available, he was assigned to "Operation Windmill," the OSS's code name for the mission to General Wendell Fertig in the Philippines.
The feeling of the officers involved in the mission was summed up by Captain Ed Sessions, who answered Navy Lieutenant Chambers Lewis's question "If you hate this guy so much, why don't you just drown him?"
The intelligence analysis Captain McCoy had done predicting the North Korean attack came into the hands of the head of the CIA and President Truman, and he was retained on active duty.
[24] The couple became engaged just before McCoy set out to deliver the Special Channel equipment to USMMCHI (the United States Military Mission to China) and subsequently to stage and carry out Operation Gobi in March 1943.
[26] Because she is living with her husband in Tokyo while he is assigned to the naval element at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, we can presume she is either on an extended leave of absence from J. Walter Thompson or has left the agency, probably the latter.
However, after coming under the care of a wise Navy physician and his wiser nurse in Retreat, Hell!, she is successfully delivered of a one month premature healthy baby boy, Pickering Kenneth McCoy.
During boot camp, he was pulled out of training by Lieutenant Ken McCoy, promoted to Sergeant, and assigned to act as Brigadier General Pickering's personal bodyguard.
After his reserve company was broken up and assigned to the replacement depot for the First Marine Division, he was reassigned to serve with CIA Deputy Director for Asian Operations General Fleming Pickering in the same role he had held in World War II, a combination aide and bodyguard.
First Appearance: Semper Fi A Medal of Honor recipient during World War I, Jack (NMI - No Middle Initial) Stecker served with Fleming Pickering and Doc McInerney when they were all enlisted men.
[29] His duties were not made clear; Vandegrift seemed to use him as a troubleshooter and as the Corps' liaison to the Office of Strategic Services because of his relationship with General Pickering, Deputy Director for Pacific Operations.