Unit Pride; A Novel

John McAleer, while a professor at Boston College, received a letter from Billy Dickson about a review McAleer had published. Dickson was serving time in Walpole State Penitentiary for bank robbery. McAleer encouraged Dickson to write about his Korean War experiences, and thus began a 1,200-letter correspondence between McAleer and Dickson that led to Dickson's writing the novel, Unit Pride. McAleer was also the author of eight other books, and a lifetime resident of Lexington, Massachusetts. He passed away in 2003.

(from p. 413)

"...Most of us darkened our faces as we went along, so they'd not shine in the moonlight. Dewey walked behind Coggins and Miller. I brought up the rear. The remainder of the squad stretched between. It seemed funny not having Dewey right beside me to bail me out if I ran into trouble. It wasn't that I expected to jump into his arms in fright if we ran into any gooks, but we were so used to covering one another I knew what his next move would be before he made it, just as he knew mine.
It had gotten real dark now, and the moon slid away under clouds to make it darker. There was no way of telling what was up ahead. I had to depend on the man in front of me not to get lost and roam in the wrong direction. Before we'd left we'd shed helmets and anything else that would make noise and give away our position....
When we reached the foot of the hill where the gooks were dug in, we stopped. Dewey came back and knelt down on one knee, leaning against his rifle to balance himself. He whispered in my ear, like a Catholic going to confession in the field: 'Coggins wants four men to crawl up the hill. The rest'll stay down here to protect our back. If we run into trouble they'll come up and bail us out. I'd like it if you'd stay back so if Miller turns yellow again, you can light a fire under his ass. But I'd like it too if you came with me. God knows what the hell's up there. What d'you wanna do, Billy?'
'I'd be kinda pissed off if you didn't want me up there.'
'Good.'"