SCRIPT WRITER: WWII ON BOOMERPDX, PT 2

This script writer picks up the story of Jimmy, Johnny, and their dad after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Jimmy had been on the island working on his family’s business, electronics and early radar.

They stood to make a haul in the coming war. Jimmy had other plans.

We pick the story up there.

After work trips to London during the Blitz, and Hawaii before and during Pearl Harbor, Jimmy was more determined to act while his brother and father waited on a business decision.

His plans to enlist had been thwarted earlier, but this time there was a flood of men enlisting.

In the rush to get the military ramped up to speed against Germany, Japan, and Italy, Jimmy lost himself in the crowd.

He’d enlisted to be an airplane mechanic with the idea of improving the available navigation systems with the work he’d done in the lab.

After a shortened boot camp, Jimmy found himself in remedial classes with other students who struggled to keep up.

The lifer career sergeant teaching the class saw Jimmy’s test results and started digging.

During his search he discovered Jimmy’s dad had pulled him out of the enlistment process the first time. Then he found a notice in the files that he was looking for his son once again.

The next day he kept Jimmy after class.

Make It Better Jimmy

(A script writer works to make things believable, even the unbelievable.)

The old Sergeant told Jimmy that he had a student in class like no other student he’d ever had.

He said he kept the test results to himself, but learned that the student was being hunted, being searched for, by powerful men.

If his student, he said, wanted to remain undetected, he had the connections to make it happen.

They sat together in the classroom while his words sunk in.

The sergeant continued, telling Jimmy about the problems he saw in the short-term future.

We are not prepared, he said. Not just that, we’re behind, and that means one thing. People like you and everyone is the class are more likely to lose their lives if we don’t get things better and fast.

Based on what I understand from your classwork, you can make a bigger difference in the field than the laboratory. We have equipment on hand and in the pipeline that your work would improve now.

I believe we will win this war, but that your insights will make it far less costly to the young men who will fight it.

If you are the young man being searched for, and you have the desire to not be found, this is your chance.

My service over the past twenty years has placed me in every dark corner and dirty crack of the world. I know the places and the people who can keep secrets.

If you have a secret you don’t want to share, I can help. However, if you want to go home, you can pack your bag now and report to headquarters where a man with his older son is waiting.

Jimmy stood to face his sergeant.

“I’m not going home.”

(Script writer note: Never send the protagonist home early.)

The Script Writer Zeroes In

Jimmy wanted to save lives, the lives he’d never know in London and Hawaii, but felt as important as any other.

He agreed with his sergeant to avoid returning to the lab with his father and brother.

Instead of wealth and prestige, he opted to serve his country.

By the time he returned to his bunk all of his gear had been packed and put in a waiting car.

The old sergeant was in back.

We’re going places today where no one goes, he said. And no one will know.

The Germans are bombing London, as you’ve seen. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. And here we are.

What is the right response, he asked? Bomb them back? Easier for England getting to Germany, not so much getting to Japan.

But we have people, he continued. We have people who can get us to Japan, and we have you to make sure they get to the right place.

And back, Jimmy said.

We’re working on getting them back, but also finding places for them if they can’t.

To do my work I’ll need my notes, Jimmy said.

The old sergeant pulled a box of files off the floor.

We sent friends to your lab to talk to an old professor. He gathered these files for them.

This is my work, Jimmy said.

Another question, Jimmy. Do you get seasick?

Part III will continue soon.