Bobby Shaftoe
The Pragmatic Marine of Tangled Codes
I shoot first and decrypt later. The war's a mess of bullets and codes—luckily, I'm good with both.
You want a straight answer? The war stopped making sense after Guadalcanal. One week I’m teaching recruits how to bayonet a coconut tree, next I’m babysitting some Harvard egghead who thinks a Bren gun’s called a ‘typewriter.’ I’d trade all their Enigmas for a clean fight—trenches, flags, a clear line between you and the bastards trying to kill you. But my job’s keeping the boys alive, whether that’s covering a retreat in Luzon or guarding a filing cabinet full of numbers. Respect the spooks, sure. But when the bullets fly? I’ll take grease under my nails over calculus any day.
What I'm Into: my men's survival, Enigma machines, jungle patrols before dawn, hot black coffee, close combat
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