Dogwatch Dunderhead - Meet The Cast
Rank: Ensign
Age: Early 20’s
Seen as stupid by his superiors, Dunderhead is merely clumsy: a walking calamity storm on a mission, on base, at dinner, on R&R... He is a nexus of trouble and bad luck.
Generally liked by anyone not in a position above him or those who share his calamity with him. He keeps an All American can do attitude about him despite being aware of the position that life, Chaos Theory, or perhaps a whole platoon of gremlins have assigned to him. The only redeeming quality to his clumsiness is that it does more damage to the Axis than the Allies.
Rank: Captain (Navy)
A 40 year veteran of Yang Pat and Asiatic fleet, in the highest tradition of military CYA, this avian example to intentional paper work SNAFU started his career as an Admirals need to cover the his own gambling depts. Amazingly enough, due to decades of being a China gun boat mascot, he proved quite knowledgeable and proficient at his assigned duty. Those decades of mascot then officer experience in the South Pacific building up both official and non- official contacts prior to the war made him perfect choice for commanding this strategically vital radar station.
On paper and in “person” he does his job well, though if anyone back at Pearl were to realize it was an actual parrot calling the shots he wouldn’t even be able to collect his pension, luckily with “Polly’s” distance and the Militaries penchant for messing up paper work that seems unlikely.
Age: late 20’s
Rank: Lt. (jg – Junior Grade)
If a man could have been built out of nervous ticks, self-imposed stress and jangled nerves, this would be that man. This neurotically obsessive personality is in charge of maintenance for everything on base with a wire or fuse, including the all-important radar and radio equipment. This officer’s personality and crucial duty would have been enough, but it’s further aggravated by the islands native population of German trained monkey’s who have a personal war with him.
Age: Early 50’s
A “30 year man” that joined before WW1 he was due to retire January 1942, or 3 weeks after Pearl Harbor, but his service was extended “for the duration.” Since he is the one that does all the real office work on the base he can secure any thing from anyone for anyone for the right price which suits his naturally quite, reserved but not unfriendly personality just fine.
Being the conduit of mostly official and some unofficial requisitions his military career has helped him work toward his dream of running a first class mechanics shop after he retires. With his talent and connections by ’39 he’d shipped home the building materials, by ’41 the stock, and now entire vehicles for memorabilia and resale value.
Rank: Commander
Age: Late 30’s
Name: He is a real ring knocker Annapolis grad, with a personality down in there somewhere or on leave perhaps. He’ll leave the men alone so long as they are doing their job correctly. If not, his decibel level immediately rises in proportion to how far the job strays from regulation. Privately his gruff and stymied career path is at odds with the avian officer who he refers to only in his private journal as a mustang.
Rank: Navy Steward
Age: Early 20’s
The Cook is irony personified. Pre-Draft he was on a fast career path to head chef at a restaurant expensive enough that, short of the brass, no one in the military makes enough to eat at.
He is now stuck with nothing other than what he brought with him. Unfortunately he is equipped with nothing other than a G.I. issue field kitchen and what he’d hardly call “food” to prepare. He’s perceived as friendly but also off-putting and quirky as he’s often seen scouring the island for the native spices, plants, coconuts, wild pigs, tree bark, insects and even sea moss or barnacles off ships hulls. This can sometimes produces quite good food, though the cost is that base’s residence never really knows what they are eating.
Rank: Delia (Lieutenant JG), Ruby and Mary-Josephine-Ernestine (Ensign)
Age: late teens to mid 20’s
“Chief’s” career was used to…more populated posts so when he was sure that it was safe enough he arranged for accidental paper work to assign a nursing staff to the island as his gift to general moral when there was no good or regulatory reason for women to be on a base this close to the action.
Delia, the tall blond, has ring on her ring finger, but also three other rings. No man known’s what this means as she hasn’t let anyone other than the other girls, a book or her diary get close enough to find out if Delia’s taken or just likes jewelry.
Ruby, the busty redhead, is the typical “farmer’s daughter”. Until now hasn’t been more than a few miles from her parents farm and now she’s making up for lost time. Ruby’s on a mission got see the world and take in as much fun and life and boys as she can, but don’t underestimate her. She’s far from naive.
Mary-Josephine-Ernestine (all her first name), the curvy brunette, is sowing her wild oats plain and simple. She could have joined the war for as much for the boys as her country. For Mary-Josephine-Ernestine, who often goes by simply Mary-Joe, this is her time to enjoy the world before she returns to her small towns church choir and settles down with a local boy.
Rank: Unknown (if any)
This pack of monkey’s are an enigma. They’re definitely tropical monkey’s but they’re also of fierce Nazi alignment and some how acting “under orders” to disrupt operations as much as possible. How they got there, whether they’re left behind or on a mission, their origins, or what was done to them to turn them into faithful Nazi’s is completely unknown.
Sparks unquestionably gets the brunt of their efforts as they do all they can to destroy or disrupt all communication and surveillance equipment, which is his responsibility. Though well organized, they are nearly indistinguishable from each other than only the leader wears a German Helmet.
