It is June 1917. World War One has been bleeding Europe to the marrow for three years and ten months. The United States Marines land in France at St. Nazaire on the River Loire. They are the first American troops to enter the war since it had been declared on the Central Powers ( Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey) on April 6, 1917. They come from Marine bases all over the world; they have come from the Philippines, Cuba, Haiti and as far away as China. They have chased Chinese warlords and bandits; fought insurrection in the Philippines, Cuba and Nicaragua. They have been formed into the vastly under strength 5th Regiment of the 4th Brigade of the combined Army and Marine 2nd Division of the United States Expeditionary Force. Squad Sergeant Fallon Killrain, the only child of Brennan Killrain and Theresa Fallon, who died in childbirth, stands at the head of the 3rd platoon of the 17th Company of the 2nd Battalion. Since there is no other sergeant in his platoon and no officer, he is the titular commander of the unit. His platoon is the third one to land in France. The 17th Company is commanded by Captain Robert Stoddard, his commanding officer in China. The eight men in his platoon, a platoon that should be filled by thirteen to eighteen Marines, had been all over China with him and the captain looking after U. S. interests. When they debark, they are met by "Vive L'Americain" and "Thank God you've arrived." They encamp just outside of St. Nazaire. They are bivouacked in a temporary camp, awaiting orders for their deployment. The rumor that they will train with France's best combat unit, The Chasseurs Alpins-elite French mountain troops-in Gondracourt. It is a rumor which becomes reality, and they entrain for the town situated just below the Vosges Mountains, in the southeast of France. Fallon's company is stationed at the town of Houdelaincourt where they begin training with the Chasseur Alpins in preparation for the trenches. The Chasseur are impressed with the Marine discipline and especially impressed with their ability to shoot; they are all sharpshooters and expert marksmen and very proficient with the bayonet. Their relationship with the Chasseur Alpins is very cordial and mutually respectful as professional soldiers. The 17th Company's training consists of most things that the Marines had done many times before in their constant striving for perfection. They train in attack and defense of the trench system, one of the few things for which they hadn't trained; they are told about trench raids and the best way to conduct them; they are told about poison gas, another thing they weren't familiar with. Everything about attack and defense, most of which they already knew, is the crux of their training. In the interim, before their deployment, General John "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, wants the Marines to assist military stability as military police and he also wants to use them as communication troops. Captain Stoddard orders Sgt. Killrain and Cpl. Dicky White, another China Marine, and now MPs, to go to Paris and transport a recalcitrant former 1st. Sgt. in the Philippines, Pvt. Damond Brace, whom Stoddard knows from a previous deployment, back to St. Nazaire. He's been accused of slapping a girl and getting drunk in a Bistro called the Black Owl. He is currently in the neighborhood Gendarmerie on the Rue Caumartin in the Montparnasse section of Paris. When they escort Private Brace back to Houdelaincourt, he claims he never hit the girl. The French gendarme, Gilles Bracaud, formerly of the French Army and wounded at Verdun, confirms Brace's innocence. When they return, Captain Stoddard sees to it that Brace is transferred to his company, to keep an eye on him.
