Red sky in morning

by Patrick Culhane

It's 1943, World War II is well under way, and Ensign Peter Maxwell is enjoying easy days in San Diego as base choir director and warm nights with his new bride, Kay. But there's a war out there waiting to be fought, and Pete wants to be part of it.When a request comes up for officers on an ammo ship (prophetically named after Pete's Iowa hometown, Liberty Hill), newly promoted Lieutenant Maxwell and the rest of his vocal quartet, the Fantail Four, volunteer. The duty they pull is dangerous even for wartime: the young officers find themselves in charge of a ship of largely untrained African American sailors who hail from big-city ghettoes, Dixie farms, and all ports in between.As the racially tense Liberty Hill Victory pulls into San Francisco's Port Chicago, the crew witnesses a horrific explosion that paints the sky red. In the wake of a mutiny by the port's surviving black sailors, protesting unsafe conditions, the Liberty Hill must step in to load ammo. This difficult task is made