The Honor Was All His

A perfect combination of script and extraordinary guest star made this Very Special Episode of NCIS even more special for its writer

- Roger Director

AN 82-YEAR-OLD MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT walks into the Washington Navy Yard with his rusty .45 and says he used it to murder his best friend, Cpl. Wade Kean. He begs NCIS special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs to lock him up for the crime he committed—on Iwo Jima 60 years ago.

That was the idea behind one of the most satisfying episodes of television I ever wrote. NCIS, season 2, episode 7: “Call of Silence.”

What should Gibbs make of former Marine Cpl. Ernie Yost, who is pickled in Wild Turkey and can’t even recall his motive after all these years?

You get the sense that some of Gibbs’ colleagues simply might have bought Yost a cup of coffee, lent half an ear to his addled yarn, and sent him home in a cab. But Gibbs is staring at one unimpeachable detail: that medal around Yost’s neck. Gibbs wants to find out if it’s been tarnished—worn by a dishonorable recipient, as Yost insists—or if the old Marine’s mind is playing tricks on him following the recent death of his wife. The NCIS team doesn’t grasp the point of putting Yost through an investigation, but Gibbs sets them straight.

“A hero will go to his grave carrying a guilt he doesn’t deserve. I won’t let that happen.”

The task takes on urgency with a call from the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. Yost has sent his confession to the secretary of the Navy, and Gibbs is ordered to transport Yost to the Quantico brig.

Stalling for time, Gibbs sets out to scrape together what shreds of truth he might be able to find in Yost’s nightmarish recollections of the life-and-death struggle for those 8 square miles of scorched volcanic rock in the Pacific Ocean 750 miles from Japan.

Iwo Jima.