Morning, Shipmates! Busy morning coming up here at The Trillium, although not as busy as Fleet Week up in New York! The run up to our Memorial Day explains why the Mexican Navy’s Tall Ship Cuauhtémoc, was in New York and the tragic crash into the Brooklyn Bridge last Sunday, resulting in two fatalities and at least 19 injuries.

It makes a lot of us recall more joyous events in ports around the nation that celebrate the gray ships and aircraft that help us keep some order on the World Ocean!

Therapy- Occupational, I think- threatens to arrive at 10:15 to ensure I am ready to roll to Salon for shampoo, haircut and beard trim. We will see how that goes.

An old pal with whom I served in Korea some 46 years ago claims she is stopping by around lunch time. We did a “peaceful” military coup by our allies in Seoul and a bloodier one down in Kwang-ju province.

That led to some later accidental brushes with the North Koreans we opposed in my trip to Pyongyang with Bill Richardson over nuclear stuff that is percolating a bit again. Another “We’ll see how that goes,” but anticipate just going up to the 6th floor dining room for a glass of red or white with the cheese ravioli, soup and salad!

Fleet Week in New York in TV in the background- it was the preparations for these events that went so awfully for the Mexicans at the Brooklyn Bridge last week! I remember being on USS Coronado as the flagship for Fleet Week San Francisco a couple decades ago and it was a magical time hosting Mayor Willie Brown and parading around town in dress blues!

(Lunch in Pyongyang with a former Foe!)

Something a little less than full-dress may be sufficient for the run-up to Memorial day, but it is sufficient to think back across the the span of oceans East and West and all the way around a couple times.

This was Salty, a shipmate my Dad captured with this pen and ink montage in 1944. On this gray morning with wisps of rain off the Potomac River, it seems some things haven’t changed a great deal!

Copyright 2025 Vic Socotra
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