Author: Vic Socotra

Shellbacks

I am going to break tradition here and post my Shellback Card. I have a reason for it. The card recognizes successful completion of a solemn and sometimes brutal ceremony held on ships of the Old Navy- the one in which my pals and I served. To commemorate crossing the Equator, we were screamed at, […]

The Battle of Triangle Hill

(DVD cover for the epic film Battle on Shangganling Mountain. Photo YesAsia.) I was thinking about the start of the Korean War- or Conflict, or whatever this morning. It has been seventy years since the shooting started there, and it is worth the time to think about. I spent 14 months there one time, and […]

Swamp Postcard: Back From the Brink

So, I was trying to put the final touches on the Postcard this week from the bog down by the majestic Potomac River this morning. It was tough, since things just kept pouring in, helter-skelter. Our distinguished governor, Mr. Northam made news, announcing our collective house arrests would be eased on the first of July. […]

Life & Island Times: America’s Current Street Mob Madness

23 June 2020 America’s Current Street Mob Madness Editor’s Note: Marlow is taking the thoughts of Arrias to a more pragmatic and personal level. I am wrestling with the same issues, trying to plumb the depths of what comes next. There is the election in November, which scares the hell out of me, and there […]

Buddy Marshall Appeal

Help the Buddy Marshall Assistive Technology Center! Friends, Buddy Marshall is one of my heroes. His abrupt transformation from a top performing Navy fighter pilot to quadriplegic in the course of an instant is one that moved me tremendously and viscerally as a father. His Dad is an old pal of mine, and the sudden […]

Arrias: Madness

Take a look at the Great Sphinx – it’s missing its nose. A number of years ago I was a witness in a murder trial. It was fascinating for a host of reasons, some tragic, some actually enlightening. But one of the overriding lessons I learned from it was the “pedestrian” nature of the courts […]

Yemen Separatists Seize Socotra Island

Dear Readers, This is from the heart. A fellow named Mohammed Mukhashaf has published an article about developments from my family’s ancient homeland. He calls Great Socotra Island “remote.” That is absurd. It is actually the center of the universe, and it is we who are distant from sanity. Considering the circumstances here, where a […]

The Longest Day

It was the longest day of the year, a cool thing in the northern latitudes where I hang out on the planet. I tried to think how many minutes of additional daylight we were going to get each day until the Summer Solstice marked the end of the growth and began the long slide back […]

Point Loma: The Birth and Death of the Modern

Falling Water I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little weary of the second wave COVID-19 doomsday predictions, the George Floyd canonization, and the overall Trump Derangement Syndrome and unhinging of our collective sanity by the ravening mob of media fools. I thought this weekend I’d rather write about beauty, of things past, […]