Press ESC key to close search

Vic Socotra

Author: Vic Socotra

  1. Home
  2. Vic Socotra
July 4, 2020 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Battle Streamers

If you ever find yourself in Boston you should make it a point to make your way to Pier 1 of the Charleston Navy Yard and pay a call to the glorious ship stationed there: USS Constitution. As you probably know well, she was one of the first six frigates commissioned by the US government, […]

July 3, 2020 Vic Socotra

With and From, Fact and Truth

It is the day before one that many of us consider a national holiday, and it is a hot sunny good one. There are others who do not consider it so, and are quite shrill about it this year. To me, the blue skies are filled with the roar of WWII rotary engines above the […]

July 2, 2020 Vic Socotra

Gonzo Station, 1979

“The present-day Pacific Fleet is not bounded by the vast ocean for which it is named. When Iranian militants seized American hostages I November 1979, the U.S. Government decided to establish a continuing presence in the Indian Ocean as a means of demonstrating resolve and ability to project military power. Although that ocean is about […]

July 1, 2020 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: Nature Gets a Vote

So, frustrations with satellite internet out here in the lush greenery of rural Virginia were enough to make me sign up for an additional service, one the ads tell me will bring the forces of nature to power my insatiable desire for more information here in the peaceful pastures near the Big River. It actually […]

June 30, 2020 Vic Socotra

In the Zone

It was a morning here at Refuge Farm filled with sunny skies, chaos and emotion. Our Director of Physical Tasks arrived with one of his slim Hispanic assistants, and things around the house began to move. Watching them and occasionally holding the screen door open to permit passage of large items exhausted me. Grace was […]

June 30, 2020 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Plague Chronicle Notes — Part XXVI — Our Eloi

In my opinion, HG Wells made one mistake in his Time Machine novel. Humanity’s dominant class will never be forced to descend into the earth’s depths and become neo-Neanderthals like the Morlocks. Instead, as we are seeing in this century the elites are pale, urban, and effete, looking more like scrawny, Peleton-riding Eloi than the […]

June 29, 2020 Vic Socotra

Arras on Politics: Infallible

Before Jan Sobieski, King of Poland, saved Vienna and Western Civilization, he first insisted that Emperor Leopold I pay his army and provide fodder for his horses (no small thing – he had more than 25,000 horse). Leopold and the Holy League balked, but then paid up, and, in the wake of the largest cavalry […]

June 28, 2020 Vic Socotra

Point Loma: Nuke the Wogs

Don’t Piss this Guy Off – Just Do It Vic’s recent soliloquy on the crossing the line ritual we used to “enjoy” that was once a staple of being a Westpac sailor brought back what are now, in retrospect of nearly 40 years, some great memories. Goddamn it was good to be a JO in […]

June 28, 2020 Vic Socotra

The Wisdom of Cicadas

As you know, I am blessed to have a circle of pals who possess vivid memories of strange and ancient times and can recreate them with rousing prose. I am also happy to have a resilient Webmistress in the form of the redoubtable Renee, who has been putting up with this drivel for nearly twenty […]