Author: Vic Socotra

With the Golden Pelicans, 1942

(The crew of the PBY Catalina that sighted the Japanese fleet on the eve of the Battle of Midway). All the ceremonies surrounding the anniversary of the Battle of Midway are kicking off today. The vast distances involved meant that the epic struggle would play out over a week. In the parlance of today’s warfighters, […]

Arrias: Iran – To Deter

“Thrice armed is he who has a quarrel just, But four times is he who gets his blow in fust” So went a little piece of doggerel in the early days of World War I (actually from an American several decades earlier) as the Royal Navy and the German Navy squared off against each other. […]

Life & Island Times: Voices We Should Hear

Sometimes our brains can hear voices that don’t exist as soundwaves. These voices are as old as the mountains and as deep as the seas. Only our subconsciousness hears them at first. For many of us during most, if not all, of our lives, they are inaudible whispers in our ears. Upon first hearing them, […]

Bad Hair Day

I was up way early- a little before 0400- and resigned myself to watching some of last night’s repeats on the flat-screen until the new programming started for the day. I assumed I was going to go back to bed, so I poured a little toddy to un-angrify the blood, quoting the immortal baseball star […]

Big Ag

We are not Big Ag down here, but we pride ourselves on being farm-to-table kind of people. This looks like a poor growing season, though the Russians have brought in the first honey of the year, and the chickens and turkeys seem enthusiastic in the morning. That enthusiasm is not universal. The buzzards have moved […]

Swamp Postcard: After the Intermission

It was a short break between dramas here in the Swamp. I would have thought that after three years everyone would want a bit of a break. I guess not. Two new parallel but completely opposed investigations are underway: Chairman Nadler subpoenaed everyone in the neighborhood around Big Pink to see if we know anything- […]

On Eternal Patrol Memorial Reef

Friends, Colleagues and Shipmates: Former Director of Naval Intelligence Tom Brooks passed this along due to the special relationship between the Submarine Force and Naval Intelligence. Bill Manthorpe, former Deputy DNI added this: “I’m involved in this organization in Sarasota via Larry Stults (Debbie’s nephew) and Craig Harvey (Don’s son) basically I served as the […]

Intermission

I can only watch so much of today’s news before I start to go catatonic. Accordingly, there has been a lot of Turner Classic Movie Channel occupying the flat screen. There are some great films- glittering, sprawling productions that featured actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood. We were watching “Around the World in 80 […]

Arrias: HMS Pinafore and the Navy Staff

In Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore Sir Joseph Porter sings that he’s done many things in his career that led to being named First Lord of the Admiralty, but none of them took place at sea, or, for that matter, had anything to do with ships. The Chorus tells us: “Stick close to your desks […]