Author: Vic Socotra

The Bomb Plot

There have been discussions for seven decades about how we got clobbered at Pearl Harbor. Mac did not arrive there until February of 1943, so he could not comment authoritatively on what was true or not about the claim that Washington short-sheeted the Pacific Fleet Commander on decrypted Japanese messages tracking the mooring locations of […]

Crusades

(The Usual Suspects at the Amen Corner of the Willow Bar. Mac took the picture). This is about mysteries- and personal Crusades. Mac had one- getting Joe Rochefort the Distinguished Service Medal. For VADM Earl Frank “Rex” Rectanus, it was to get justice for our only MIA intelligence officer from the Indo-china conflict. Mac had […]

Going Ashore

Editor’s Note: This popped out from some place it had been hiding, and I will drop it into it’s appropriate place in the time line. It describes the time that the new and energetic Chief of Naval Operations, Bud Zumwalt, was on a tear to clean house on the list of Navy Admirals. There was […]

Fall Back

I had the privilege of attended the wedding of colleague’s lovely daughter yesterday- it was a delightful afternoon, and the skies did not darken nor the rain fell until the ceremony was done and the wedding party pictures were safely digitized. Then we were all safe by the bar. It was a dark, dank black […]

Arrias: A Great Society?

Begin with two assumptions: 1) American society today is more liberal today than it was 75 years ago, and 2) that shift, which in some sense paralleled LBJ’s Great Society, stems from a deliberate effort to change society – ostensibly better. So, has society changed for the better? The thought occurred to me as I […]

Table of Contents

Just when we thought we had got the last of of the 2016 election scraped off our shoes, some other craziness comes up. Latest is the excerpt from former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile’s new book that looks a lot like someone is being thrown under the wheels of the Scoopy […]

Order of the Rising Sun

By now, most reliable readers of the Daily Socotra have become acquainted with the writings of some other authors who write about things that matter. My small effort to ensure they are seen beyond their normal circles was prompted by a digital crisis experienced by Marlow a few years ago. He was attacked in cyber […]

Senators

(Senator Sam Nunn, D-GA) As you may have gathered, things are a little bit nuts here today. While dealing with the aftermath of a particularly savage terror attack in Manhattan’s Lower West Side, the GOP is going to roll out their tax reform program that will only add $1.5 Trillion to the national debt. No […]

Post Card from the Swamp #21

It has been a lovely few days here in the Swamp. Late Friday we got word from unbiased CNN that Special Prosecutor Bob Mueller was going to roll out some indictments against someone he has been investigating. No specific name, of course, since the anonymous leaker didn’t want to do something inappropriate. I thought it […]

A Coastie Responds to Arrias

(The lead ship of the Zumwalt class Guided missile destroyers, a death star that is light on the death part of the equation). Our pal Arrias stirred up some controversy in his essay “Lattes for Peace” over the weekend. The retired Naval community can actually say what they think, rather than cower at the feet […]