Author: Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Red Death: Chapter Nine

It wasn’t difficult to construct a single slide brief and script. Aenid and he used the language they originally had in their separate pieces. After several electronic exchanges of edits. Aenid and Marlow agreed on the final-final and sent it off to the CO with emailed carbon copies to the intervening layers of bosses. While […]

Life & Island Times: Red Death Chapter Eleven

As minutes ticked by, coworkers dropped by his screen to congratulate him on his rise to the top of the day’s VTC briefing schedule. Normally those slots were occupied by senior uniformed and civilian analysts, not mere JOs. He managed to avoid making too much eye contact with his two bosses but was gratified when […]

Japan-gazer Update

平成29年10月8日 = (08 OCT 2017) Japan-gazer Update – – – – – This week’s poem: 御彼岸 Autumn skies Bell crickets And dragon flies Harvest Moon As summer dies… https://carllafong.blogspot.jp/ – – – – – Things Going On Lately (1) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday (07 OCT) proposed adding a new clause to the Constitution […]

Life & Island Times: Red Death Chapter Eight

Marlow was searching his files for the finishing touch graphics for his Brazilian destroyer piece, when the Commanding Officer’s secretary appeared on his screen. She told him that the boss wanted to go over the piece. He alerted Aenid and they headed for CO’s office. When they entered, they found the CO slumped over their […]

Damn Close

(The Chelyabinsk meteor as it detonates above the Russian city in February of 2013). Early this morning, an asteroid with the colorful designation of “2012 TC4” passed the earth close enough to endanger the constellation of geostationary satellites on which we depend for communications, both civil and military. If you are keeping track, the asteroid […]

Postcard From the Swamp #17

We are getting some sprinkles from the remnants of what was Hurricane Nate. For a change, this storm passed without major drama, and the Eastern Seaboard needed the rain. The storm has brought muggy temperatures in the 80s to the Virginia Piedmont, though once the last of Nate has passed off shore, we should get […]

Life & Island Times: Red Death, Chapter Seven

Ding dong the screen went and up popped the senior experts from the Navy’s Technical Intelligence Center of Excellence. “Oh crap” Marlow muttered. Actually only one expert, who was known as The Iceberg. Marlow felt like the Titanic. “I’m afraid I don’t understand why operational intelligence authored this piece. This falls within our bailiwick,” she […]

Life & Island Times: RED DEATH Chapter Six

Marlow headed off to face “Cluster Twin” Aenid. Of course, no one in Naval Intelligence ever called her that to her face. No one dared. Still, the name fit, and no one ever thought of her as anything else. Marlow had run afoul of Aenid before as an Ensign watch stander in Hawaii over the […]

Arrias on Politics: Europe Un-Unified

Editor’s Note: Barcelona- pronounced with a lisp- “Barth-alona”- is a delightful city with a vibrant street life, marvelous cafes, tasty tapas nd bold red wines. It is also the epicenter of a popular revolt against the nation-state in which it resides. This morning, Arrias examines what the implications might be for a united Europe. -Vic […]

Life & Island Times: Red Death Chapter Five

Our young Lt. was estimating how much he would have to fork out for the braid and expensive bespoke tailored dinner dress uniforms that he would need when he was subsequently invited to soirees in the salons of DC’s national security power brokers, when his division boss’s deputy, an ex-Army intel guy, stopped by. In […]