Author: Vic Socotra

The Crescent Club

There is a work trip to Industry Day in Tampa for the CENTCOM JIOC Support contract- not the 600 Full-time Equivalent (FTE) job that it was when the command was running two full-up wars, but at 250 is still nothing for the Parkway Patriot crowd to sneeze at. There are partnerships to pursue and options […]

Arrias on Politics: Afghanistan, Libya and the Coral Sea

Editor’s Note: Seventy-five years ago, the analysis of what had happened in the Coral Sea in the first carrier-vs.-carrier encounter of the Pacific War. Nearly half the survivors of the oiler Neosho were still adrift, Lady Lexington was on the bottom and Yorktown was gravely wounded. Against that stark backdrop, Australia had been spared the […]

The Armada and Me

(A photograph, taken in 1901, of Fort Hill Cemetery in County Galway. The cemetery contains Saint Augustin’s Hill and is the resting place of a number of Spanish sailors of the Spanish Armada of 1588. Image courtesy of the Galway Library). “The Spaniards cast ashore at Galway were doomed to perish; and the Augustinian friars, […]

Neosho

(Cimmarron-class fleet oiler Neosho (AO-23) during her fitting out in New Jersey in 1939. Photo USN). Yesterday I celebrated the extraordinary career of ADM Noel Gayler, Naval Aviator extraordinaire and hero of the Battle of the Coral Sea, a tactical draw between the navies that saved Australia from the predations of the Empire of the […]

The Last Hero of the Coral Sea

(ADM Noel Gayler in his office at Camp Smith, HI, 1976. An authentic hero and warrior, he was proud of being the first no-nucs officer to head the Pacific Command. Photo New York Times.) It is appropriate to look back to the battle before the battle that changed everything in the Pacific. I hope you […]

May Third Thursday and a Sunny Wednesday at Refuge Farm

​(A placid farm on the way down to the Shenandoah. Image Steven Christie). It is unusual to be down at the farm during the week, but there was a ceremony marking the 5th Anniversary of the company’s presence out in Page County at ten this morning, and I took the opportunity to beat rush hour […]

Life & Island Times: North Georgia Cemetery

This piece came about when a friend emailed me that this cemetery no longer existed. Someone had come and exhumed all of its inhabitants and left a dilapidated fifth wheel RV in their place. – Marlow Just outside the small north Georgia town of Clayton on a forgotten country back road rested for many years […]

Arrias on Politics: A Bigger US Fleet

Editor’s Note: Arrias is a distinguished Nay veteran, and has been to this rodeo before in his distinguished career. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Socotra House LLC management, nor that of the Hong Kong Fireworks Co, Ltd. Happy May Day! – Vic 01 May 2017 A Bigger US Fleet President Trump wants […]