(Contemporary cartoon of ABLE ARCHER. Image courtesy of The Straight Dope). It is one of those strange exercise names, vaguely martial but not particularly threatening. There is much discussion about names attached to actual combat operations- no one would like to die for something with a silly name. Hence things like “EAGLE CLAW” (Iran) or […]

(A couple old salts protect the mail repository. Image Bangari Content Gallery). You know the drill: a young sailor is given an important task, one in which failure will result being ostracized from the only community he or she is going to have for years. The Mail Buoy Watch is one of the most effective. […]

(Joe Rochefort’s son Joseph Jr. and daughter Janet are awarded the Distinguished Service medal on behalf of their father by President Reagan in 1986). It is Halloween, and I am being pulled in several directions simultaneously. I returned last night from Front Page, where Kristina behind the bar was wowing the Willow Refugees in her […]

Fleet Admiral Nimitz received Jasper’s letter at his home on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bar, and he took action. He enclosed Jasper’s justification with a two-page hand-written endorsement to the Secretary of the Navy recommending that Joe Rochefort be recognized for his contributions to the dramatic intelligence success that he led after Pearl Harbor […]

I have shared with you the contents of some letters accumulated by Jasper Holmes in the long years after the parades were completed, history recorded and other wars fought. The key players in the events of the war in the Pacific were retired by then, the Captains and the Kings, and there were some for […]

(Joseph Redman. Photo USN). They say that time wounds all heals. As the secret of the code breakers emerged in the early 1970s, a lot of people piled on the revelations. The twenty-fie years since the actual events had left a mountain of misdirection and false narrative about what had happened, and it was going […]

Fleet Admiral Nimitz did not decide to weigh in on the matter of who was going to get credit for the intelligence analysis that provided the critical advantage that changed the course of the Pacific War. Recall for a moment that the real story was incredibly classified. I once had lunch with friend of my […]

(Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Photo USN) I am at the farm, where the colors are ripening on the trees and the chores beckon. The fire in the cast-iron stove in the evening brings the feeling of the harvest season close. I won’t bore you with list of things that need to be done here, and […]

I could talk about the wonderful wedding I attended last night, and the kindness of Youssef, the courteous cabbie, but that would take us far afield. The Ceremony that joined two extraordinary young people was held at the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square near the White House, and I confess that I […]

(Left Coast Guy and I did some exploring when we were at Pearl Harbor earlier this year. The anonymous door in the middle of the picture leads down to what had been The Dungeon in the war years, and where the analysts of Station Hypo broke the Japanese Codes. Photo Socotra) If you have followed […]