(Club B-29 Portrait) Olongapo is gone, the one we knew, but it lives in dreams. Fevered dreams, the mind’s lens distorted by alcohol and desire, and lubricated by sweat.   It is quite over, and has been for years, since Mount Pinatubo blow its stack and gave everyone the excuse to end the acrimony.   […]

(Master Chief Bobbie K. Hubbard, USN-Ret) Former President Clinton is in Pyongyang, trying to extricate two journalists who were kidnapped by the North Koreans. That is the usual way one winds up in North Korea, either by force or on a mission to get someone sprung.   The only time I made it to the […]

(US Military KIA Returned With Honor Under Concurrent Return) The return of the last MIA from the first Gulf War is a signal moment. It is the first American war overseas in which everyone lost is now accounted. Scott Speicher was the last one to come home.   It is too soon to say if […]

(Grave of Brigadier John Nicholson, Indian Army, Delhi)   Home is where you chose to be, at the end of the long day, and they say that is the place where they cannot refuse to take you in.   Scott Speicher is home, via Dover Air Force Base, after a very long time away.   […]

(Down by the Bow) You may have noticed that the once-vaunted naval power of the artist formerly known at the Soviet Union has hit a slippery patch.   You may also not care; goodness knows there is enough to worry about elsewhere. Here in the sultry Imperial it is possibly more urgent to contemplate that […]

  (Nat King Cole’s Greatest Hit)   This is20more like it. The air is heavy with moisture, and sweat beads the forehead and rolls down under the shirt. Sit in the car for anylength of time and our back becomes a great dark blob of sweat.   The feeling of the air conditioning in the […]

  (Opinion Polls) The Daily Socotra has it’s standards, and we never deviate from them except from the occasional bout of sloth and laziness.   For example, riding up in the elevator after work yesterday I saw the single-paragraph announcement on the mobile bulletin board in the car. “A special meeting of the Board will […]

(Crystal City in Perspective)   The thing about “pouches” is that they shout out the wrong message. Mine is a non-descript brown canvas contraption, nothing flashy, and no corporate logos. Someone in the government had to specify the requirements, and I suspect a long time ago.   “Security bag, Document, Model A-1; lockable.”   They […]

(Down East Feast) The crisis de jour was the stupid pool. It is the center of social life here in the summer, our solace and exercise venue. It is a harbor of rumors, anchorage of the the grapevine. Happy Hour watering hole for some, anchorage of aberrant behavior for others. Blue magnet. It is what […]

(Juggling Numbers- W. Kozak)   My pal the Admiral is going to be 90 years old next month. He is not going to make as big a deal out of it as you might think. He told me over a cocktail the other evening that he had set a goal of living to be 80, […]