(Insignia of a US Navy Vice Admiral, 0-9) Admiral Fritz Harlfinger had a big year in 1970. A two-star submariner, he was the Director of Naval Intelligence, and running out of jobs in the Navy. In the up-and-out world of the US military, a smart flag officer was always on the lookout for the right […]

(Red Banner Pacific Ocean Fleet Golf-class Ballistic Missile Submarine K-129) Oh Lord, this is a complicated business. I wish I could just ask Rex a couple questions when I had the chance, but we were working on other things and I never got around to it.   My pal Mac says he had dinner with […]

(The King and a fan, White House, December 1970. Official US Government Photo.)   I had drinks with Mac last night. Better said, he had a couple Virgin Mary’s that Peter the bartender fixes up like liquid salads, and I had a couple whiskeys to fortify myself against the coming snow. The cold is about […]

(The Pentagon, circa 1970) Fifty-five called me up the other day. He left a note on my machine in the office, and I listened to it, looking at the great pit across the street where the new DARPA building is going to rise and block my view of the low rolling hills of Fairfax County […]

(Director of Naval Intelligence RADM Fritz Harlfinger)   When Admiral Rex served his nation, there were three Navies. The whole thing is enough to make your head hurt, and it is a good thing that the taxpayers don’t think much about it much. It is not unusual; after all, there were at least three Air […]

  I am a little cranky this morning. I was up early to see if I could find the pictures I took of Fleet Admiral Gorshkov’s tomb.   It was one of those serendipitous things. I  hadn’t been looking for him, and happened across the Admiral a decade after this death on a pleasant Spring […]

What a day yesterday on the journey to this Mother of Mondays.   I got up early enough this morning to be productive and wasn’t. I am still leveled and the emotion has only reinforced the somber mood.   I had a great scheme to transition the Admiral’s bio; it is good to have a […]

(Route Pack Exclusive Air Operations Routes Over North Vietnam) Controlling the Air War was an increasing problem. Theater Commander Admiral implemented a scheme called the “Route Pack system” to de-conflict air operations over North Vietnam. The system divided responsibility within North Vietnam into seven different geographic areas, with the Air Force and the Navy each […]

(Annpolis BOQ, Saigon, 1969)   Editor’s Note: this article would have appeared somewhere before yesterday’s installment, which featured some post-fu feverish enthusiasm. All episodes will be meticulously reviewed to remove outright hallucinations.   The first two days of the Vietnam experience began, for most of the people in this part of Rex’s story, at the […]

  The last full moon of the old decade still hangs in the Virginia sky as the world below is sleeping off the follies of the first morning. I have nothing social to blame on the way I feel. The sickness had come on suddenly, and the memory of the last three dozen hours are […]