If you have not been part of the planning process on what is called a “Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO)” you have missed a lot of fun. A pal summed it up nicely in our own little committee of Vets this morning in the first flurry of notes. “We have all planned, and most of us […]

(At left in the above Air Force image, the workhorse of the Pacific War, the B-29, is posed with the B-36 Convair Peacemaker just after the establishment of the United States Air Force in 1948). I walked with some determination from the bunkhouse down to the Loading Dock at the farm to grab a Marlboro […]

I had one of those dreams in the pre-dawn that left me unsettled as I wandered with divided focus down to the Loading Dock. I had been changing planes in a foreign airport, the international standards apparent, but with something behind them that wasn’t at all like home. I was a little disoriented, and partly […]

The Writer’s Section had some wistful smiles this morning, since it looks like the hurricane is going to hit New England rather than the Old Dominion. The smiles were a bit thin, perhaps, given all the other stuff we are supped to be worried about. But Marlow’s piece from his Coastal Empire this morning brought […]

I don’t recall much about local coverage of the Carter Administration. I joined the Navy in March of 1977, and spent a year in an assortment of entry-level training. The most memorable figure in that interlude was Drill lnstructor hSSGT Ronald C. Mace, USMC, who remains one of the most memorable characters in any of […]

Exciting week, right? You should see the pile of digits reflecting the thoughts and raw emotions of people who have dealt with the litany of memorable actions with which America has played a major role down through the years. Some of the Writers Section participated in the evacuation of Saigon, now 46 years in the […]

There was quite a flurry of anguish in the stack of electronic mail yesterday. Last week everybody seemed to be on vacation, and the summer breeze was laden with moisture and seasonably warm. The crop of corn and barley are coming up in the fields, a joyful linkage between natural bounty and human engineering to […]

(Alexander of Macedon visited Afghanistan, 300 years Before the Current Era). There is some talk this morning about the end of the twenty-year American experience in Afghanistan. For some of us it goes back a little further. For others, a lot further. Some of the Writers Section participated in one. I got to watch two, […]

Afghanistan is falling to the Afghans, or some Afghans, this morning. The images of hundreds of young people squashed against US Air Force transport aircraft trying to board surpass the old standard established on the Embassy roof in Saigon. This is a new graphic summation of bad decisions. It includes reports of stowaways on the […]

In the Piedmont of Virginia the dawn mimicked dream nicely. It mingled with the warmth of decent coffee. Low gray skies, dark things flitting across the limited view from under the dark green awning of canvas surrounded by the rich green of pasture grass. The birds in the bright dark colors of night echoed the […]