(A glorious image of the fuscia foliage erupting from the rich red Virginia soil. My stupid satellite internet connection refused to load it.). The Masters Golf Tournament had to start way early this morning- 0930 tee offs- due to the next wave of storms sweeping inexorably out of the heartland. Tiger was something else. Tornados […]

The critters are going wild with the sound of Spring or maybe it is just a reflection of having the windows open. Big rains last night- remnants of what pounded the Midwest the last day or two. Spring Break is coming on, and I recall the folly of my parents in 1969 letting me take […]

Gentle Readers, The critters are excited about Spring, based on observations of the bird calls, the march of Empress Cat across farmyard (the barn feline that actually owns the place), the wild turkeys, geese, gophers, fox and deer. Life in the country growing green. The Owl approves. – Vic

So, the morning mash of fake and unfake news featured the House oversight committees performing the usual antics of the majority- temporary or not- to continue the Russian Collusion Delusion. Candace Owens was pretty impressive, much better than that strange AOC person, in my opinion. But opinions are much like our alimentary systems. Everyone has […]

I have passed on Sam Cox’s account of his participation in the successful search for sunken ships that have rested under the waves since 1942. It was an interesting moment to hear that the last of the Doolittle Raiders, first to strike Japan after Pearl Harbor and launched from the carrier Hornet, had passed. I […]

(The Mount Pony facility in the Cold War. From the real estate flyer advertising its sale). I am still down at the Farm, luxuriating in the return of green growth and a certain warmth in the early Spring air. Windows are wonderful things. It has been a blessed relief to have the kinds of material […]

Three hours after nightfall on Sept. 15, 1942, the U.S.S. Wasp, a United States Navy aircraft carrier, slipped beneath the waves 350 miles southeast of Guadalcanal. Hit by two or possibly three torpedoes from a Japanese submarine, the crippled ship was abandoned, then torpedoed by an American destroyer to send it to the bottom, approximately […]

“Washington called. My head of Underwater Archaeology, Bob Neyland, boarded R/V PETREL after I disembarked. PETREL then went out and found HORNET on the first dive, so no drama for Bob. CBS broke the story on HORNET first, even though she had been found after WASP. (IJN Heie. Photo USN via IJN) PETREL would then […]

The struggle for Guadalacanal was deadly and desperate- running gun battles in a narrow strait; Marines ashore, in contact with Imperial Japanese forces struggling over Henderson Field, the major strategic position on the island. RDML Sam Cox, commander of the Naval History and Heritage Command, visited the late Paul Allen’s unique exploration ship R/V Petrel […]

(RDML SAM COX, USN- RET., Director of the Navy History and Heritage Command. He takes a hands-on approach to the missing sailors and ships, worldwide. His account of operations on Iron Bottom Sound, so named for the ships that lie below). “Upon arrival on board PETREL, I got reacquainted with Mr. Robert Kraft, the head […]