It was a Thursday afternoon at Willow. Big Jim and Liz-with-an-S and the irrepressible Jasper were attempting to manage the crowd at the Amen Corner. Jon-wiithout and John-with were enjoying drinks next to Old Jim, and Long Hair Mike was chatting up Jarhead Ray as they immersed themselves in the wonderful world of post-work at […]

(Saying farewell at Arlington National Cemetery) It was April 16th, the Day After the funeral. The pictures had been posted, the toasts were raised at the wake at Willow. The haunting sound of the highland pipes covered the retreat of hundreds of officers and Sailors from the grave site. Mac’s earthly remains were given over […]

(Boomer takes that critical first Happy Hour order. Photo Socotra). The people and employees at Willow seem to blend together into an ersatz, if quite real, family. When things were going well at the restaurant, all was right with the world. When there was a shake-up in the personnel line-up behind the bar, it was […]

(Boomer behind the bar at the Amen Corner. Photo Socotra). Willow was bustling, and it was with good reason. The last Friday night of the month was the fabulous Buffalo Night, in which Tracy O’Grady re-creates the most famous sandwich to ever come out of Buffalo, New York: the astonishing ‘Beef on Weck.’ BOW is […]

(Tinker Belle holds down the Willow bar). Willow was having one of those golden afternoons where the doors to the patio were propped open and the dust motes glowed in the rays of the lowering sun. Jasper was running around as always- I don’t know when he doesn’t work- and Tinker Belle was handling the […]

Editor’s Note: You can’t accuse me of recycling this morning. Instead, we are going to go time traveling in an all-new action packed adventure in the wild and exotic world of government Program and Budget. There is so much swirling around these days that it is much easier to just live in the past. Of […]

Editor’s Note: I was castigated severely this morning for “syndicating” the contents of The Daily over the last few dozen weeks. I took umbrage at the criticism, though upon further consideration can be viewed as a valid one. In defense of the hard-working staff here at Socotra House, there is so little that anyone can […]

Editor’s Note: It is appropriate that we arrive with Mac at the end of the Pacific War just as Winston’s bust has been returned to a place of honor in the Oval Office and the British Prime Minister is in Washington to take the measure of the new administration. Mac would have laughed- there is […]

(WWI sailor and WWII War Correspondent Ernie Pyle, seen here on USS Cabot when he was making waves with the Navy Department. Mac met him on Guam with the CINCPAC forward staff. Photo US Navy.) I tried to look at my notes from the most recent session with Mac at Willow and they are not […]

Editor’s Note: I had finished the slides for the big Weekly Meeting when the news came in. The slate of nominees to be Service Secretaries is complete. We knew about billionaire businessman Vincent Viola’s nomination to be the next Army Secretary, formerly the Secretary of War. There is word that General Mattis was not happy […]