(The Amen Corner in full swing. Left to right, The Lovely Bea, beautiful Jamie, Old Jim, Short Hait Mike and Jon Without on 12 January 2012. Photo Socotra). So, the Speaker trounced Mr. Romney down in South Carolina, and the circus appears set to continue into the slightly less dark month of February. I don’t […]

Editor’s Note: If you feel that fever-chill-naseau-ache and disorientation thing coming on, be thankful that it appears to run its course in as little as five days. At least that is my experience. I hope yours go swiftly. I had a happy chance to be able to sit upright again and took the opportunity to […]

Editor’s Note: Do not get this brand of the flu that I am enjoying no end. I even got my shot on time back in October, and it didn’t matter. This strain is virulent, disgusting and really cuts into your social life. – Vic The Hatch Way (Then-LT Bill Hatch. Photo Hatch family). It was […]

Editor’s Note: If I failed to personally express my thoughts for the New Year, let me do so now. Please have a safe and prosperous New Year in 2017! I am happy to be done with 2016- it had all sorts of good and bad news, including deaths of friends and the miracle of birth. […]

It had been a long and confusing week, with five separate proposals to the Government in various states of disarray at the office. I was sick of writing creative fiction about capabilities and desparate for a win that would keep Corporate off our backs for a while. I was a thirsty camper when I glanced […]

I hit the jackpot yesterday at the historic Washington Navy Yard. I got access to a copy of the oral history that Mac did with Art Baker twenty-six years ago. It was the very first one that the Office of Naval Intelligence had conducted, and in six interviews, Art got an excellent blow-by-blow on how […]

(Convair B-36 Peacemaker, 1949. My brother and I stopped at Wright-Patterson AFB to see the one in the Air Force Museum. It is one of the most extraordinary aviation artifacts I have ever seen. Official Air Force picture.) “The Bomb got us all home,” said Mac. “It saved us the hundreds of thousands of casualties, […]

(RADM Dan Gallery’s account of life on the waves through the eyes of a Chief Petty Officer. I loved it as a young teen). I have a couple chunks of the Mac Showers book ready to drop into the manuscript, and was going to take the discretionary time of the inter-holiday week to trot them […]

Editor’s Note: This is a return to part of the Mac Showers saga. It will drop into the back of the book, the small part that deals with Life After Mac. I will be meeting with the Historian of the Navy later this holiday week to gain some insight on the activities that went along […]

(Mr. and Mrs. Claus relax in the luxury of the Willard Hotel’s elegant lobby). Family is far away, and I was not traveling as I had anticipated on Christmas Day. Jon-Without was in a similar position, and we batted around the idea of getting out of our respective caves and catching a breath fo fresh […]