Category: DailySocotra

Man in Full

Mac had some back problems last week, but he came roaring back and was ready to hit the bar at Willow on Monday. The weather was loosening up just like his sacroiliac- unseasonably warm in Arlington, and the rising temperature featured the best of both worlds- the ladies shed their coats to revealing advantage but […]

The High Line

Editor’s Note: Alert readers will note that this is the conclusion of Mac’s mission to meet with Marshall Tito at the White Palace in Belgrade. Unknown to me at the time, our Legislative Affairs Den Mother Annie was a girl, living there with her family. Her Dad was one of the military attaches in the […]

Freedom of speech

(Mac at Willow on the first Summer Suit Day of Spring. Photo Socotra.) It was a busy year, Mac’s last one on the planet. This particular encounter was a great day for weather and a mixed day for my personal interaction with the First Amendment. We had temperatures in the low eighties and sun in […]

Witch Hunts

(Senator Joe McCarthy is advised by attorney Roy Cohn during Senate hearings). There is a lot of talk about Russian interference in the US election recently- the cyber hacks that CIA insists were a Russian job and the FBI which has a more cautious view on the ability to attribute the thefts to Moscow. It […]

What Nedzi Knew

(Rep. Lucien N. Nedzi, 1969, from Congressional Pictorial Directory.) Mac was just back from the beach on the annual Shower’s family reunion, and I was just returned from the First Congressional District of Michigan, and it was clearly time to get together at Willow and talk about what happened to the Intelligence Community in the […]

Nimitz Day

Editor’s note: I don’t know if they celebrated Nimitz Day out in Suitland, Maryland, this year. There was a time when it was a truly big deal, for a variety of reasons that will become apparent. Certainly there is reason to consider the institutions of the US Army and Navy on this day, since they […]

Joe Rochefort Speaks

As I write, the clock is marking the hours toward the 75th Anniversary of the Air Raid that changed history. The destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) had already engaged a Japanese mini-submarine outside the nets that guarded Pearl Harbor; Japanese carrier pilots were briefing their strike packages and preparing to launch from the decks of resolute […]

Taps: REBECCA L. “Becky” BURKHALTER

03 December, 2016 REBECCA L. “Becky” BURKHALTER, in Annapolis, Maryland, surrounded by family. Becky was born Rebecca Ann Robinson in Pensacola, Florida on August 28, 1937. Her parents were Elvera (Boyette) and Henry Robinson. Becky graduated from high school in Sanford, Florida and went on to the University of Hawaii. While there she met and […]

Alpha Foxtrot

(Left Coast Guy and I did some exploring when we were back at Pearl Harbor last year. The anonymous door in the middle of the picture holds stairs that lead down to what had been The Dungeon in the war years, and where the analysts of Station Hypo broke the Japanese Codes. Photo Socotra) We […]

R-Day

05 December 2016 Editor’s Note: Woke this morning at Refuge Farm. Delightful dawn, made me want to stay, and perhaps I will. The story below tells the story of what happened when it was over, and all the boys wanted to go home. It bridges Mac’s tale from what was to what was about to […]