So, my best friend called this morning to start it all, and it went well, or at least as well as it could have been since I had hoped to be in the Friendly Islands and avoid the whole thing. Oh well, didn’t work out that way. But the cancelled trip gave me some un-programmed […]

Well, long suffering readers, this is the second edition of the Postcard series from the placid bogs that line the majestic Potomac. The big brown river flows at its own pace between the District and Arlington County. Not so the affairs of humans here. We are already in a steamy heat from the swirl of […]

The battle of Midway culminated today, 75 years ago. Though badly stricken with severe battle damage, USS Yorktown refused to die. When the Americans found their carrier still afloat on the morning of 5 June, they hoped to tow her back to Pearl Harbor for repairs. The tug Vireo took Yorktown under tow. Despite efforts […]

Editor’s Note: this essay from Paul Becker sums up some of the lessons that we have already paid for in blood and treasure, and which we need to re-learn. Our thanks to the Navy’s History and Heritage Command, ably led by RADM Sam Cox, for publishing this in The Sextant. http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/ 75 years ago today […]

Editor’s note: I wish I had been there to see the ceremony honoring the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. It was held in front of what had been the 14th Naval District on Pearl, and home of The Dungeon, where our pal Mac worked with the legends of naval intelligence. But I wasn’t, […]

Editor’s Note: I am a little frustrated. I was supposed to be in Honolulu this morning. But that does not change the significance of the date, 75years ago. We talked about some of this yesterday, as the epic Battle of Midway was nearing. The 3rd of June was a special day, and we ought to […]

All the ceremonies surrounding the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway are kicking off today. The vast distances involved meant that the epic struggle would play out over a week. In the parlance of today’s warfighters, the “battlespace had been shaped” by the codebreakers of Station Hypo, the information had been passed cogently to […]

Forgive me, gentle readers. I have been quite distracted of late, and perhaps it is only the radical New York uptempo rhythm that now pervades and pulsates in our soggy somnolent former Southern town. I mean, honestly. I had to do my slides for the big weekly meeting- you know, the one where I hold […]

I live in a condominium, and this book was my travel companion this week. Sometimes Art imitates life, or vice versa. This gem of a paperback set the tone for the adventure to the Sunshine state. It is by John D. MacDonald, a prolific author of detective stories set in Florida, and which I used […]

I was up early- probably some opening day anxiety that something could go wrong. There is a lot of that going around these days. The pool was going to open at ten- and I had to be ready. In preparation I cooked some of the Neuski’s corned beef hash and a couple eggs, sunny side […]