Editor’s Note: I had lunch with Annie, the den-mother of our fractious group of brash officers who inhabited the back room at the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs in the Pentagon. There were some stories to be had in that office, let me tell you. They were about the trips we arranged for Congressional members […]

I looked at Liz-S across the bar. “Hey, is this the last day you are the bar manager?” She smiled broadly, tossing her chestnut ponytail. “I will stay, part time, but as of Monday I am an official grown up.” “Awesome. It is about time. You are on your way.” Friday’s at Willow are transitional […]

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 […]

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 […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

(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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]