(Flag of the American Party- the “Know Nothings,” who opposed all immigration in the mid-19th Century. Photo WikiComons). Nope- if you expected me to analyze what the French police are likely to do now that they are going to have State of Emergency powers for three months, I am not going to cooperate. The French […]

(25th Reunion of the Lehigh University School of Engineering? Undated, possibly 1924? J.B. Socotra is in the middle, 5th from the left, second row). It was an emotional weekend, with barbaric Islamic terror against innocent civilians sandwiched between a soaring and somber Catholic Funeral Mass and the dramatic strains of angelic voices rising in praise […]

(Paris soccer fans sign their national anthem as they exit the Stade de France in an orderly manner after the attacks of Friday night). The New York Times is reporting that the French Police are looking for an eighth murderer who may have escaped. Seven are dead, either by their own hands or in a […]

I woke to gunshots here at dawn on the farm. I knew precisely the sound, and after the events of last night, it took a moment to realize that the long-gun deer season had started at sun-up. Someone had got up early and climbed up into their tree stand to get their buck. Friday had […]

Sleep is interesting at Refuge Farm, and the cobwebs are slow in leaving this morning. Weekends, I usually have some project in process and am bushed with the exertion and fresh air at the end of the day. This time is unusual, since I am here just past mid-week because of memorial and automotive-related issues. […]

(Two members of Nagato’s original crew. All Photos USN courtesy Lyle Hansen). Lieutenant Commander Ed Gilfillen confessed to being a little disoriented by the way the Japanese ran their ships of war. He said that: “The design of USN ships were shot through with definite principles, all born of experience and most have the force […]

I like the internal contradictions of this holiday. It is just like the military itself: Vets go to work in the civilian and government sector as contractors while civilian government workers get the day off to honor them. Oh well, goes with the territory. I am a little shaken this morning. I was going to […]

Nagato’s appearance had been altered from her usual configuration when Ed Gilfillen first saw her. He said that camouflage was the key to try to distract the American pilots. To render her less conspicuous, the tops of her mainmast and stack had been cut off and plywood structures erected on her decks. Rust blended in […]

I never got a chance to meet Edward Smith Gilfillen. He died in 1979, and I have a suspicion I know what it was that got him. I have no pictures of him, nor of his family, nor even his rank. I suspect he was a Lieutenant Commander, tall and dark, of Welsh decent. I […]

I was going to introduce you to Edward Smith Gilfillen, last XO of the Nagato, this morning but I got wildly sidetracked by an extraordinarily vivid dream I had in the second sleep of the night, deep in the inky darkness of the country. I was back in Yokosuka. I swear, it was a full-on […]