Pastor Frank had to step in this morning to guide the Production meeting since Miles had taken the usual suspects own to gaze on the Peak Bloom of the Cherry Blossoms down at the Tidal Basin on the other side of the Potomac.

We have not seen him, or Dierdre or the Rocket-and-Splash dynamic duo in the Conference Room this morning, and Frank sighed and looked across the polished wood at Vic.

“Yougot anything we can use this morning? I doubt if the crew is going to tush in with great ideas.”

Vic nodded and smiled. “I had something to go yesterday before the hubbub broke out over those pink things on the trees by the water. It reminded me of the last time I saw the other body of water besides the Potomac everyone is talking about.”

“Which is what?” asked Frank over a mug of steaming Flat Yank coffee. “The Atlantic headed out fo Norfolk for points East?

“No,” laughed Vic. “The Straits of Hormuz.” He picked up the remote by the field service coffee jug and clicked it at the screen on the north wall of the room. The screen burst into a riot of color.

He pointed at the images with a wave. “This is me when I got a hop with the VS-28 Gamblers launched off USS Midway in the North Arabian Sea. The mission was a surface surveillance double-cycle and I had one of the two systems operator positions behind the pilot and mission specialist. The S-3 was a great platform.” He produced a laser pointer and highlighted the S3 Viking jet he had ridden back in 1979. “We were doing just about what they are doing now. I had almost forgotten some of the island names in the Strait. We thought we might have to take them out 47 years ago. That is when we started planning, so the idea that we had not thought about it until last month is sort of weird, you know?” He flicked the remote and the room went blue with the gigantic chart of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans on the wall.

If I had more time this morning I would walk you along the red lines of that cruise, which turned into a double when the carrier that was going to relieve us had a collision in the other Straits, the Malacca one. Thankfully there were no injuries, but the ship had to go back to Japan for repairs and we were ordered to pick up the remainder of that deployment since we were already down in Australia.” He drew the bight red of the pointer along the track west from Perth, Australia, past the joint base we share with the Brits at Diego Garcia. It was a welcome resource when operating out there, coming or going, so you can imagine how pissed off we got when the Labour Party decided to give the island back to Mauritius, a place that didn’t exist until a former colonial power got bored and went back to Holland in 1710. The President told the Brits they had better think twice before handing the island we call “Dodge” over to anyone else.

“There is a lot more to talk about, like that crazy East African train ride through Kenya down to Nairobi. Or the 98 days up in the North Arabian Sea, steaming in circles looking at boats filled with oil coming and going to the Straits.”

He looked down from the chart with a sigh. “We had some warm temperatures last night, but it is dropping now and the rains may go through lunchtime. The chill and the wind and the moisture is going to play holy-heck with the Peak Blossoms, so I think I may form a search party and go look for the Production Meeting down by the river:”

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