{"id":2414,"date":"2012-02-01T19:59:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T19:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/?p=2414"},"modified":"2012-02-01T20:06:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T20:06:13","slug":"man-in-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/man-in-full\/","title":{"rendered":"Man in Full"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
The Willow gang at an audience with our pal Admiral Mac. Photo Socotra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mac had some back problems last week, but he came roaringback and was ready to hit the bar at Willow on Monday. The weather wasloosening up just like his sacroiliac- unseasonably warm in Arlington, and therising temperature featured the best of both worlds- the ladies shed theircoats to revealing advantage but kept their tall leather boots with the spikeheels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was admiring the view on the way over,\u201d I said. Mac hadbeat me to the bar by minutes, and he was sitting by Old Jim and Mary, whostopped on her way back from the office downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a cracked rack on the Metro,\u201d she said. \u201cThingswere a mess all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

I nodded, grateful that I do not have to travel far to getto the office. I looked around for a pen, found that I had convenientlyforgotten mine, and borrowed one from Katya, whose dark-eyed beauty graced thebusiness end of the bar along with Tinkerbelle and Jasper and the lovelyLiz-with-an-S.\u00a0 \u201cSo,\u201d I said to Mac,grabbing a stack of napkins, \u201cWhere were we?\u201d<\/p>\n

The door to the bar swung open with a rush and in walkedPoint Loma with Jiffy, another Midway sailor in tow. I knew this was going toget complicated, particularly with both Johns, with and without H\u2019s, and TheLovely Bea.<\/p>\n

Mac is a babe magnet, for sure, and he was in fine fettleand thorughy enjoying the first of his two Race 5 India Pale Ales. He clearedhis throat and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know. What do you want to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the big news is about Hawaii, and where we shouldstay if we go for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway thissummer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Hale Koa is all the waydowntown, and the events are supposed to happen at Pearl Harbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the Rainbow Tower of the Hilton, too. That is wherethe Navy used to put us when they tented the houses to kill the monstercockroaches. The housing area at McGrew Point was built on landfill, and therewas no way to really eradicate the things. They just moved from house tohouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always in quarters at Makalapa, on the rim of thecrater. It was nice to walk to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet. Kimo is out there now, in your old job as the FleetIntelligence Officer. It will be good to see him again back in his element. AndAdmiral Paul up at Camp Smith. This will be fun if we can pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see,\u201d said Mac. \u201cPaul was leaving on officialtravel to Thailand, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShould be time for COBRA GOLD,\u201d I said, thinking of thebest joint naval exercise in the world, since it normally came with a four-dayport visit in Pattaya Beach. Colonel Ike was further down the bar, huddled withJake. I pointed at him, saying \u201cIke just got back from Cambodia. I have alwayswanted to go there.\u201d Katya topped up my white wine. \u201cAnd Laos, of course. Damn,there is a lot to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac smiled. \u201cI was one of the last Americans on the Plain ofJars,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the trip with Lt Gen Bennet when I was Chief of Staffat DIA. We were visiting the Ambassador, G. McMurtrie Godley, which made things confusing since wewere both known as \u201cMac.\u201d Everyone else knew him as \u201cThe FieldMarshall,\u201d since he was involved in everything going on in the country,political or military.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you were there just ahead of the Pathet Laoguerrillas?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac nodded. \u201cIt seemed like a good idea to see the placewhile we could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we can again,\u201d I said. \u201cI sort of feel like justheading west from Hawaii this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac took a sip of beer. \u201cI think I have been to SE Asia forthe last time,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the same trip we saw Admiral Rex in Saigon,and had dinner with him and Admiral Bud Zumwalt.\u201d<\/p>\n

I picked up my pen. \u201cWait,\u201d I said, scribbling. \u201cThat isimpossible. He was not Zumwalt\u2019s Intelligence Officer. I have talked to the guythat relieved him the year before. Rex was back here, working collectionsissues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may well be, but when General Bennett and I walkedinto Zumwalt\u2019s quarters, he was there, big as life. I sat between him and Bud.\u201d \u00a0 I screwed up my brow in puzzlement. \u201cIf he was there, and Ibelieve you, Sir, that means something had caused him to be sent temporary dutyfrom Washington, and it must have been something big that he did not mention toyou.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the case of the missing Jack Graf,\u201d said Mac. \u201cBut wehave been down this rabbit hole before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJack\u2019s loss was a major crusade for Rex in his later years.I learned a lot helping to research the available evidence on his POW-Missingin Action status. A lot of the Naval Intelligence guys obviously followed thecase pretty closely, and they came close to rescuing him at least once, withthe camp where they held him showing signs they had only left hours before.\u201d \u00a0 \u201cTorture can make anyone talk,\u201d I said. \u201cI heard the SEALseven found some of the Viet Cong interrogator\u2019s notes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mac nodded thoughtfully. \u201cThat is why the whole shot-while-trying-to-escapeand Jack\u2019s body being buried in a place where the river washed it away is aninteresting story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. When I found out that Jack had been to the KodakSchool to learn about how they were going to do electro-optical imagery fromearth orbit before he went back to Vietnam I was stunned. They never let peoplewith those clearances get far out of Saigon for fear they would be captured andcompromise the biggest secret in the Intelligence Community. And then Jackparachutes down right into the middle of them after he got shot down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think Rex was in Saigon to do a damage assessment onhis loss?\u201d asked Mac. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know, and if Jack was traded to the Soviets, wehave lost our window of opportunity to find out from the KGB files.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t suppose we will ever know the answer, but to get atechnician who knew how the spy satellites really worked would have been wortha lot to the Russians.\u201d \u00a0 Mac shrugged. \u201cCase closed, as far as the POW-MIA folks areconcerned. But it would explain why Rex was there. The Navy would have beenembarrassed at the screw-up that put Jack in a place where he could becaptured.\u201d \u00a0 Then we drifted away from mystery, and talked about otherones, cancer being one of them, according to my notes, and then about Mac\u2019s topten recipes. \u00a0 \u201cEggplant Parmesan, hands down,\u201d he aid. \u201cI did all thecooking for the last few years that Billie was still living at home. I gotpretty good at it. The stuff they serve at The Madison is abysmal. They don\u2019thave a clue.\u201d<\/p>\n

I scribbled frantically. \u201cI need the recipe,\u201d I said. \u201cIwould like to try it. What else did you have in the rotation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChili con carne,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a recipe I inventedmyself. Spaghetti, apple crisp as a dessert.\u201d \u00a0 \u201cNo pear pies, like the ones from the C-rations on Guam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, definitely not. I don\u2019t think I have had a pear of anykind since the War. And tenderloins. I would get the big ones form theCommissary- I would toss one in the over at 400 degrees for an hour, then turnit off an let it rest for an hour. Couldn\u2019t miss. Perfect every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds delicious,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids liked a thing we called \u2018Porcupine Balls.\u201d \u00a0 \u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound very appetizing,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually quite tasty. We used a pressure cooker. Dangerousthings, and you had to watch them closely. I would take hamburger and shapethem into meatballs mixed with regular white rice. When they cooked underpressure- I don\u2019t recall how long, but not too long- the rice stuck out likethe quills on a porcupine.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wrote it down. There were several other conversations inprogress. Point Loma was talking about Ops Officers he had known on Midway, andMary was saying why Bob Ryan the weatherman had changed stations, and why hegot eased out of his old job at Channel 7.<\/p>\n

The threads were all interesting, and I decided to stopwriting and concentrate on the wine. Mac smiled. \u201cGood, now that you are notwriting things down, I have a story for you that you can\u2019t tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

I put down my pen. \u201cI am all ears,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

It was an interesting story, and it is too bad I can\u2019t tellyou. But I promised. Life is interesting, you know? And like the Jack Graf story,it doesn\u2019t always make a lot of sense. \u00a0 \u201cWhat did Shakespeare say about life?\u201d I asked Mac.<\/p>\n

He smiled broadly. \u201cA tale full of sound and fury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I gestured at my notes. \u201cAnd told by an idiot,\u201d I said. \u201cWhowould be me.”<\/p>\n

Copyright 2012
\nVic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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