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Front Matter \u2014 Long Shadows
Title Page<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Front Matter \u2014 Long Shadows
Title Page<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LONG SHADOWS
By Vic Socotra<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Socotra House Press
Arlington, Virginia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Copyright \u00a9 2025 Vic Socotra
All rights reserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISBN: [placeholder \u2013 assign at proof stage]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Socotra House Press logo to appear centered at bottom of page.
Dedication<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Rex and Jack \u2014
and for every sailor who stood the watch,
known or missing, in the long tide of history.
Epigraph<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNever send the last message.\nLeave the circuit open.\nSomebody might still be listening.\u201d\n\u2014 Vice Admiral Rex E. Rectanus, USN (Ret.)<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAuthor\u2019s Note<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This book grew from a handful of daily reflections written in the winter of 2009\u20132010, after the death of Vice Admiral Rex Rectanus, U.S. Navy (Retired) and the follow-on passing of his partner Jinny Martin.
What began as a memorial thread for friends became a deeper excavation \u2014 a search for the connective tissue between memory, service, and the quiet machinery of national purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pieces you will read here were first published as The Daily Socotra columns, in real time, as the story unfolded. They were not planned as a book. They became one because the pattern emerged only after the last line was written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where possible, the original voices and documents have been preserved \u2014 operational accounts, oral histories, and portions of Douglass Hubbard\u2019s Special Agent Vietnam are used with permission and attribution. Factual corrections were minimal; context was added where memory had blurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What remains is not a biography, nor a history, but a field notebook of America\u2019s long twilight \u2014 a meditation on duty, loyalty, and the men who lived between the silences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Vic Socotra
Arlington, Virginia
Spring 2025
Acknowledgments<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My thanks to those who kept the circuits alive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice Admiral Rex E. Rectanus, USN (Ret.), whose story began it all.\n\nLCDR John \u201cJack\u201d Graf, USN, whose absence still fills a place in every intelligence officer\u2019s heart.\n\nVADM Ted \u201cFifty-Five\u201d Carter and shipmates of the Office of Naval Intelligence, for preserving the tradition.\n\nMac Showers, Bob Melka, and Tom Brooks, for their recollections and unvarnished truth.\n\nThe Daily Socotra crew \u2014 Melissa, Splash, and the team at Socotra House \u2014 who have endured every draft, edit, and late-night inspiration.\n\nAnd to the readers who followed the daily posts through winter into spring \u2014 you kept this signal alive.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nTable of Contents (Front-Matter Summary)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part I \u2013 The Flag Folded
\u2003Rex
\u2003Missing Man
\u2003Old School<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part II \u2013 The Wars We Fought
\u2003Pulling the Trigger
\u2003Fifty-Five on Forty-Eight
\u2003Elvis at the White House
\u2003Sea Story<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part III \u2013 Inside the Pentagon
\u2003Numerology
\u2003Questions
\u2003Revolutionary Rex<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part IV \u2013 The Legacy
\u2003The Burial Detail
\u2003The Last Signal
\u2003Long Shadows<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Front Matter \u2014 Long ShadowsTitle Page LONG SHADOWSBy Vic Socotra Socotra House PressArlington, Virginia Copyright \u00a9 2025 Vic SocotraAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31872,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31870\/revisions\/31872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}