![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/082426-1a.jpg\")
\nThere are some adventures to celebrate today, and we want to note them in roughly the order they occurred.
\nThe British burned much of Federal Washington, including the White House, on this day in 1814. Vesuvius had done something considerably more comprehensive to Pompeii in AD 79, back before anyone involved knew that someday we would number the years that way.<\/p>\n
On a more pleasant celebration of burning, it is National Waffle Day, commemorating the award of the first U.S. patent for a waffle iron in 1869\u2014and helping end the ancient tradition of setting the kitchen aflame at breakfast.<\/p>\n
Deirdre said she might be tempted to do a big batch of waffles for a snack, but they are not going to be first on the menu this morning. She has organized a working party to load Vic and his Rollator into the company SUV and roll down to the cardio people to have a heart monitor placed over the beating heart that had some work done to it with an ablation two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Nothing alarming. The externals look normal. This is just part of getting back to normal: monitoring the rhythm after the procedure and letting the people who know what all those little squiggles mean have a look at them.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the graphic above shows what is going to happen to Vic, and he is no hero about it.<\/p>\n
Which got Deirdre and Miles talking about some people who actually are.<\/p>\n
We had been discussing the extraordinary changes in the roles of women in today’s deployed military. Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman since World War II to receive the Silver Star for valor in combat. Monica Lin Brown followed, earning the Silver Star for her actions in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/082426-1b.jpg\")
\n[MONICA LIN BROWN PHOTO]<\/p>\n
Those are profound changes\u2014not simply in who serves, but in who is exposed to the sacrifice and courage demanded by a modern war increasingly filled with drones, missiles and technologies that would have been unimaginable to earlier generations.<\/p>\n
Curiously, that brought two of our Old School heroes back into the conversation.<\/p>\n
Our shipmate Julio penned a personal and remarkable account of Captain David McCampbell, naval aviator, Medal of Honor recipient and the Navy’s leading fighter ace, credited with 34 aerial victories. He retired in 1964 and passed from this layer of the atmosphere in 1996. We’ll let Julio’s fine tribute stand on its own.<\/p>\n
And then there was Captain Royce Williams, whose extraordinary Korean War encounter with Soviet MiGs remained largely out of public view for decades.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/082426-1c.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Royce reminds us that some of the Old School lives on.<\/p>\n
We’ll see how Vic does with the attachments as he starts another, somewhat less heroic, adventure.<\/p>\n
Back soon!<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra<\/p>\n
www.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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