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“If there are enough shovels to go around…”

“…everybody’s going to make it.” – Thomas K. Jones, 1982 Counterveil vs. Countervalue… Decapitating strikes… Winning a protracted nuclear war… Nuclear calculus… These, and other topics were points of not just mere discussion, but deep, serious study and analysis in the early 1980’s by, among others, a small cohort of graduate students at the Naval…

Sea, Sky, Light…

Three variables that interact with one another, sometimes subtly, others – not so. Three media for the photographers palette; tarry a moment and understand why we who go, or at one time went, to the sea were drawn nigh… "The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure…

Time Passages

  Comes word via ‘Phib that the undertaker’s list is out – and it is a long and grim one indeed.  When the Ensign and commissioning pennant are hauled down for the last time and the final crewmember walks off the brow, the countdown clock begins – to a museum, the breaker’s torch or the…

Old Days

  Old days Good times I remember Fun days Filled with simple pleasures Drive-in movies Comic books and blue jeans Howdy doody Baseball cards and birthdays Take me back To a world gone away Memories Seem like yesterday  (Chicago) (Nimitz intercept pics)

Reflections: Kiev and The Thousand Mile (or so) Strike – Part I

With the recent press of the Soviet Russian carrier group coming out of hibernation for a Med sortie, we thought it was about time for another Reflections series – this time finding our gallant scribe back at sea after his first shore tour at Naval Postgrad School.  This time he is on a second sea…

Reflections: Smuggle’s Blues (IX)-Conclusion

(Part 8: Convergence here) Steeljaw 604, airborne, Eastern Caribbean “Here comes another one” passed the ACO on the ICS. Flashing the position of the video paint on his and the others scope via the Intercom Mark function. “Right where the others have all been coming from – they must be using that cape as their final…

Reflections: Smuggle’s Blues (VIII)-Convergence

Part 6 and Part 7 YV-411, airborne SE of Martinique. There is a saying in aviation that if everything seems to be going perfectly, then look out, for something really bad is about happen. These were the thoughts of the Beechcraft’s pilot as the plane was inbound to its illicit rendezvous. Cockpit lights turned so low…

Reflections: Smuggler’s Blues (VII) – The Squadron CO

(Part V here) Steeljaw 602 – airborne 270 nm East of Curacao “Still tracking XO” The report came from the RO (Radar Operator) who sat to the XO’s right in the back of the E-2C. Normally there would be a full complement of three NFO’s in the CIC compartment and all three would be busily engaged…