(Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, Angel of the Battlefield, and newsmaker in Culpeper County. Photo Mathew Brady).   I read the Culpeper Times this morning at the farm. I drove the silver Panzer down late yesterday to put the vehicle through its paces, and was generally pleased with the performance. It will […]

I retreated from politics into autos yesterday, and got rid of what may be my last ragtop. That is sort of an abrupt introduction, I know, but this has been an issue percolating since the endless series of road trips to The Little Village By the Bay two or three years ago.   Both kinds […]

(The younger Bob expresses his views of the car keys in “Visions of Johanna.” Photo Robert Zimmerman.) I have inflicted enough on you. Re-cycling is something I believe in, but the process of transforming long-ago manuscript into modern digital screeds is harder than I thought. So, for now we will leave the Good Ship Midway […]

On Gonzo Station, Part Ten OK, I lied. This is even stranger than I thought. As it turns out, the original version of the Air Show story was buried in a binder in the archives. This will be the dance-off for this story, which is very much “TBD” as we wait to see if Syria, […]

On Gonzo Station, Part Nine (Marine VMF-P3 RF-4, VF-151 Switchbox F-4 and VF-161 Rock River F-4- the three flavors of Phantoms on Ma Midway, 1980. Navy photo.)   Maybe things will come out all right. It is hard to say. One thing seems to be true: we are going to get to leave and go, […]

On Gonzo Station, Part Eight Editor’s note: It is back to work week, which accounts for my failure to digitize these ancient notes. It is January, 1980, in the Northern Arabian Sea. There might be something going on we do not understand. Or not. But the paperwork has to be perfect. (I wish our picture […]

  On Gonzo Station, Part Seven (T.R. Brown and his Radar Intercept Officer Frank “Personal Friend of Mine (P-FOM)” prepare for a ten second flight. Photo USN.)   It was the usual day. Up two hours before two hours before launch to prepare the first four of eight cyclic event briefings. An early chat with […]

On Gonzo Station, Part Six   Gentle Readers, Doctor Hayes, current minion of Papa Doc Anderson, freed me from captivity at Walter Reed Medical Center yesterday. “You are not completely healed, but there is nothing further that we can do for you here in the Cast Clinic. The rest you have to do yourself. Papa […]

On Gonzo Station Part Five (USS Nimitz All-Nuclear Task Group transits Gibraltar en route the Indian Ocean at best speed, December, 1979. They say when the group turned the corner at the Cape of Good Hope the carrier was throwing a rooster-tale. Photo USN). Gentle Readers, this is a Walter Reed Day, and I am […]

December, 1979 I stood on the flight deck this morning to watch the sunrise. It was a sky like a watercolor painting by John Singleton Copley, and the wind was brisk. The pastel colors were perfect. The Marines were doing Jody Calls as they ran around the quarter-mile circuit on the flight deck. It was […]