They had the funeral service for Prince Philip this morning, broadcast from Windsor Castle in the UK. It was a nice day, a bit chill, but sunny and bright. His bride, the Queen, appeared solemn, mourning the loss of her partner of 73 years. A tear ran down my cheek when a small choir sang an old Navy Hymn. It always gets me, this soaring verse:
“Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm doth bond the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.”
I haven’t been subject to any particular peril out there, but one morning on a weather-driven storm avoidance sortie a couple of us stood on Vulture’s Row, watching a mountain of green water turn white and voluminous over the dark steel bow of our ship. It drove home an acceptance of the power of things beyond human control. The Queen’s marriage lasted longer than my years on earth, so the morning solemnity was as powerful as the hymn.
That was one of the things to occupy the rest of the morning. One of them, less partisan than others, was a comment on the advance of technology. One of the pals sent an interesting image composed of three smaller ones. The top picture was of the F-35 jet being introduced in a variety of models for international use and sales. It is in a characteristic nose-up attitude suitable for carrier landing. Below it is an image of an F-14 Tomcat jet, formerly common in usage in the US Navy and Iran, of all places, similarly configured for an approach to a carrier deck. At the bottom was an F6F Hellcat rotary-engined prop aircraft of WWII vintage. For those who served around a couple of them, it was breathtaking. All three flew generally similar missions during the course of our lives from the same ships. The picture was intended, I think, to demonstrate the astonishing advances in technology in that specialized world.
A recent announcement of job changes for Navy Admirals put it in context for me. One of them had a resume that included the same squadron and ship that I had a chance to serve. Despite the years between, almost everything was the same. Same homeport in Japan. Same food, more or less, same ship, same ready room, same bunks.
Yet the aircraft assigned to the squadron had changed, and that changed everything regardless of the similarities. The new jet in use had a single pilot, rather than a crew of two, which meant a much smaller crowd in the ready room. It meant changes of enemies and wars, and the shared duties necessary to keep the organization running. Changes in fuel needs, especially the need to have other airplanes aloft to carry additional fuel for those in the air who needed it. The network to keep it all running according to design was global in nature, and demanding in requirements. So, sometimes things are the same, yet deep in difference.
One of the other things flying around was the shooting of another young man on a city street. This sort of reporting happens with distressing frequency. Mostly it is young civilian men shooting each other, but sometimes it is law enforcement shooting civilians for a variety of reasons. This particular incident involved the civilian discharge of a semi-automatic pistol- a full magazine- apparently aimed at a passing vehicle. It was 0330, the literal middle of darkness. There was a police call for “shots fired,” and body camera footage from the responding officer combined with security camera footage showed the chase, recorded the officer’s direction to “Stop, hands up!” and the fleeing figure ditching the pistol behind the fence as the officer drew his own weapon and fired.
The imagery is striking, like some of the other video we have shared over the last year or two. In fact, it is the imagery that has us on edge, demonstrating or rioting as the case might be. It is not that this is new- violent criminal acts are hardly a novel addition to daily reports of life in the United States. And elsewhere. But what is different is the cascade of horrific images that make it all super real, and personal in a way a torrent of words cannot be. A pal likened it to the old National News evening treatment of the ground combat in Vietnam. We had not been exposed to imagery of how horrific war actually is, even if edited to reflect a chosen narrative about it. It changed how things worked.
in the here-and-now, after Prince Philip’s service was complete, the editorial board made an attempt to hold the weekend production meeting. Someone recommended a clip about green-screen image composition, and how realistic imagery can be created to enliven otherwise dull stories. It is pretty neat, and puts the commentator of the piece seemingly in the middle of something else. It adds realism by creating something that is not real.
The meeting adjourned amid mild discomfort. Everyone kept their phones at the ready just in case something interesting happened.
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