(Rest in peace, LCDR Evans and LT Whileman, lost in an EA-18G Growler mishap near Mr. Ranier).

A confused morning at Big Pink. Splash had the Big Surprise watch last night and when it appeared there was not going to be an unexpected Big One, he just started looking at the moon’s arc over the east wing of the building, tiny in the heavens, betraying the enormity of the distance and brilliant light of the heavens above. Orion was showing his belt in the darkness, unobscured by the now waning brilliance of the lunar passage.

Splash had been an NFO, a flight officer, and shared the concern about the aviation mishap that cost the lives of two naval officers last week in a training mishap near majestic Mount Ranier up in Washington. The messaging had started the usual way, sparsely worded which was “jet missing, crew not recovered.”

That changed over the next few days to: “Jet found. Crew missing. Search continues.”

The location of the crash was in the inaccessible black night approach to remote Ranier, and the effort to resolve the matter required experienced professionals. It was resolved to the public degree with the release of the names of the personnel who had been declared dead.

That would have been the length of coverage for the tragic of the loss of the crew of a military jet to hostile act or inadvertent event. We are not even going to veer into that messaging stream, the one about the role of the sexes in everything in the heat of the moment.

That was when Splash had scrawled “NSTR” on a napkin at the corner of the table and began observing the moon’s passage over the East Wing. Trying to keep up he must have fallen asleep, which is why Melissa had to do the morning line-up graphic for the tablets. She is from Legal to keep an eye on the creative folks in case potentially troublesome liability stuff comes up.

Her take was just a couple sentences to sum up the morning discussion about the nature of what is going to happen in one place that could dramatically change things elsewhere.

Simple, you know?

She typed in:

· No BS last night

· Likely no BS for a couple days

· Prime time 2-3 news cycles before election

Those were the bullets, but with a footnote, of course, in one of the drop-down menus: “Israel is responding in a measured fashion, eliminating the leadership of opposition groups. The next step in this may be personally against the leadership in Tehran with the Iranian drone strike on Netanyahu’s house being another nuance. It is personal there and some timing related to impact on the American election.”

The footnote is what we assumed later was her means of steering the meeting. We aren’t sure which way, since she went over to El Paso for some decent coffee. If she has to show up early because the night shift is asleep that is just the way it is, you know?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com