Author: Vic Socotra

The Cracker Caper

Yokosuka—Japan 1949 (For dinner tonight: a K-Ration package with tasty components on display). Editor’s Note: This tale of Japan under the American Occupation is told by Tom “Big Smoke” Duvall. He sent it to former Director of Naval Intelligence RADM T.A. Brooks fifteen years ago. He shared it with us. Big Smoke was one of […]

Life & Island Times: Day 1

Editor’s Note: Marlow’s Road Trip, 22 years ago, resumes this morning with the experience of meeting America and it’s roads up close and personal! – Vic May 2001 Detour Version 1.0 Day 1 I hoped to slip out of Alexandria to pick up Steve in suburban Fairfax county to avoid any more public displays. Out […]

Weather Report: War, Demonstrations and Debt

It is Friday, and so we may as well get the headline out of the way. The War in Ukraine continues. We were chatting about it on the balcony this morning. Seasonal weather has affected the tempo of operations. Restricted mobility has limited things to artillery, rocket and drone strikes on Ukraine’s electrical grid. That […]

So the Story Goes

There are predictions about what is coming next in Ukraine. Some say the Russians are facing what their leaders consider an “existential threat” to the existence of their nation. They have thousands of nuclear weapons, so the prospect of what we always considered as horrifying now is just another item on a fairly long list. […]

Big Smoke: Occupation Times

Editor’s Note: Downsizing in the here-and-now of a new year (2023) has caused some joyful chaos. The movement made some forgotten things emerge from the memory locker. Some are a little disconcerting. We started on “The Cracker Caper” as one of them yesterday. It is a story from an extraordinary time. It features Tom “Big […]

Life & Island Times: Farewell

Editor’s Note: One of those “future news” stories floated by in the stream yesterday that made us shake our heads. Apparently the Harley-Davidson Management has released a press note indicating they are going to go “all electric” to power their magnificent fossil-fueled two-wheeled rockets. We are with Marlow on the Fatboy of yesterday, powered the […]

Big Smoke Writes His Boss

(‘Big Smoke’ Tom Duvall at his desk in Yokosuka, Japan, 1950. There were challenges in The Occupation, and some of them came from a variety of directions). Editor’s Note: The missive below is from “Big Smoke” LCDR Tom Duval, USN-Ret., to a former Director of Naval Intelligence. For many of us, that DNI defined the […]

Arrias: “Let’s Get Out of the Lifeboat!”

The World Economic Forum has just concluded. During it we had the repeated pronouncements from the Leading Luminaries of our day that doom is upon us unless we commit, to quote our climate czar, “Money, money, money, money, money.” Should we? To answer that, it is instructive to recall that in the late 1970s the […]

A Time of Transition: Big Smoke

This is a great image of a Naval Intelligence professional. It is a professional record of how he looked when he was working. Tom “Big Smoke” Duvall. It was an honor to have known him. He is representative of a class of government specialists who could do whatever it was necessary to do. Tom retired […]

Life & Island Times: Genesis

Editor’s Note: Marlow is on a roll. He is releasing some of the components of a legendary ride to the Four Corners of the United States. On Two wheels. – Vic Genesis July, 2008 Coastal Empire Author’s Note: Writers normally have a moral in mind when penning a story. Not so for most who are […]