During my first year in the Navy, onboard USS Ranger, I saw something that I have never forgotten: an officer, a fellow just a few years older than I, sent home because he couldn’t make the cut. LT X, had made it through the F-14 replacement squadron – though I later learned he had made […]

Thanksgiving is upon us and most of us are taking some time to think about things we have for which we are grateful. The list is long. I start by thanking God for his mercy, thanking my parents (and three brothers) for bringing me up properly, and thanking my friends for keeping me out of […]

In George Washington’s “Rules of Civility,” we are advised to “Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though he were your enemy.” That advice isn’t really heeded in Washington, nor has it been for the last 45 years or so, but it remains good advice. And in that light I’ve been looking for […]

Numbers tell interesting stories; some people become quite fascinated with them. In monitoring government programs perhaps the key number that will be quoted is how much money went into the program. I suppose the analogy in the private sector is market capitalization, or, more simply, how much is something worth, how much wealth has been […]

Editor’s Note, 04 November 2019: this is timely and goes in front of the roll-out of the Mac Showers biography trilogy which has slipped to tomorrow. – Vic . Author’s Note: Several long talks with a couple of old friends (Navy and Marine) this week – we are much worse than it looks I’m afraid… […]

During the previous administration a number of retired senior officers received public scorn for making disparaging remarks about President Obama. Many in the press commented that not only were the remarks inappropriate, but that under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) they might be charged. Seeming to confirm that position, last February the Supreme […]

Queen Victoria’s 6th Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, oversaw the British Empire at a time when it was nearing its greatest power (a total of 16 years as Foreign Secretary and 9 years as Prime Minister). Palmerston was quite willing to engage in all sorts of foreign actions, sticking the British “nose” into virtually every corner […]

Queen Victoria’s 6th Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, oversaw the British Empire at a time when it was nearing its greatest power (a total of 16 years as Foreign Secretary and 9 years as Prime Minister). Palmerston was quite willing to engage in all sorts of foreign actions, sticking the British “nose” into virtually every corner […]

Imagine a US Army force of 13,500 soldiers, cornered by a much larger enemy force, on the other side of the world. What should we do to rescue them? Is there any cost too high to pay to get those Americans out of the way of the enemy buzz saw? In Syria the Turkish army […]

George Santayana, the brilliant, Spanish-born American philosopher, is well remembered for having said (among a host of other things) that: “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Indeed. We need to remember the past, and learn from history, we need to learn from the mistakes of others. But we also need […]