Maurice Rindskopf commanded USS Drum during WWII, later rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. Commissioned in 1938, 3 years before Pearl Harbor, Rindskopf was the youngest man to command a submarine during WWII. During WWII, when communications and information technology was far less sophisticated, and commanders required large staffs to support these processes, staffs […]

Watching the news over the last week was like watching a Marx Brothers movie: zany, madcap, and detached from reality. After a while I was reminded of Groucho’s great line: “Who ya’ gonna’ believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” It seems everyone is up in arms about the President and his seeming support of Tsar […]

A friend recently made an observation about a senior Navy officer who had a larger and nicer rental car than anyone else; it gave the appearance of special treatment. In the military even the appearance of special treatment must be avoided. Which dovetails with the hearings last week in Washington in which a senior FBI […]

Friday’s jobs report was pretty darned good; the basic unemployment rate climbed to 4% (still exceptionally low), but the workforce participation rate climbed, meaning people are re-entering the workforce, confident they can find a job. And unemployment rates for blacks (6.5%) and Hispanics (4.6%) remain at all-time lows. Some downplayed these numbers, as well as […]

The Democratic Party seems to be moving further and further in the direction of endorsing government provided everything. Leading Democrats now support platforms that include: universal healthcare, free colleges, cancellation of all student debt (over $1 trillion), universal job guarantees with paid child care, housing as a right, and on and on. And, they – […]

In my bureau is a jersey emblazoned with the words “Dengue Fever World Tour.” A wise-guy I was working with had them made after what felt like the 100th straight “rat” hole we’d “visited” during some series of operations. Every place we went seemed to be preceded by a medical warnings brief longer than all […]

So, Trump and Kim met in Singapore and discussed a wide range of issues; nothing definitive was signed, but there was a verbal understanding that the US would end major military exercises in the Republic of Korea (ROK); the North would suspend further tests on their nuclear and ICBM forces and dismantle some assets; that […]

The United States is an odd country: unlike virtually every other on the planet; the US is not a derivative of geography, but rather a philosophic creation, a nation in pursuit of ideas, ideas of individual rights and justice and a representative government that serves the people. And that is all threatened. I had a […]

A few weeks ago, while discussing school violence, a really smart friend of mine made the observation that: “kids with spiritual cores aren’t the ones committing the school shootings.” Which led to some digging. So, first, some numbers. The first recorded school shooting was in 1764. Since then there’ve been quite a few, but definitions […]

In Memory of… Memorial Day is a day dedicated to the remembrance of those who died for our country. Rightly, we spend (or we should) some time thinking about those we know, or know of, who did just that: went off to war in the service of our nation and were killed in that service. […]