On January 25th, 1942, USS Sargo (SS-186 (under the command of LtCmdr Tyrell Jacobs)) pulled into Surabaya, Indonesia after finishing a short war patrol, offloaded her remaining torpedoes, loaded 1 million rounds of small-arms ammunition, and headed to Mindanao, the Philippines to provide some ammunition to the US and the Philippine Armies. She then picked […]

Once upon a time there was a truly great nation, a nation that tried to bring peace around the world, that tried to improve everyone’s life, that worked very hard as a nation, and the people become fabulously rich. But there were those inside the country who didn’t like things this way, they wanted more […]

In the news this week, Alexei Navalny, the dissident Russian politician who was serving 30 years in an Arctic Gulag, died. Navalny was a longtime rival of Tsar Vlad, had campaigned against corruption – Putin’s corruption – and after returning to Russia in 2021, had been found guilty of “extremism” and “fraud” – what were […]

As I’m sure you know, two years into the war President Zelenskyy just dismissed his senior general and is calling for a new strategy. What might that mean? Begin at the beginning: Russia invaded on as poor a net assessment of the enemy as can be imagined. It was as far off as Hannibal’s assessment […]

There has been some interesting talk in the past week about deterrence and escalation and proportionality and I’m beginning to wonder if those words still mean what I thought they mean, like the word “secret” on the front page of a newspaper. But it’s important to review what they really mean because getting this wrong […]

Author’s Note: And the Muse appeared in my morning in Tidewater- it would make a good start for a Neil Simon play… – Arrias Wide Awake It all started with a very strange dream, But no beautiful maiden and a dragon, Just me and an old Navy buddy, Cans of caviar and a station wagon. […]

Now 3 Americans have been killed in Syria. Now what? Before answering that, ask yourself how many lives this is worth. And by that, I don’t mean American lives, I mean Yemeni and Iranian lives. As strange as it may seem (or perhaps not so strange), the American population seems ready to see Americans come […]

Author’s Note: Reading lots of reports and blogs, trying to understand it all, then dreams of poor bastards in the trenches… – Arrias Two years of war in the cold and mud, Two years, no end in sight. Two years and more they’ve fought and died, Sometimes it’s not clear who’s wrong, who’s right. Mostly […]

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” The Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Alice: “I don’t much care where.” The Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” From 1775 to 1783 the 13 Colonies were just […]

On the midnight train to Nairobi I met a red haired English girl, Bright blue eyes and fair of face, She gave my heart a whirl. We dined on sole and a fine white wine, To the clicking of the rail’s refrains, Bathed in brilliant Moonlight, As we rolled across Africa’s plains. She talked about […]