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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

(‘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 […]

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 […]

So, this morning we want to convey some truths blasted out in a profusion of “news.” The first is not on CNN or Fox. It is the pair of birthdays, one today and one tomorrow, that has The Chairman wired up in memory. He was all smiles, telling the story of the Doctor who looked […]

There has been a storm of old and new paperwork at Big Pink. We have mentioned that the search for documents regarding the purchase of the new condo turned up some other documents from the same chaotic phase of life. The mortgage people were quite insistent about seeing old Decrees and current statements of worth. […]

It took a while to figure it out with the first cup of Chock Full O’ Nuts and the first couple Marlboro butts. For example, this morning featured both lights and sirens. Big Pink was constructed as a Landmark project back during the abrupt end of the Kennedy Administration. Then-Speaker of the House, Mr. Carl […]

More fun this morning. The Debt Bomb, similar to what the Experts have called the Bomb Cyclone, apparently went off overnight. That phenomenon occurs when a large, intense mid-latitude storm with low pressure at its center spins off weather fronts with a remarkable array of associated weather. Here in Arlington this morning it amounts only to […]