(Pentagon after the jet flew in it).

This was going to be part of an odd immersion in a time of transition. It popped up in the process of clearing out an old life’s wreckage of a marvelous and unexpected career in government service. I was looking at the resume of one of the upcoming speakers to our old professional organization and marveled at the list of Operational Intelligence (“OPINTEL”) assignments. They included squadrons, aircraft carriers, SEAL Teams and major operational staffs. Long ago I had tried to capture how interesting things worked in our government, since it was a novelty to actually be responsible for all sorts of unconventional activity.

That will be part of an extended story on Government travel, and how the system works in crisis. I had been working for some great people who were not in the news but reported to some that were. And are. Watching from the sidelines of the process, I took word back to Naval Intelligence that their interests were represented by some communications personnel who had the proper clearances to be told what was gong on but none of the community loyalties. I had hoped to just go back to the Fleet in a last operational assignment, but instead found myself offered up to replace one of the Communicators in the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

The first responsibility I discovered at the new desk was arranging travel for Congressional Delegations to areas of interest in the days that immediately followed the events of 9/11. It was a time of confusing lines of interest and authority, one of which was the flow of refuges from Haiti. Navy didn’t trust me completely, being new and from one of the warring tribes in the Radio Wars that had been perking for a half-century over who had control of the judgements and assessments of what was actually going on.

The first official trip I had to organize was almost to Port Au Prince and the delegation included by Boss to ensure that any inadequacies I displayed could be remedied on the road. The trip with a few Democrat Members of the House actually worked out pretty well. It led to others, and included Haiti itself, amphibious warships off the coast, additional holding camps in places like the Turks and Cacos Islands, and some interesting street work on the docks of Port Au Prince.

The notes from that period, learning how to be a travel agent in places of trouble, led to even further travel outside the Caribbean. They included Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), north and south Korea, and eventually the jewel of an empire in New Delhi.

I was going to lead you into that this morning, but the feature moment needs to be treated with the respect due to people who lived it in New Delhi’s Fountain in the Moonlight Square. That is where Major Hodson paused his small military procession to swiftly execute the two young men who represented the dynastic succession of the Mughal Empire. He directed the corposes to be hung in the fountain and moved on to help establish the British Raj, and eventually the independent India and Pakistan(s) to the east and west.

You can see it gets a little complicated from there. I was pleased to have been a small part of it, and equally pleased that I wrote down enough of the actual detail to bring it back. So, that was swirling in the background of a tumultuous week. We have a medical adventure in progress that is illuminating in the post pandemic era. There is a remarkable change to the government under which we live, and an upcoming election that will determine the direction of the nation in which our grandchildren will live. We decided to go ahead and publish the old travel stories as a sample of how things used to work in order to better understand the remarkable changes that have occurred.

It was fun to be able to whistle up jets for travel to unusual places. There was a minor budget fight about a new class of Fast Attack submarines that resulted in a dash down to Norfolk to take a group of staffers out for a couple hours underway on an operational nuclear sub. The demonstration of an “emergency surface” as we visitors huddled in the Control Room was impressive, and we were back in DC later that afternoon. The requirements of the Congress and the Navy were met, and the submarine that had been under discussion- the USS Jimmy Carter- is now operational.

The old trip to Delhi also has some lingering application to events today. That new book is going to be fun. We will keep you posted, since we hope to have it in print by the time Fall rolls around (and over) us!

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com