America can achieve improbable things. That’s our history. I hope this vignette reinforces that hopefulness. It is early in the Pacific War, 1943. The Marines have taken Guadalcanal and the Americans now have an airbase to use against the Japanese. On this night and the following day, that advantage bedeviled America’s public enemy number, Read More
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From Where They Came This Memorial Day allow me to introduce a few of the men who led by example and molded America’s modern Special Operations Force. They were British, part of a secret organization called the Special Operations Executive (SOE). During World War II, SOE commandos fought in every theater and found time, Read More
You’ve finished training, you’re inoculated, and your paperwork is filed. Now, it’s time to board an overloaded, repurposed luxury liner and outlast the chaotic sea and a determined enemy. You know not your destination, that they will tell you along the way. Your only clue is that you are sailing west from California. , Read More
Seventy-five years ago, August 1944, Merrill’s Marauders captured Myitkyina in northern Burma eight hundred miles from where GI railroaders left them. The Marauders spent seven months in the most unforgiving jungle on earth. Their exploits are legendary. They fought thirty-two engagements including four major battles for which they were neither intended, trained, nor, Read More
The river was muddy and wide. In the northern distance, the brick-red roof and gold weathervane atop Mount Vernon’s cupola graced its western bank. Talk about history. The window wall of the Fort Belvoir Officers Club was panoramic and the view breathtaking. This was the celebrated venue of the Saint Martin’s Military History Club,, Read More
Happy people, I didn’t see a scowl all weekend, Buddha all. And, before I offend Buddhists, I use nirvana in an unexamined way, a colloquial synonym for Christian heaven. But, as true Buddhists know, nirvana is the extinction of desire, and in that sense, the Amherst Railway Hobby Show is the opposite. The show, Read More
Anticipating two days of gritty talk at the upcoming Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show, I’m posting this first-hand, railroad-lingo-laden account from my long-ago operating career. — Photo credit Dave Seitzer. Railroading is like boating. To do either safely requires “local knowledge,” knowledge of details that don’t show up on nautical charts or in, Read More
Tough Guys Veterans Day brings to mind a theme that pops up at every author presentation I make. It goes like this, “My relative (dad, uncle, grandfather, cousin) served in World War II, but he never talked about it.” I think I know why. When I was a young man, my father told me, Read More
I have, at times, introduced myself as a recovering motorhead. I’m still working on it. About ten years ago I gifted my British racing green Triumph Spitfire to my daughter and sold our lumbering Jaguar V-12 convertible. Then, I bought a real car, a 2003 Mercedes SL500. A lovely car, the best I’ve ever, Read More
In the Weeds in Palmer What makes a railroad town? There was a time when seven railroads chugged through Palmer, Massachusetts. Now there are four railroads, and the one passenger number, Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited, doesn’t stop. But, railroading is not dead in Palmer, quite the opposite. Palmer is a town of working railroaders,, Read More