Victory at Sea  It was all Richard Rogers' fault. Seriously. It was the music. And the narration. And the photography. And the story. I was nine. This was the first run of one of the longest documentaries ever. I watched it alone.

"IGOTIT! IGOTIT! I GOT IT!!!" Chief Nuttall burst through the door with his excited proclamation. It took a little time for us to decipher just what it was the Chief "GOT" but when we did, we knew his excitement was justified.

November 22, 1963 - it's been Sixty Years What were you doing when you heard…? On the fantail of the USS Swerve, MSO 495, leaning on the rail taking in yet another magnificent tropical sunset. The way the clouds would compress into a two-dimensional form, like a projection on a planetarium dome fascinated me. And of course the colors and the sea and then “ATTENTION ON DECK” and Captain Cantecuzene appeared. This was strange. He generally stayed in Officer’s Country or on the bridge.

The Cuban Quarantine As it happens, our current leadership crises (the Trump era) has caused me to reflect on my early years and to be grateful that we had people like FDR, Churchill, Truman, Eisenhower and especially from my viewpoint, John Fitzgerald Kennedy in critical times. No time was more critical then the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.