Greetings from the Sub-Arctic! Warmth is coming. We set a new cold record here in Fairbanks. 185 days straight where the high temperature has been below 40F/4C. But this coming week, it’s supposed to launch us above freezing every single day. Here’s what the forecast shows. We’ll know spring is almost over when the lows […]
Blog
Newsletter – April 5, 2021
Greetings from the Sub-Arctic! It’s been snowing most of the last four days. It’s not bad if you like being buried. Our house and yard are under a solid four feet. The picture is from in front of our garage. We drove out on Saturday when there was only about four to six inches on […]
THE PULSE POUNDERS THRILLER BUNDLE
Buckle up your e-reader—the Pulse Pounders Thriller Bundle – Curated by Kevin J. AndersonTake a breath and hold on. I’ve curated a new “Pulse Pounders” StoryBundle, 13 action-packed books, plus a bonus, guaranteed to put you on the edge of your reading chair. Thrillers, suspense, action, dark fantasy, adventure—the common denominator is that they are […]
The Ukrainian Air Force
More from my unpublished memoirs. After we left Russia, I was assigned to the Cooperative Threat Reduction group out of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. I first worked nuclear materials tracking, but that wasn’t going to work out as I would have to travel back to Russia. The Russians had made it clear, no returns […]
Bonny Scotland
And the time of our formal wedding was upon us! I had reserved everything a year in advance from the comfortable confines of my basement apartment in Seoul, Korea. I reserved rooms in Dalhousie Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, contacted a photographer, coordinated with the minister, and locked on a bagpiper. All was well. Our wedding […]
What Alligator?
More from my unpublished memoirs… Wendy likes alligators. The street vendors and shops in Moscow sell all kinds of varied things and many look out of place in the dirty big city environment of Moscow. A store close to my temporary housing about half a mile from the Embassy had stuffed animals, along with normal […]
China or Kazakhstan? There is only one right answer to this question.
After securing my temporary visa for Russia in Seoul, I was given orders for a weeklong trip, part of which was to Moscow in order to get an in-brief and for familiarization. Then I would spend the rest of the time in Washington D.C. at a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) training course. I dutifully […]
Korea is different but cool if one only pays attention
Korean food is magnificent, once you develop a taste for it. And like any culture, once you start to understand it, your appreciation is greatly enhanced. Koreans like to fix things that are broken. Not all fixes come from the manual – Koreans pride themselves on their ingenuity. The MARFORK offices were out of the […]
A Russian Visa – just a little bureaucracy from the country that perfected it
Getting to Russia was not as easy as I would have thought, considering that I had U.S. Embassy sponsorship. I started coordinating with the ACIU in December of 1998 while still in Korea. My life took on new meaning and focus and I was determined to do well in my upcoming job. Chief of the […]
An assignment to Russia
How did I get my assignment to Russia? If I said “Because I didn’t ask for it?” would that make sense? I had been in my job as the G-2, the senior Intelligence Officer, for Marine Forces Korea for only a few months, but it was time to start asking about a new job because […]
Eat ‘til your tired. Sleep ‘til your hungry.
The old adage of a Marine aboard ship… There we were, forward deployed, ready to meet Saddam’s forces. OK – the year was 1993 and we were there to demonstrate U.S. and coalition resolve that Kuwait would not be vulnerable again. This meant military exercises, running around the desert, and mostly for me, providing […]
The ritual of sharing coffee or, know the host culture before you step on your crank – more from my unpublished memoirs
On the same trip to Abu Dhabi, we met with the senior leadership from the UAE’s military. We were briefed in the van on the trip through the city to the military headquarters. Everyone in line from most senior to most junior. It was cool. I was the second most junior.We filed off the van […]
Shawarma for lunch
I went on a trip to the UAE for an intelligence exchange conference. Per diem was a cool $105 a day. There was no way I was going to spend that amount unless I ate in high-end restaurants. That wasn’t me – food could be had on the cheap. The first day, I strolled down […]
Dinsmere (name changed to protect the innocent)
Dinsmere was a Lance Corporal, having been promoted back after getting busted to PFC. He was a great Intelligence Marine, but not a Marine’s Marine. We were on an exercise and had the opportunity to find and explore a MAZ-543 with a Scud missile. The MAZ was a massive eight-wheeled missile transporter with a small […]
A dog named Notso
The XO of Marine Aircraft Group 11 had a bulldog named Notso. His last name was Bright. One year for the Marine Corps Ball, one of our august officers volunteered for duty the day of the Ball so that he would not have to attend. The Commanding Officer took exception to this and looked for […]
Once More On Board (Bored) Ship
Ship life for officers is little better than that for enlisted folks, except for one major exception. Chow in the wardroom is unlimited and eating on the mess deck is an exercise in finding the right (any) nutrition and quantity. I was now a lofty First Lieutenant and the S-2 of the Marine Aircraft Wing, […]
The Old Guard New Lieutenants
New lieutenants don’t think like you or me. I was an old Lieutenant – crusty with eight years of service and five promotions already under my belt. I was on the career home stretch. I had company, too. One of my fellow MECEP’ers, Andre Leblanc was what I call the ultimate Marine. He had come […]
The Tank
Is there anything under a tank that one needs to see? Part of training new lieutenants is to have them crawl under a running tank. I am sure this is important to build self confidence and show that it can be done. Our day came during training. I happened to be the acting Company Commander […]
Training to be a USMC Officer, The Basic School (TBS, also called The Ball Slap)
Training to be an officer in the Marine Corps is interesting and the epitome of diversity. All the differing backgrounds and bases of knowledge had to be molded so that every new lieutenant had a basic skill set to enable him (I say him because my company was an all-male company through training) to be […]
Bored Marines
One never wants one’s Marines to be bored. While with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit cruising through the Mediterranean, we were scheduled for an exercise at a training area in northern Italy called Monte Romano. As an intelligence collection and signals exploitation unit, we didn’t operate with the main body. We supported the warfighters by […]
Dumping the Trash
My deployment as part of the 26 Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) provided rich fodder for stories. Extended periods on board a ship tends not to bring out the best in Marines, even when they are able to get ashore. Here’s a picture of that hog – long since decommissioned. As we transited across the Atlantic […]
Falling Gaijins
James Roddy and I took a day trip from Misawa to Towada-Ko, old Towada where there is a lake in the mouth of an ancient crater. This is a tourist spot for the Japanese, but not a place where many Americans go. It was really beautiful when we went – the leaves were starting to […]
When you’re not an alcoholic but the leadership is convinced you are.
Japan was an interesting place for me. Too bad I was too young (early 20’s) to enjoy it properly as testosterone and hormones made me waste much time in unhealthy pursuits:). A friend of mine, a Petty Officer 2nd Class in the Navy was arrested one evening for “disrespect to an Airman.” He was drunk […]
My Memoirs – USAFA
USAFA I won’t tell too many stories about the Air Force Academy. I didn’t like it there and I wasn’t there for myself, so without the internal motivation, I was not going to be successful. I went from being a Cadet in the class of ’85 to a Private in the Marines. However, it was […]